JOB DETAILS

📌 Job Title: Java Developer Lead
🏢 Company: Hollard Insure
🏬 Business Unit: Project Athena
📍 Location: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
🕒 Employment Type: Permanent
🧩 Number of Positions: 1
📅 Closing Date: 18 January 2026
🆔 Reference Number: HOL260108-1

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Hollard Insure is one of South Africa’s leading short-term insurance providers, known for innovation, customer-centric solutions, and a people-first culture. The organisation is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and actively promotes a hybrid work environment that balances flexibility with performance.

Hollard believes that cognitive diversity drives better outcomes and encourages applications from candidates with varied lived experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives.

JOB OVERVIEW

The Java Developer Lead will play a critical leadership role in the development and enhancement of Hollard’s enterprise insurance platforms, with a strong focus on the IDIT system. This role combines hands-on technical delivery with people leadership, architecture ownership, and cross-functional collaboration.

The successful candidate will lead a team of Java developers, oversee end-to-end project delivery, ensure high technical standards, and contribute to the strategic evolution of Hollard’s digital insurance platforms.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical Leadership & Delivery

Lead and mentor a team of Java developers, ensuring accountability and high-quality delivery
Provide hands-on development support while overseeing architecture, design, and implementation
Review and approve technical designs, code quality, and development standards
Drive adoption of modern development practices and continuous improvement initiatives

Application Development

Design, develop, and maintain Java-based modules across policy, claims, billing, and customer management systems
Customise IDIT metadata, workflows, and user interface components
Ensure solutions are scalable, performant, secure, and maintainable

Integration & Architecture

Architect and implement integrations with external systems including APIs, web services, payment gateways, CRM platforms, and regulatory systems
Design and manage REST and SOAP APIs to enable seamless interoperability
Oversee SQL data models and complex business logic implementations

Requirements & Solution Design

Collaborate closely with business analysts, product owners, architects, and project managers
Translate complex business requirements into robust technical specifications
Contribute to platform roadmap planning and long-term system enhancements

Testing, Quality & CI/CD

Oversee unit, integration, and regression testing strategies
Ensure strong automated testing coverage and CI/CD pipeline integration
Conduct detailed code reviews and mentor developers on best practices

Performance, Security & Compliance

Monitor application performance and resolve bottlenecks
Optimise database queries, caching strategies, and service calls
Ensure compliance with POPIA, FSCA, and internal governance standards
Implement authentication, authorisation, and encryption mechanisms

Governance & Documentation

Maintain comprehensive technical documentation and design artefacts
Support audit processes through traceable and compliant development practices
Ensure adherence to SDLC, Agile, and governance frameworks

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE & SKILLS

Experience

Minimum 10 years’ experience in Java Enterprise Edition development
At least 3 years’ experience in a technical leadership or team lead role
End-to-end delivery of enterprise customer projects including UI, SQL models, and business logic
Proven experience integrating with external systems and platforms

Technical Skills

Java 11, Spring Boot, Spring Framework
Microservices architecture
EJB, Hibernate, SQL (essential)
MSSQL (required); Oracle and DB2 advantageous
Unit testing and mocking frameworks
CI/CD pipelines, Agile/Scrum, SDLC
Application servers such as WebLogic, WebSphere, or JBoss (advantageous)
Strong object-oriented design and system architecture skills

Domain Knowledge

Strong understanding of short-term insurance products and lifecycle
Experience working with large-scale, complex data and domain models

Soft Skills

Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
Ability to translate functional requirements into technical solutions
Collaborative leadership style with a focus on mentorship and growth

EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field

ONBOARDING & TRAINING

Structured on-the-job training and platform familiarisation period of approximately 3 months

CV TIPS FOR THIS ROLE

Highlight leadership experience in Java enterprise environments
Emphasise hands-on experience with IDIT or similar insurance platforms
Demonstrate large-scale system integration and performance optimisation projects
Showcase experience leading Agile teams and CI/CD implementations
Include examples of regulatory or compliance-driven development work

COMPANY POLICY

All Hollard appointments are made in line with the company’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy. Hollard is committed to creating a workplace that values care, dignity, inclusion, and psychological safety. The organisation supports a hybrid working model and encourages applications even if candidates do not meet all listed criteria. Hollard reserves the right to make appointments in line with business and operational requirements.

To apply for this job please visit hollard.erecruit.co.