Software Technical Lead

About the role

Wabtec is hiring a Software Technical Lead in Pretoria to join its Digital Mine Engineering team. You will report to the Engineering Manager and partner with software, electronic, hardware, mechanical, production, quality, field support and product management teams. The role leads the software and firmware stack behind safety-critical collision avoidance, proximity detection and driver monitoring solutions for mining and heavy industry, combining hands-on engineering with technical leadership.

Key responsibilities

• Define technical direction, own architectural decisions and manage the software backlog.
• Design, develop, review and maintain production software in Python and C++, and support firmware that interfaces with hardware platforms and sensors.
• Lead machine vision development, including model training, evaluation and deployment.
• Lead troubleshooting and root cause analysis of complex software, firmware and hardware integration issues.
• Improve CI/CD pipelines, build automation, quality processes and release management.
• Mentor engineers, conduct code reviews and support technical recruiting.
• Occasionally travel to customer and mine sites.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Computer Science or a related discipline; equivalent experience considered.
• Minimum 7 years of professional software development experience.
• Minimum 2 years in a Technical Lead, Principal Engineer, Senior Engineer or similar role.
• Must be resident in South Africa and legally authorised to work there; EU legal authorisation is also required.

Required skills

• Hands-on Python and C++ programming.
• Linux on ARM-based platforms, including cross-compilation and deployment.
• CI/CD pipelines, build automation, Git and modern development practices.
• Machine vision and deep learning (OpenCV, PyTorch, TensorFlow/TensorFlow Lite, ONNX).
• Preferred: GitLab CI/CD, Jira and Confluence, Agile/Scrum, Yocto or Buildroot, CAN Bus, MQTT, IoT and functional safety standards such as IEC 61508 or ISO 26262.