Senior Fullstack Developer (12 Month Contract)

About ooba At the ooba Group, we don't just process home loans — we open doors, many of them front doors for our home buyer customers. As South Africa's leading home finance expert, we've helped hundreds of thousands of people and families achieve one of life's most meaningful milestones: owning their own home. When we thought about mortgage origination, we looked to solve our customers' big questions: "Can I get a home loan? How will I know if my home loan offer is the best offer I can get?” Through answering of those questions, we created an industry supporting home buyers. Today, a quarter of a century later, that pioneering spirit still drives us — we've never stopped growing and innovating, evolving into a diverse group of businesses that support every dimension of the homeownership journey: from financing and insurance for our home buyers, to innovative solar energy solutions and secure deposit investments. Joining ooba means becoming part of our continuing story. Headquartered in the heart of Cape Town with a national footprint, we're a team of passionate problem-solvers, innovators, and specialists across multiple brands (ooba, evo, ooba Insure, ooba Power and Buyers Trust), united by a single belief: that what we do genuinely changes our customer and business partners lives. Here, your work has real impact you can see — in every approved bond, every home protected, every roof powered, every first-time buyer handed their keys. We invest in our people the way we invest in our clients: with commitment, care, and a belief in what's possible. If you're driven by purpose and excited to grow in a vibrant and challenging environment with a market leader shaping the future of homeownership in South Africa, there's a place for you at ooba. Purpose of the Role We are looking for a Senior Fullstack Developer, on a 12-month contract, to design, build, and maintain backend services and user-facing applications across our core platforms. Our technology landscape combines modern Spring Boot micro services and React applications running on Kubernetes with established core systems that continue to power the business. We are progressively modernising this landscape while keeping it secure, scalable, and reliable. You will work across new product development and existing systems, building Spring Boot REST APIs, React frontends, integrations, and production-grade solutions. You should be comfortable working across the full stack, solving practical problems, and taking ownership of what you ship. AI-supported development is part of how we work. Our engineers use GitHub Copilot and Claude Code for activities such as scaffolding, refactoring, testing, and code review. We expect you to use these tools productively while applying the judgement required to validate everything they produce. Design and develop backend services and REST APIs using Java and Spring Boot Build responsive React and TypeScript applications within our multi-brand Nx monorepo Improve and modernise existing applications and legacy codebases Troubleshoot production issues across frontend, backend, integrations, and databases Integrate with internal systems, banks, CRM platforms, and external service providers through our Kong API gateway Build asynchronous and event-driven integrations using RabbitMQ where appropriate Work with Oracle and MySQL, including data modelling, queries, and performance optimisation Contribute to GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines and containerised Kubernetes deployments Participate in code reviews, testing, release planning, and production support Use observability tooling to monitor and improve application health Apply appropriate security, POPIA, and financial-services data practices Help improve the team's engineering and AI-assisted development practices 8+ years of professional software development experience Strong Java and Spring Boot experience, ideally with recent versions and Java 21 Strong React and TypeScript experience building production applications Experience designing and developing REST APIs Strong understanding of relational databases such as Oracle or MySQL Solid object-oriented design and software engineering fundamentals Experience troubleshooting complex production issues across the stack Comfortable working in established codebases and improving code you did not originally write Good understanding of application and database performance Experience with Git and CI/CD pipelines Exposure to Docker and modern deployment practices Experience with, or strong enthusiasm for, AI development tools such as GitHub Copilot or Claude Code Advantageous Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform, or HashiCorp Vault Kong or other API gateway technologies RabbitMQ or event-driven architecture Nx or other monorepo tooling Financial services or other regulated environments Legacy modernisation involving Java EE, WebLogic, or older Angular applications What You'll Be Working With Area Stack Backend Java 21, Spring Boot, REST APIs Frontend React 19, TypeScript, Nx Integration Kong, Kuma, RabbitMQ, Redis Data Oracle, MySQL Platform Kubernetes (RKE2), Helm, Terraform, Vault Delivery GitHub Actions, Docker Observability Prometheus, Grafana, OpenSearch, Sentry AI GitHub Copilot, Claude Code What We're Looking For Strong problem-solving ability and sound engineering judgement Ownership and accountability Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with others Clear communication skills Curiosity and adaptability, particularly around modern engineering and AI-assisted development This is an opportunity to work across modern cloud-native development, large-scale legacy modernisation, and AI-assisted software engineering while building systems that support a significant financial-services business. Culture Fit — Living the ooba Values Our four values of Partner, Knowledge, Challenge and Fun underpin the ooba culture, and great performers at ooba are both good at their job and good at living our values. In this role, that looks like: • Partner: You work as one team with one purpose, building trusting relationships with colleagues, agencies, and channel partners — sharing your intention openly, listening with an open mind, and resetting partnerships when they break down • Knowledge: You make time for learning and mastering your craft, becoming an expert in our customers and categories, sharing what you know generously, learning from mistakes, and seeking out diverse perspectives • Challenge: You pioneer and innovate — setting big goals, taking bold steps, trying new things even without all the answers, asking brave questions like "why not?", and reviewing results frankly Fun: You share in the joy of homeownership with our customers, celebrate wins big and small, make fun part of everything you do, and don't take yourself too seriously