About the Role
The African Leadership University is at the beginning of a rapid growth spurt, expanding its student numbers, course offerings, and campus locations. Over the next 5–7 years, it expects its student numbers to grow from the current 360 (on one campus) to over 25,000 (distributed on perhaps 6–8 campuses and in the 'cloud’). The Platform Engineering Lead will play a pivotal role in this expansion by leading the architecture and technical development of ALU's enterprise platforms.
Core Responsibilities
Salesforce-Led Platform Architecture
- Lead the architecture, development, and administration of ALU’s Salesforce platform across various domains.
- Design and govern integrations between Salesforce and AWS, Oracle NetSuite, BambooHR, and other platforms.
- Define and document data models, integration patterns, and API standards involving Salesforce.
- Ensure architectural decisions are practical, scalable, and aligned with institutional needs.
- Balance scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency in architectural and implementation decisions.
Hands-on Development & Salesforce Administration
- Remain an active technical contributor through Salesforce development (Apex, LWC, integrations) and configuration.
- Oversee and, where required, perform Salesforce administration including security models, roles, permissions, and environment management.
- Review code and configurations to ensure quality, performance, and alignment with architectural standards.
Enterprise Integration & Cloud Architecture
- Design scalable, modular integration architectures using APIs, event-driven patterns, or microservices where appropriate.
- Optimise and secure cloud and integration infrastructure, particularly within AWS.
- Ensure integrations are resilient, observable, and well-documented in production.
- Ensure appropriate monitoring, logging, and observability are in place across integrations and platforms to support operational stability and incident response.
Engineering Standards, Governance & Documentation
- Establish and enforce technical standards across Salesforce and integrated platforms, including async processing, error handling, naming conventions, and data ownership.
- Document architectural decision records and define where technical knowledge is captured and maintained.
- Influence and continuously improve delivery models across teams and vendors.
DevOps, Version Control & Release Discipline
- Define and own the version control and Git strategy across Salesforce and integrated platforms.
- Establish CI/CD pipelines and release management practices, ensuring environment parity across development, QA, and production.
- Ensure traceability, controlled releases, and rollback strategies across vendors and teams.
Vendor & Technical Leadership
- Act as the technical authority across internal teams and external delivery partners.
- Review vendor designs and deliveries, challenge assumptions, and enforce architectural standards.
- Mentor engineers and product teams, raising the overall technical and architectural bar.
Responsible Use of AI in Engineering
- Use AI tools to accelerate development, improve code reviews, enforce standards, and support documentation.
- Contribute to a structured, responsible approach to AI use within engineering workflows.
Requirements
- Experience: 9+ years of experience in Salesforce platform engineering, enterprise architecture, or technical leadership roles.
- Education: Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
- Expertise: Deep, hands-on Salesforce development (Apex, LWC) and administration experience.
- Architectural Experience: Proven full-stack development experience and operation at Lead Architect, Technical Architect, or Principal Engineer level.
- Integrations: Strong experience integrating Salesforce with enterprise systems such as ERP (NetSuite), HR (BambooHR), and cloud platforms (AWS).
- Technical Skills: Hands-on experience in API design, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud infrastructure management.
- Tools: Proficiency with version control (Git), collaboration tools (Jira), and monolith-to-microservice transitions.
- Leadership: Experience working with and holding external vendors to account.
