Senior Platform Engineer

SENIOR PLATFORM ENGINEER About Sokify Sokify is Kenya's leading online marketplace, dedicated to connecting businesses and customers across the continent. We're looking for exceptional engineering talent to help us build scalable, reliable technology solutions that power commerce in Africa. The Opportunity We're seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to join our engineering team and play a critical role in building and maintaining the infrastructure that powers our platform. Reporting to the Head of Engineering, you'll be responsible for designing, developing, and scaling systems that keep our real-time data platform running smoothly while supporting millions of transactions. In this role, you'll: Maintain and optimize platform uptime, performance, stability and scalability across all systems Design and guide system architecture decisions, mentoring team members and challenging technical approaches to drive excellence Develop, maintain, and scale a robust public API that serves our ecosystem of partners Create extensible, production-ready solutions from feature requests and business requirements Work collaboratively with Data Scientists to develop high-impact, value-added features using large-scale data Partner with database administrators to design ETL pipelines and data warehouse systems Collaborate with Operations teams to automate solutions and enhance service reliability Monitor production systems continuously and participate in on-call rotations Analyze complex requirements and advise on solutions that address genuine customer pain points Perform thorough testing and unit testing to ensure high-quality deliverables Stay current with emerging technologies and help your team do the same Document development work comprehensively and provide strategic guidance to leadership What We're Looking For Bachelor of Science in Computer Science or related engineering discipline 8 or more years of broad, hands-on engineering experience Strong foundation in data structures and algorithms Expert-level proficiency in at least one JVM language, preferably Java Advanced knowledge of JVM internals, runtime behavior, garbage collection, and performance tuning Deep expertise with Spring Framework, Spring Boot, and Spring Cloud Comprehensive understanding of unit and integration testing frameworks Strong knowledge of relational and non-relational databases Solid grasp of the big data stack including Hadoop, Kafka, and Spark Proven experience architecting, developing, and deploying distributed systems Strong proficiency with Linux and networking concepts Working knowledge of containerization and orchestration tools, preferably Docker and Kubernetes Solid experience with AWS cloud computing Open source contributions are a plus Working Conditions This is a growth-stage startup environment offering competitive salary and benefits. You may be required to travel between East African locations. Sokify is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, veteran status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristic.