API Developer - Standard Bank Group

Standard Bank is a firm believer in technical innovation, to help us guarantee exceptional client service and leading-edge financial solutions. Our growing global success reflects our commitment to the latest solutions, the best people, and a uniquely flexible and vibrant working culture.

To help us drive our success into the future, we are looking for an experienced API Developer to join our Engineering SA, Strategy & Transformation team in Johannesburg. Standard Bank is a leading African banking group focused on emerging markets globally. It has been a mainstay of South Africa's financial system for more than 150 years and now spans more than 20 countries across the African continent.

Job Purpose

Must have a good understanding of REST fundamentals and API design best practices. Good knowledge of API development and critical security concepts. Experience in API layer like security, custom analytics, throttling, caching, logging, monetization, request and response modifications, etc. This should include but is not be limited to Micro-services, SOA. Must have exposure to API gateways and managers. Develop and design RESTful services and APIs.

Experience in creating REST API documentation using Swagger and YAML or similar tools desirable. Exposure to testing and automation tools e.g. Postman, SoapUI, Jmeter etc. Have a good understanding of Cloud computing fundamentals. Understand Cloud computing roles and usage within the marketplace and have been exposed to virtualization and distributed computing.

Key Responsibilities/Accountabilities

Build and improve the capability to ensure the effectiveness of the software engineering practice against industry

•  Through collaboration with team members, industry, community, subject matter experts, research houses, etc. establishes and continually improves the standards, methods, frameworks, etc. for the “way things are done” i.e., the way solutions are architected, designed, built, and operated.
•  Ensures that Security forms an integral part of all practice capabilities.
•  Works with key stakeholders (e.g., Product managers) to ensure that work required to instantiate practice goals and objectives is properly prioritized and inserted into Portfolio/Program/Team backlogs.
•  Has an extreme focus on building capability that produces predictable, reliable, and sustainable solutions. “Everything under version control” & “Automate all things”.
•  Drives a culture of relentless improvement.
•  Regularly assesses the effectiveness of the practice against industry leaders.
•  Does presentations at industry functions and actively contribute to the industry body of knowledge?
•  Encourages the use of rituals and habits that help shape the effectiveness of the practice.
•  Creates Guilds (“communities of practice”) to encourage in-and-across-practice collaboration, information sharing, etc.

Oversee technical solutions delivery and management in line with Group IT Centre of Excellence quality and engineering standards and practices

•  Support the Lead, Engineer, Release Train Engineers (RTE), and Feature Teams by overseeing/ensuring the quality of the technical solution being delivered and managing solution quality-related escalations that may impact delivery
•  Accountable for the end-to-end delivery of all engineering in the identified feature teams
•  Adherence to the IT COE with communication (in the Program) of clear expectations for the achievement of quality goals and objectives, providing explicit guidance about technical standards and practices
•  Listen and support teams in problem identification, root cause analysis, and decision-making by participating in planning, various workshops and system demonstrations during iterations of delivery by being “in the work” and participating in labs, reviews and showcases
•  Work with the System Architect/ Lead, Engineer, Product Managers, and Product Owners to establish clear content authority, continuously assist in aligning teams to the system mission and vision i.e. system Future State Architecture strategies, roadmaps as well as System Service Ownership requirements e.g. system dependencies, required service levels etc.
•  Provide technical direction to the teams by leading and guiding their output in line with the delivery and business objectives in conjunction with the Lead, Engineer
•  Drive continual engineering delivery improvement across all teams in the program
•  Works with partners from Group Information Security to ensure that best practice security standards are embedded into all practice capabilities.
•  Ensures that practice capability (process, methods, tools, etc.) are compliant with Internal Audit requirements.

Adhere to Agile methodologies and follows Agile principles through work outputs and behaviours.

•  Strive to reach mature levels on the Continuum model by building own and team competence to work in a continuous delivery environment: Champion team learning and adopt suitable methodologies and practices.
•  Collaborate with colleagues from different disciplines in a cross-functional team to deliver against iteration targets.
•  Work in partnership with Business representatives (e.g. Product Owner, Product Manager) ensuring alignment and value to the customer.
•  Manage work effectively as an individual and team member including the reprioritisation of backlogs and reacts flexibly to changing demands.
•  Manage work using available resources and methodologies ensuring full team engagement.
•  Estimate the size and complexity of the work within the team and managing this appropriately.
•  Determine the technical design in their area of concern, within the architectural guidelines.
•  Drive team commitments to the work in every iteration or Program Increment.
•  Be responsible for value and builds to continuously improve the quality of deliverables.
•  Find ways to improve flow and teams’ delivery, removing blockers and ensuring value to the customer on a continuous basis.

Scope, Plan, Design and Review end to end solutions

•  Render advice, maintain and implement the organisations system development standards, methods and procedures.
•  Assist in the assessment and selection of suitable software packages and technologies to meet all or parts of specified requirements.
•  Engage with Information Technology support teams and business stakeholders to scope plan and design end to end solutions.
•  Formulate strategic plans which will have long term cost savings.
•  Advise development staff on the evaluation and impact analysis of major design options.

Co-ordinate and participate in the delivery of application code

•  Produce outline system specifications using solution designs, functional specifications or technical specifications as input, including input into scope, constraints (such as performance or resources), hardware, network and software environments.
•  Lead a team of developers in own or outside of own team to deliver on agreed solution.
•  Produce specifications for systems functions, information flows, data loads, implementation strategy, phasing of development, requirements not met and alternatives considered.
•  Produce component designs considering the solution design, performance requirements and existing systems.
•  Review input into risk analysis and development plans to consider the impact of design decisions.
•  Design and review user and system interfaces including menus, screen dialogues, inputs, reports, validation and error correction, processing rules, access, security, audit controls, recovery routines and contingency procedures.
•  Work with data analysis colleagues to review, approve, produce or update system or object data models and correlate these with corporate models, when required.
•  Review, approve and update or work with database design or database administration teams to translate object and data models into appropriate database schemas within design constraints.
•  Assist less experienced colleagues with complex coding problems, where appropriate.
•  Conduct quality assurance and approve developed code linked to supplied specifications for production deployment.
•  Provide guidance to colleagues on any aspect of program component design, creation, testing and documentation.
•  Ensure that applications are built in line with continuous delivery/ continuous integration standards.

Minimum Qualification and Experience

Qualifications:

•  Degree in IT & Computer Sciences
•  Agile Software development methodologies and associated practices such as Continuous Integration, Continuous delivery, Software Defined Infrastructure as code, Evolutionary Architecture, Domain specific certification etc.
•  IT Certifications e.g. Safe, Scrum Master

Experience:

•  5-7 years Dependent on the specific engineering practice but the candidate will have come from a background of full lifecycle design and development covering solution design, application design, development, testing and maintenance, network software, operating systems, multi-tier environments, desktop and workgroup software, middleware, server technology, fault tolerant environments, development tools. Broad experience of application development methodologies, data base methodology, programming languages, data base concepts and IT infrastructure and operations. Experience using Agile Software development methodologies and associated practices such as Continuous Integration, Software Defined Infrastructure, Evolutionary Architecture, etc
•  3-4 years Proven ability to work effectively as both a team leader and as a member of a small team of technical staff working in an agile development environment. Track record in capability and competency building and coaching of staff is required. Minimum 1-2 years’ experience as a manager running a portfolio of 10+ technical experts
•  3-4 years Proven track record to a broad spectrum of stakeholders including senior executives. Knowledge of Agile and Lean frameworks, methods and practices and experience in being a catalyst for organisational change. Experience working with cross-functional teams fostering collaboration and teamwork. Exposure to broad business and financial management type experience, specifically within the banking sector. Good understanding of the Standard Bank IT environment.
•  API and micro services experience
•  Cloud knowledge
•  Integration background (ESB, BPM and ECM)