Application Product Owner | Development Lead (EdTech)

SUMMARY:

**Please Note: This position is based in Western Cape (Stellenbosch | Cape Town). This is a hybrid position with regular time on the school campuses. This is a permanent role.
 
Our client, a South African organisation operating within the education and training sector, committed to empowering individuals through quality education, skills development and innovative learning solutions, is urgently seeking an experienced Application Product Owner | Development Lead to join their team.

The organisation has a strong product vision, supported by a Business Systems Analyst with extensive edtech expertise and a well-defined product specification. The next critical step is transforming this vision into fully functional, scalable software solutions that deliver measurable value.

POSITION INFO:
In order to be considered the following is required: Around 7 years in software development, with at least 2 to 3 years leading delivery as a tech lead, development lead or similar. Ideally, have owned product decisions Product sense: you can own a roadmap, write clear acceptance criteria, prioritise on value and work patiently with non-technical users Experience directing outsourced or partner development teams, including reviewing and accepting their work Strong hands-on skills in at least one modern stack (for example TypeScript \/ Node, Python or PHP), plus SQL, relational databases, APIs and integrations Practical cloud experience, ideally AWS, including CI\/CD and containers Working knowledge of POPIA and security fundamentals An AI-native way of working: AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot or similar) every day and can show how they speed up prototyping and review. Built with LLM APIs, you know how to test and evaluate AI output, and understand the risks Calm under pressure: Own outcomes, not just tasks Advantageous requirement: Edtech experience: Moodle (including plugin development in PHP), learning or school administration systems, assessment or learning analytics Experience in South African schools, education non-profits or similar mission-driven organisations Data and dashboard work with BI tools Startup or small-team experience where you had to build the process as well as the product A product owner certification (CSPO, PSPO) - nice to have, never a substitute for shipping Responsibilities: Roadmap and product: Own the roadmap and backlog for your product areas, on behalf of the business owners. Turn the specification and feedback from schools into clear, prioritised work with testable acceptance criteria Make the calls on scope and sequence with the Head of Technology and the business owners of each initiative. Say no when it's the right answer Run user testing, pilots and rollouts with teachers and school staff, moving from one school to the network Measure adoption and impact after release. Fix or stop what isn't working Make sure every build has a business owner, a clear purpose and a home once it's live Source code, releases and partners: Direct our external development partners day to day: brief the work, review it, and accept or reject what's delivered against the agreed criteria. The Head of Technology owns the contracts, vendor performance and governance Own source-code control: the organization owns its repositories, source code, documentation and IP and you will make sure that's true in practice: access, documentation and handover Own release decisions, working with our AWS partner on deployments, release monitoring and incident response Set up and run a lightweight delivery rhythm: planning, demos, release notes and a visible roadmap that school leaders can follow Make sure sensible engineering basics are in place across internal and partner work: source control, code review, automated testing, CI\/CD, environments and documentation Make sure what they ship is secure and POPIA-compliant, with consent, retention, de-identification and access control built into the requirements for learner data Hands-on work: Stay hands-on where it adds most: prototyping, integrations and AI-assisted development. Your code is there to prove ideas; unblock work and keep you close enough to the technology to review partner work with authority The successful candidate will take ownership of the product roadmap, prioritise development initiatives and lead external development partners to ensure the consistent delivery of high-quality software solutions. Beyond development, this role will be instrumental in driving successful product implementation, adoption and ongoing utilisation within schools. This is an exciting opportunity for a commercially minded, technically proficient professional who can bridge the gap between product strategy, software development and real-world implementation, ensuring innovative ideas translate into practical, impactful education technology solutions. If you meet the above requirements and interested in this opportunity, please URGENTLY email us your CV. Information displayed above not limited to advertisement Please consider your application as unsuccessful if you have not received a response within 14 days of submitting your application.