Senior Tech Lead (Frontend)

Location: Remote (GMT-3 to GMT+3) - Open to Côte D'Ivoire, Cameroun, Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, Spain, South Africa, Portugal, Ghana, Greece, Romania, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Serbia.

About Djamo

Djamo is a Series B neobank serving over 1 million customers across Francophone Africa. We're the first fintech to receive a BCEAO microfinance license and the leading card issuer in Côte d'Ivoire. Our engineering team is 27 strong, organized into cross-functional squads that own end-to-end product experiences, from virtual cards and transactions to savings, credit, and customer support.

We're growing fast, but we're deliberate about how. We care about reliability, security, and shipping things that actually work for our customers.

Why this role exists

We're at an inflection point. Our engineering team has grown to 27 engineers across four squads, and we're adding a fifth. Our tech leads are strong technically and hungry to grow as leaders. We're hiring a senior tech lead to lead the new squad, raise the bar on engineering practices, and act as a multiplier: someone whose experience makes the whole team better. Not just a strong individual contributor. A leader who builds leaders.

Reports to: VP of Engineering Team: New cross-functional squad + functional leadership over mobile/frontend engineers

What you'll do

Lead a cross-functional team (70% of your time)

• Own the delivery and technical direction of a product squad (engineers, designer, PM).
• Run the team: weekly 1:1s, regular feedback, career growth conversations, sprint coordination.
• Break down projects into well-scoped work, manage dependencies, and keep the team shipping.
• Partner closely with Product and Design to shape what gets built, not just how.

Raise the engineering bar across the org (20%)

• Be a technical sounding board for other tech leads and engineers.
• Help first-time managers develop their leadership skills ; give them patterns, not just advice.
• Drive improvements to engineering practices: code review quality, testing strategy, CI/CD, design docs.
• Contribute to architectural decisions that affect multiple teams.

Stay technical (30% overlap with above)

• Write code. Review code. You're in the codebase, not above it.
• Lead by example on design quality, system thinking, and pragmatic trade-offs.
• Own technical decisions for your squad. Escalate the right ones, decide the rest.

What we're looking for

Must have:

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including production systems at scale.
• 5+ years leading a team of engineers with direct people management (1:1s, feedback, growth plans ; not just tech lead coordination).
• Experience working in a cross-functional team alongside product managers and designers.
• Strong mobile or frontend engineering background. You've shipped user-facing applications that real people depend on.
• The ability to context-switch between deep technical work and people leadership without losing quality on either side.
• Clear communication in English: written and verbal. You explain complex technical decisions to non-technical partners without dumbing them down.
• A track record of improving engineering practices: you've introduced better testing, review, CI/CD, or documentation habits in a previous team.

Strong plus:

• Flutter experience.
• French-speaking.
• Experience in fintech, payments, or regulated environments.
• Experience mentoring or coaching other engineering managers or tech leads.
• Familiarity with backend systems (APIs, event-driven architecture, distributed systems).

What we're NOT looking for:

• A pure architect who doesn't want to manage people.
• A pure manager who's lost touch with the code.
• Someone who needs to be told what to do. We need self-directed leaders who see problems and fix them.

What success looks like after 6 months

• Your team is shipping reliably and the engineers on it are growing.
• At least one other tech lead has visibly improved because of your influence.
• You've made a concrete improvement to an engineering practice that extends beyond your team.
• You have strong working relationships with Product, Design, and other tech leads.
• Our head of engineering can point to decisions you made autonomously that he would have had to make himself before.

How we work

• Remote-first, asynchronous by default.
• 4 cross-functional squads, each owning product experiences end-to-end.
• Small engineering team (27 engineers) ; your impact will be visible and immediate.
• We move fast with very little process. That's partly by design, partly a gap we're actively closing. You'll help us find the right balance.
• We take reliability and security seriously: we're a bank, not a social app.

Why work at Djamo

• Balance between autonomy and collaboration, insight and intuition, work and life.
• Work in small, open, friendly teams to create beloved products and services.
• Ethical and stimulating environment.
• Contribute to the rapid expansion of a startup in French-speaking Africa.
• Positively impact millions by providing simple and fair banking.
• Collaborative, fun environment with strong team spirit and a culture of continuous employee development.

We will consider all applications on the same basis. Djamo is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. You are not ticking every box or thinking you’ve got that unique set of skills we haven’t realized we need. Apply anyway; we’re always looking to add great people at every level.

Type of contract

Contractor via DEEL - for non-residents of Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal

CDD / CDI - for residents of Côte d’Ivoire or Sénégal

Desired start date

ASAP

Sector of activity

Mobile Financial Services