Senior Backend Developer (AI Native)
Core
Building scalable, reliable backend services and integrating AI capabilities (LLMs, RAG) for global brands in banking, retail, and telecom.
Role type
Senior Backend Engineer (AI-Native)
Builds
Production-ready backend services and AI-integrated workflows for high-scale, real-time use cases.
Domain
Fintech / AI / Distributed Systems
Deliverable
production ML models | product features
Required skills
Java (Spring Boot), Python, distributed systems, API design, cloud environments (AWS), containerization, Kafka, LLM APIs, prompt engineering, code verification
Preferred skills
Experience with AI tools (Amazon Q, Cursor, Copilot, Claude, GPT), rapid experimentation, ownership mindset
Technologies
Java, Spring Boot, Python, AWS, Kafka, LLMs, RAG, vector search
Responsibilities
Build and own backend services using Java and Python; Integrate AI capabilities into backend workflows; Design clean APIs and handle distributed system challenges; Write and validate tests; Debug production issues and ensure reliability.
Seniority
Senior, hands-on IC
Full job description
We Are Innovators & Category Creators
Clickatell, founded in Cape Town in 2000, was the first company to connect businesses with consumers via SMS using just four lines of code. Today, it powers AI-driven chat commerce for leading global brands across industries like banking, retail, telecoms, and healthcare — including Visa, ABSA, MTN, Toyota, and Pick n Pay. Over 25 years, Clickatell has led multiple industry firsts, such as tokenized WhatsApp payments, KYC chat banking, and Chat-2-Pay, through its award-winning AI Chat Commerce Platform that enables brands to interact and transact with customers seamlessly.
The Role:
We’re looking for a backend engineer who believes the way software is built has fundamentally changed. You don’t write everything from scratch you use AI to move faster, think better, and focus on what matters. Boilerplate is not your job; building scalable, reliable systems is. In this role, you will own backend services end-to-end and use AI as a force multiplier to ship faster than traditional development teams. If you’re still coding the same way you were two years ago, this role isn’t for you.
Responsibilities of the Role
- Build and own backend services using Java, Spring Boot, and Python—designed for scale, reliability, and real-time use.
- Use AI tools (Amazon Q, Cursor, Copilot, Claude, GPT) to accelerate development, refactoring, and problem-solving.
- Turn product ideas into production-ready systems quickly, without compromising quality.
- Integrate AI capabilities (LLMs, RAG, vector search) into backend workflows where they add real value.
- Act as the final filter for AI-generated code—identify flaws, inefficiencies, and incorrect assumptions before they ship.
- Design clean APIs, handle distributed system challenges, and ensure performance at scale.
- Write and validate tests to keep fast-moving systems stable.
- Debug production issues and take full ownership of reliability and performance.
Requirements of the Role
Technical Skills & Competencies
- Strong experience with Java (Spring Boot) and Python backend systems.
- Experience building high-scale, low-latency distributed systems.
- Solid understanding of APIs, databases, caching, and event-driven systems (e.g., Kafka).
- Experience with cloud environments (AWS) and containerized deployments.
- Familiarity with LLM APIs, token usage, latency, and response handling.
AI-Native Capabilities
- You are already using AI tools (Amazon Q, Cursor, Copilot, Claude, GPT) as part of your daily workflow.
- You know how to manage context, structure prompts, and get reliable outputs from AI systems.
- You don’t trust AI blindly, you verify, refine, and take responsibility for every line shipped.
What Makes You a Fit
- You take full ownership “the AI wrote it” is never an excuse.
- You optimize for speed and correctness.
- You have a tinkerer’s mindset, you try new tools early, experiment constantly, and figure out what works.
