CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AT EQUITY BANK.

Equity Bank is one of the region’s leading Banks whose purpose is to transform the lives and livelihoods of the people of Africa socially and economically by availing them modern, inclusive financial services that maximize their opportunities. With a strong footprint in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, DRC and South Sudan, Equity Bank is home to more than 20 million customers – the largest customer base in Africa. Currently, Equity Bank Rwanda is seeking additional talent to serve in the role of Software Development Manager, which reports to the Head of Information Technology.

Software Development Manager

Job Purpose

The Senior Developer / Technical Lead is responsible for the design, development, integration, support, and continuous improvement of enterprise applications, APIs, digital channels, and banking technology solutions. The role provides technical leadership to development initiatives, ensures adherence to software engineering standards, supports innovation programmes, and acts as a key escalation point for application development and integration activities.

The position combines hands-on software development with technical leadership responsibilities and serves as the focal point for solution architecture, code quality, application integration, and delivery of strategic technology initiatives.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

1. Technical Leadership

• Provide technical leadership and guidance to developers, business analysts, and project teams.
• Review solution designs and ensure alignment with enterprise architecture standards.
• Establish software development standards, coding guidelines, and best practices.
• Conduct code reviews and ensure quality assurance throughout the development lifecycle.
• Mentor and coach junior developers and technical staff.

2. Software Development

• Design, develop, test, and maintain enterprise applications and APIs.
• Develop microservices and integration services supporting banking operations.
• Build reusable application components and services.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex application issues.
• Support application releases and production deployments.

3. Enterprise Integration

• Design and implement integrations between Finacle, digital channels, payment platforms, middleware, third-party systems, and regulatory platforms.
• Develop and maintain REST/SOAP APIs and messaging services.
• Support enterprise service bus and middleware platforms.
• Ensure secure data exchange between internal and external systems.

4. Solution Architecture

• Translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Participate in technology evaluations and solution selection.
• Review system designs for performance, scalability, resiliency, and security.
• Develop technical documentation and solution architecture artefacts.

5. DevOps & Delivery

• Support CI/CD implementation and release management.
• Promote automation across development and testing processes.
• Ensure proper source code management and version control practices.
• Participate in change management and deployment planning.

6. Production Support

• Provide Level 3 support for business-critical applications.
• Lead root cause analysis for application incidents.
• Support disaster recovery testing and system recovery procedures.
• Monitor application performance and recommend optimisation improvements.

7. Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities for process automation and digital transformation.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend innovative solutions.
• Contribute to the bank's technology roadmap and modernization efforts.

Candidate’s Qualifications, Professional Certification and Experience

1. Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.
• Master's Degree is an added advantage.

2. Professional Certifications - Preferred

• Microsoft Azure Developer Associate, AWS Developer/Architect, TOGAF Foundation, Java Certification, DevOps Certification, or Scrum Master Certification.

3. Candidate’s Experience

• Minimum 7 years' experience in software development.
• Minimum 3 years in a technical leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience delivering enterprise-scale applications.
• Experience within banking, financial services, fintech, or highly regulated environments.
• Experience leading API and systems integration projects.

4. Technical Skills

Skill Area

Expected Capability

• Java, C#, .NET, Spring Boot, Node.js or equivalent enterprise technologies; REST and SOAP API development; microservices architecture; web application development.
• Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, database design, performance tuning and optimization.
• API management platforms, middleware and ESB solutions, messaging platforms and queues, SFTP, web services and enterprise integrations.
• Git, GitHub/GitLab, CI/CD pipelines, Docker and Kubernetes as an advantage, and automated testing tools.

5. Behavioral Competencies

• Strong leadership and mentoring abilities.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to work under pressure in a highly available banking environment.
• High level of accountability and ownership.
• Innovation and continuous improvement mindset.

6. Key Performance Indicators

• Application availability and reliability.
• Successful delivery of development projects.
• Reduction in production defects.
• API and integration success rates.
• Incident resolution turnaround times.
• Code quality and technical debt reduction.
• Compliance with security and audit requirements.
• Successful mentoring and development of technical staff.

Role Positioning Note: This role is intentionally positioned at a senior level to provide hands-on development capacity while also covering technical leadership responsibilities within the Software Development & Innovation function.

• Provide technical leadership and guidance to developers, business analysts, and project teams.
• Review solution designs and ensure alignment with enterprise architecture standards.
• Establish software development standards, coding guidelines, and best practices.
• Conduct code reviews and ensure quality assurance throughout the development lifecycle.
• Mentor and coach junior developers and technical staff.
• Design, develop, test, and maintain enterprise applications and APIs.
• Develop microservices and integration services supporting banking operations.
• Build reusable application components and services.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex application issues.
• Support application releases and production deployments.
• Design and implement integrations between Finacle, digital channels, payment platforms, middleware, third-party systems, and regulatory platforms.
• Develop and maintain REST/SOAP APIs and messaging services.
• Support enterprise service bus and middleware platforms.
• Ensure secure data exchange between internal and external systems.
• Translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Participate in technology evaluations and solution selection.
• Review system designs for performance, scalability, resiliency, and security.
• Develop technical documentation and solution architecture artefacts.
• Support CI/CD implementation and release management.
• Promote automation across development and testing processes.
• Ensure proper source code management and version control practices.
• Participate in change management and deployment planning.
• Provide Level 3 support for business-critical applications.
• Lead root cause analysis for application incidents.
• Support disaster recovery testing and system recovery procedures.
• Monitor application performance and recommend optimisation improvements.
• Identify opportunities for process automation and digital transformation.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend innovative solutions.
• Contribute to the bank's technology roadmap and modernization efforts.

• Java, C#, .NET, Spring Boot, Node.js or equivalent enterprise technologies; REST and SOAP API development; microservices architecture; web application development.
• Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, database design, performance tuning and optimization.
• API management platforms, middleware and ESB solutions, messaging platforms and queues, SFTP, web services and enterprise integrations.
• Git, GitHub/GitLab, CI/CD pipelines, Docker and Kubernetes as an advantage, and automated testing tools.
• Strong leadership and mentoring abilities.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to work under pressure in a highly available banking environment.
• High level of accountability and ownership.
• Innovation and continuous improvement mindset.

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.
• Master's Degree is an added advantage.
• Microsoft Azure Developer Associate, AWS Developer/Architect, TOGAF Foundation, Java Certification, DevOps Certification, or Scrum Master Certification.