We are partnering with a global sports media and sports betting technology company to appoint a Senior Java Backend Engineer for their engineering hub in Cape Town. This team builds and maintains high-performance gaming and sports platforms used by millions of customers worldwide.
Reporting into the engineering leadership team, this is a hands-on role focused on designing and delivering scalable backend services that power real-time betting, media, and sports products.
This opportunity is ideal for a senior level backend engineer who enjoys solving complex system challenges, working with high-throughput distributed systems, and owning features from design through to production.
What You Will Do:
As a Senior Java Backend Engineer, you will play a key role in designing and delivering reliable, scalable backend services within a modern engineering environment.
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Design and build scalable backend services using Java and the Spring ecosystem
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Own end-to-end feature delivery from architecture and development through deployment and optimisation
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Develop high-throughput, low-latency systems supporting real-time sports betting and media platforms
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Write clean, well-tested, production-ready code and contribute to maintaining high engineering standards through code reviews and design discussions
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Collaborate closely with Product Managers and fellow engineers to shape technical solutions
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Design and optimise relational data models and write efficient SQL queries
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Manage database schema changes and migrations while maintaining production stability
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Contribute to improvements in developer experience including tooling, pipelines, observability, and performance
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Work with event-driven and message-based systems using technologies such as Kafka and RabbitMQ
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Use modern development tools and AI assistants (such as Copilot) pragmatically to improve development efficiency
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Participate in Agile delivery processes including sprint planning, stand-ups, and retrospectives
All About You:
We are looking for a technically strong Senior Backend Engineer with deep experience in Java and modern backend architecture.
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Strong experience building enterprise-grade Java applications
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Deep hands-on experience with the Spring ecosystem (Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring Cloud, Spring Security)
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Experience designing scalable, maintainable, and observable backend systems
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Strong experience with relational databases and SQL optimisation
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Experience working with message queues or event-driven systems such as Kafka or RabbitMQ
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Experience using Git-based workflows including pull requests, branching strategies, and code reviews
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Experience collaborating within Agile development teams
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Ability to mentor other engineers and contribute to raising engineering standards
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Strong problem-solving mindset with the ability to evaluate trade-offs in system design
Nice to Have:
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Experience in iGaming, sports betting, fintech, or other regulated high-scale industries
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Experience with cloud platforms, particularly GCP
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Experience working with Docker and CI/CD pipelines
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Exposure to frontend frameworks such as Vue.js or Angular
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Experience with performance tuning, distributed systems, or event-driven architecture
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Experience improving developer tooling, observability, or platform engineering capabilities
Tech Stack
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Backend: Java, Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring Cloud, Spring Security, AMQP
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Databases: MySQL, MongoDB
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Messaging: Kafka, RabbitMQ
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Cloud: Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
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Frontend (exposure): Vue.js, Angular
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Testing & APIs: Cypress, Postman
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Version Control: GitHub
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IDE: IntelliJ Ultimate
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Containers & CI/CD: Docker and modern deployment pipelines
Additional Information
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Location: Cape Town, South Africa
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21 days annual leave
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Discovery Medical Aid
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Discretionary company performance bonus
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Opportunity to work on globally scaled sports betting and gaming platforms
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Collaborative engineering culture focused on technical excellence and delivery
If you are a Senior Java Engineer looking to build high-scale platforms within the sports and gaming technology space, we would love to hear from you.
