Junior Software Engineer (AI-Enabled) Role at Ozow

Ozow is leading fintech innovation across South Africa, transforming how consumers and businesses transact through accessible, secure, and rapid digital payment platforms. As the company continues to modernise its financial architecture, the engineering team is expanding to welcome driven early-career technologists looking to establish themselves at the forefront of financial technology.

The Junior Software Engineer (AI-Enabled) position provides an immersive entry into production-grade systems development. In this role, you will collaborate with seasoned developers to build resilient payment services while leveraging generative AI developer tooling with engineering rigor, deep code comprehension, and disciplined delivery standards.

Key Responsibilities & Core Duties

• Build, test, and maintain robust software solutions supporting digital payment infrastructure under senior engineering supervision.
• Assist in replatforming legacy systems to modern, cloud-native services utilizing automated AI-assisted development workflows.
• Help develop features that integrate with large language models, gaining practical exposure to context management, embeddings, and retrieval-augmented generation.
• Write clean, efficient, and maintainable code adhering to company standards and security guidelines.
• Adhere strictly to responsible AI practices, ensuring AI-generated outputs protect confidential user records and sensitive payment data.
• Investigate and resolve bugs across systems while actively engaging in constructive peer code reviews.

Ideal Candidate Profile & Core Attributes

Candidates should possess a solid grasp of core computing fundamentals paired with intellectual curiosity and technical humility. An appetite for understanding how code behaves beneath abstraction layers is essential, as the role balances modern AI accelerators with meticulous architectural discipline. Strong communication, proactive problem-solving, and a team-first mindset are vital for collaborating across cross-functional product squads.

Learning, Mentorship & Career Progression

Ozow offers structured mentorship where junior engineers work closely alongside senior architects and technical leads. You will gain hands-on exposure to modern cloud systems, microservices design, and scalable transactional pipelines. As your technical autonomy grows, clear development pathways exist toward mid-level software engineering roles and specialized domains within fintech and AI platform engineering.

Estimated Salary Range (Market Benchmark)

The hiring employer has not officially specified a salary for this position. Based on South African market data and industry benchmarks for an entry-level fintech software engineer or junior tech role, the estimated remuneration is approximately R18,000 – R28,000 per month. Please note that this is an industry estimate and actual remuneration will be determined by the employer based on qualifications, experience, and internal pay structures.

How to Apply & Submission Guidelines

Interested applicants are invited to submit an up-to-date curriculum vitae along with any relevant technical portfolio or GitHub links via the official Ozow careers portal. Ensure that all contact details and relevant project milestones are clearly highlighted. Applications are evaluated on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

• Relevant qualification such as a Bachelor's Degree or Diploma in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or demonstrable equivalent practical coding experience.
• Foundational understanding of core software engineering concepts, data structures, and object-oriented programming.
• Eagerness to utilize AI developer tools responsibly while maintaining code quality, readability, and security.
• Analytical troubleshooting skills with the ability to diagnose bugs and escalate technical issues effectively.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to collaborate within an agile development team.
• South African citizenship or valid legal work authorization to work in South Africa.