AI Software Engineer, Johannesburg

We are seeking a Full-Stack GenAI Software Engineer to help us build HyperDev from the ground up. This is not a feature-factory role: you’ll work closely with the founders to make foundational decisions about our architecture, product direction, and engineering culture.

You’ll take early concepts and help shape them into a world-class developer product, from the backend logic and API integrations to the frontend experience that developers interact with. This role is ideal for someone who thrives on ownership, wants to work at the cutting edge of AI, and is motivated by the opportunity to create lasting impact as part of a founding team.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Co-design, build, and scale the core HyperDev platform, from backend services to frontend UX.
• Collaborate directly with the founders to define product direction, technical choices, and long-term architecture.
• Integrate and experiment with cutting-edge AI/LLM tooling to transform how developers write and interact with code.
• Build interactive proof-of-concepts that evolve into production-ready features.
• Establish engineering best practices (CI/CD, testing, code quality) from day one.
• Stay ahead of AI/ML and developer tooling advancements, bringing the best ideas into the product.

At HyperionDev, we’re on a mission to make high-quality, career-focused education accessible to people around the world. We partner with leading universities, governments, and employers to deliver online programmes that help learners develop practical, job-ready skills in technology, data, digital marketing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and business.

Unlike traditional education providers, we combine flexible online learning with real human support. Our learners are guided by industry professionals, receive personalised feedback, and build portfolios that demonstrate real-world capability rather than just theoretical knowledge.

Today, HyperionDev works with globally recognised institutions including Imperial College London, The University of Manchester, Arizona State University, University of Chicago and others to help thousands of learners launch new careers and unlock opportunities in the digital economy.

As a fast-growing, globally distributed team, we’re passionate about innovation, continuous improvement, and creating meaningful outcomes for our learners. If you’re excited by the opportunity to help transform lives through education and be part of a mission-driven organisation with global impact, we’d love to hear from you.

Requirements

Minimum:

• Extensive use of AI tools to help debug, plan, develop, verify, test and review code
• 4+ years of commercial experience working with TypeScript
• 3+ years of commercial experience working with the React framework.
• 4+ years of experience with Python (Django, FastAPI, Pydantic)
• 5+ years of experience working with Git/GitHub workflows and CI/CD pipelines.
• 3+ years of experience integrating third-party APIs
• 2+ years of experience integrating LLM APIs and prompt engineering
• 5+ years of experience working with automated testing and code quality tools (ESLint, Prettier, Vitest or similar).
• 2+ years of experience using AI coding tools + used at least 3 different AI coding tools
• RAG and hybrid RAG deployment experience
• Agentic workflow deployment experience
• Ability to work independently and proactively in a fast-moving startup, full-stack development environment.

Preferred: 

• Experience using Langchain, Pydantic AI and/or other LLM/AI frameworks
• Advanced CSS and modern CSS-in-JS methodologies (UnoCSS, Tailwind).
• Experience with Cloudflare Workers/Pages and related tooling.
• Knowledge of monorepo/workspace tools (Nx, Turborepo, pnpm workspaces).
• Deployment and DevOps experience (Docker, Coolify, environment variables).
• Packaging experience (Electron, Linux/Mac/Windows).
• Prior contributions to open source projects.

Benefits

• Be part of the founding team of a new AI developer platform backed by an established, profitable parent company.
• Shape the architecture, product, and culture of a company from day zero.
• Collaborate with a team that has worked at OpenAI and shipped award-winning products.
• Access the resources, backing, and reach of the HyperionDev ecosystem while building something new.
• Work on the cutting edge of AI and developer tooling, with the freedom to experiment and innovate.
  

⚡ If you’re excited to help build a category-defining product from the ground up and want the ownership and impact that comes with being a founding engineer, we’d love to talk.