Lead DevOps Engineer
Cape Town, ZA
Internal – Tech - IT /
Full-time /
Remote
Who we are:
Mama Money is a growth stage fintech startup working to help migrant workers in South Africa send money home. Since 2015 we have been providing reliable remittances, at a socially fair price, to those that need it most.
Mama HQ is in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. We are 131 people strong (and counting) from 19 countries across Africa, Asia, the UK, and Europe. Our culture is built around the well-being of our team members and making a difference in our communities.
“Just be lekker!” personifies our approach to work: we trust the wisdom of our talented and diverse team to do what is best for our customers and get the job done responsibly, without pedantic policies.
We’ve been around since 2015 and have earned a few accolades along the way, made some new friends, and expanded our reach. We've had some great times and some tough times but we continue to focus on helping people rather than maximizing profit.
We’re looking for a Lead DevOps Engineer to champion automation, reliability, and performance across our infrastructure. In this role, you’ll lead a small but high-impact DevOps team, collaborate closely with our Development and Data teams, and ensure our systems are scalable, secure, and developer-friendly. As a technical leader, you’ll set the direction for our DevOps practices, support faster and safer deployments.
As our Lead DevOps Engineer you will:
- Lead and mentor a team of DevOps Engineers, promoting best practices in infrastructure-as-code, observability, and CI/CD.
- Own and evolve the architecture for highly available, secure, and scalable cloud infrastructure on AWS.
- Drive automation across the software development lifecycle to streamline releases and improve developer velocity.
- Collaborate with engineering leadership to align DevOps strategy with product and platform goals.
- Implement and maintain monitoring, alerting, and incident response processes.
- Proactively identify and address reliability, performance, and security issues.
- Maintain and improve the health and uptime of our Mama Money platform and cloud services.
- Manage cloud costs and work toward optimizing infrastructure spend.
- Stay ahead of industry trends and recommend tools or approaches to continuously improve how we build and operate systems.
Required experience:
- 5+ years of experience in DevOps, with at least 1–2 years in a technical leadership role.
- Deep experience with AWS and strong knowledge of cloud-native architectures.
- Experience designing and managing Kubernetes environments (especially with EKS) and container tooling (Docker, Helm).
- Solid knowledge of networking, cloud security, and system monitoring (e.g. Prometheus, Grafana).
- Proficiency in infrastructure automation tools like Terraform.
- Strong scripting and automation skills using Python, Bash, or similar.
- Experience with modern CI/CD tools and pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI).
- A developer mindset – you understand code, can read it, and often write your own.
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills – able to align technical direction with broader business goals.
Our Tech stack:
- Languages: Java, JavaScript, Python
- Database: MariaDB
- AWS Services: EC2, S3, API Gateway, Cognito, RDS, SQS, ALB, Lambda, DynamoDB, EKS
- Automation: Terraform, Helm, Github Actions
- Tools: Jira, Confluence, Postman, Dbeaver, Git, ArgoCD
Why Mama?
At Mama Money, we’re not just a company—we’re a movement. Everything we do is driven by one purpose: to make life better for our customers and the communities we serve. Our customers are our heartbeat, and they inspire every step we take.
We’re all about making it easy. No red tape, no hassle. Just simple, seamless experiences that put people first, we’re here to make things easier, faster, and better for you.
We believe in giving it a go—and then giving it another go if we have to! We're a team of doers, dreamers, and innovators who aren't afraid to break the mold. We take bold steps, experiment with fresh ideas, and never stop learning.
At Mama Money, we own it—and we mean it. We take responsibility for our actions, our results, and how we show up every day. No passing the buck here. We approach every challenge with grit, passion, and determination.
Here’s the best part: Mama Money is a place that truly cares. We care about the trust our customers place in us. We care about our amazing team who bring their best every day. And we care about making an impact in the world, doing the right thing no matter what.
When you join Mama Money, you’re joining a community. We’re a passionate, down-to-earth crew that works hard and celebrates wins along the way. We take our work seriously, but we don’t forget to have fun while we do it.
So, if you’re ready to make a real difference, take on exciting challenges, and grow in a place where you’re valued and supported, then Mama Money is the place for you. Let’s make an impact—together.
Mama’s values:
1. Making it easier for our customers
2. Give it a go
3. Just own it
