Head of Engineering

Yemert enables farmers across Africa to protect their crops, connect directly with trusted buyers, and earn additional income through climate-smart practices using a simple USSD code *347*168#, without the need for smartphones, apps, or internet access. The solution is tailored for real farmers in local communities, removing common barriers to participation in modern agricultural markets. As farmers thrive, Yemert supports broader community growth and contributes to more sustainable local economies.

Role Description

The Engineering Lead at Yemert is a full-time remote role that leads the engineering organization, setting technical direction and ensuring high-quality delivery of the USSD-based platform and supporting systems. Day-to-day responsibilities include managing and mentoring engineering teams, overseeing software development cycles, and coordinating cross-functional projects with product, operations, and partner stakeholders. They will define and maintain engineering best practices, drive system reliability and scalability, and ensure alignment between technical decisions and business goals. This position also involves hands-on involvement in architecture and code reviews, prioritizing security, performance, and user-centric solutions for farmers.

What you will do

• Lead the engineering team and oversee the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of Yemert's technology infrastructure.
• Own technical architecture and engineering decisions across our USSD, web, backend, APIs, payment integrations, and internal systems.
• Work closely with Product and Operations to translate business and operational requirements into technical solutions.
• Improve the reliability, scalability, performance, and security of our systems as we scale to hundreds of thousands of farmers.
• Oversee integrations with payment providers and other third-party services across our operating markets.
• Establish strong engineering practices around code quality, Git workflows, code reviews, testing, deployment, monitoring, documentation, and incident management.
• Review existing systems, identify technical debt and weaknesses, and prioritize improvements based on business impact.
• Support the engineering team through planning, technical guidance, mentoring, and performance management.
• Take ownership of production incidents and drive issues through to resolution.
• Work with the leadership team to make practical technology decisions within the realities of an early-stage company and limited resources.

What we are looking for

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with experience leading or managing engineers.
• Strong experience with backend and full-stack development.
• Experience designing and maintaining APIs and production systems.
• Experience working with databases, cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, monitoring, and system security.
• Experience with payment or mobile money integrations is highly valuable.
• Experience building products for low-connectivity environments, USSD, mobile, fintech, agritech, or emerging markets is an advantage.
• Strong understanding of system scalability, reliability, security, and performance.
• Ability to make sound technical decisions without over-engineering.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively with non-technical teams.
• Comfortable working hands-on while also providing technical leadership to the team.
• Strong ownership and ability to operate in a fast-moving early-stage environment.

What you will get

• Own a critical technology function at an early-stage African company.
• Work directly with the leadership team.
• Help build technology for farmers who are often excluded from traditional digital services.
• Shape engineering systems and culture from the ground up.
• Grow with the company as we expand across African markets.

How to apply

Apply through our application form bit.ly/yem-job-application

Select Engineering Lead when completing the application.

For questions: hr@yemert.co