Freelance Lead Software Engineer | R7,830–R10,440 per Day Before Tax | UK Client | January 2027

This is a remote position.

Location: South Africa-based

Working arrangement: To be confirmed with the client
Target start: January 2027
Contract: Freelance; duration and weekly commitment agreed before booking
Indicative remuneration: R7,830–R10,440 per eight-hour day before tax, depending on experience

About the opportunity

A UK-based creator-marketing business is looking for an experienced, hands-on Lead Software Engineer to develop its campaign-management platform.

The platform is already in use internally. The next stage is to build it into a reliable product supporting campaign teams, creators and clients—from shortlisting and outreach through to reporting and payments.

You’ll work closely with the Product Lead, an existing Full Stack Engineer, a Data Science Lead and the people using the platform every day.

This requires someone who can write code, make architecture decisions and take responsibility for delivery and production reliability.

What you’ll do

• Build and release complete features that users can test and use.
  

• Own architecture decisions and document how the system fits together.
  

• Use AI coding tools effectively, critically review their output and improve existing code.
  

• Develop production-ready LLM features with validation, evaluation and cost controls.
  

• Build integrations covering CRM, payments, outreach and invoicing.
  

• Implement monitoring, alerting and practical production-support processes.
  

• Work with the Product Lead to break down requirements, identify dependencies and set realistic delivery plans.
  

• Maintain automated tests, manageable pull requests and infrastructure as code.
  

• Recommend when additional engineering capacity is needed and support technical collaboration.
  

Requirements

What you’ll bring

• Proven lead-level experience building and scaling a production product to 10,000+ users, with personal responsibility for architecture decisions.
  

• Strong hands-on full-stack engineering capability.
  

• Experience shipping LLM features into production, including structured outputs, validation, evaluation and managing usage costs.
  

• Daily practical experience with AI coding tools and the ability to assess, debug and refactor generated code.
  

• Experience with authentication, client data isolation, payment integrations and privacy requirements.
  

• Confidence owning deployments, diagnosing production problems and improving reliability.
  

• Clear communication with technical and non-technical colleagues.
  

• The judgement to challenge assumptions, identify risks and explain what can realistically be delivered.
  

Technology environment

Python, FastAPI and SQLModel; Next.js and TypeScript; Google Cloud Run, Cloud SQL/PostgreSQL, BigQuery and Pub/Sub; Terraform and GitHub Actions.

Direct stack experience is advantageous. Strong transferable architecture and product-delivery experience will also be considered.

Additional advantages include multimodal AI, third-party data ingestion, email deliverability, SOC 2 readiness and creator-economy experience.

Working arrangements

Applicants must be based in South Africa and able to provide agreed overlap with the UK team. Location requirements, weekly hours, production-support expectations and any travel will be confirmed before booking.

The advertised rate is freelancer remuneration before tax. Bookings and a minimum number of days are not guaranteed.

How to apply

Apply through NoSweat and include:

• Your CV and links to relevant products, projects or technical case studies.
  

• Examples of production systems you helped scale, including user numbers and your contribution.
  

• One production LLM example, explaining your responsibilities and how quality, reliability and costs were managed.
  

• Your experience with the stack and AI coding tools.
  

• Your January availability, existing commitments and proposed weekly capacity.
  

• Your expected day rate within the indicative range.
  

Please distinguish clearly between work you personally delivered and work delivered by your wider team.

Salary: R7,830–R10,440 per Day Before Tax