Senior Software Engineer – @iLabAfrica at Strathmore University

Job Title: Senior Software Engineer
Department: @iLabAfrica
Reporting to: Lead Engineer SoftwareDevelopment

Basic job summary:
The Senior Software Engineer will be responsible for designing, building, and operationalizing software infrastructure. This role will lead the full-stack development and system integration of backend services, APIs, and data pipelines.

Responsibilities:
1.Software Development and Design
• Collaborate with the project technical lead and other team members to analyze requirements and design software solutions for AI applications.
• Develop, test, and debug software components for data exchange gateways, and cloud platforms.
• Assist in implementing data management, analytics, and visualization features for AI applications.
• Implement engineering frameworks that enable LLM-based advisory systems, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), structured knowledge integration, and prompt orchestration.
• Integrate soil, weather, and agronomic datasets into retrieval and reasoning pipelines to support contextualized and actionable advisory outputs.
• Support experimentation with different GenAI architectures and system configurations in collaboration with data science teams.
• Develop or support frontend and interface components (e.g. dashboards, admin tools, sandbox interfaces) required for internal testing, monitoring, and partner integration.
• Implement technical controls to support data governance requirements, including consent-aware data access, role-based permissions, and audit logging.
• Participate in code reviews and maintain coding standards and best practices.
2.Quality Assurance and Testing
• Debug Identify and address any software-related issues, anomalies, or performance bottlenecks.
• Collaborate with the Quality Assurance team to ensure a high-quality optimized code solution.
• Ensure the security and integrity of AI software systems, implementing encryption, authentication, and access control mechanisms as necessary.
• Perform code reviews, testing, and debugging activities to maintain high quality and reliability in software deliverables.
• Ensure secure handling of sensitive or regulated data in line with Kenya’s Data Protection Act and project governance frameworks.
• Embed responsible AI considerations into system design, including safeguards, escalation pathways, and human-in-the-loop mechanisms where required.
3.Documentation and Reporting
• Create and maintain comprehensive repository documentation for software designs, iterations, specifications, and testing procedures.
• Develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) for software MVP development and testing.
• Generate simulation and evaluation software code report before final release version for deployment
4.Collaboration and Support
• Collaborate with research, data science and engineering teams to meet project timelines and deliverables.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior software developers, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning

Minimum Academic Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science, or a closely related technical field from a recognized institution

Experience:
• Applicants should possess a minimum of 7 years’ experience in software development

Competencies and Attributes:
• Strong experience in full-stack software development, including backend service development, API design, and integration of external data sources and modern frontend development for both web and mobile.
• Experience with cloud or hybrid deployment environments, containerization (e.g. Docker), and CI/CD pipelines.
• Demonstrated experience building and integrating data pipelines and services that work with heterogeneous data sources (e.g. soil, weather, agronomic, geospatial, or sensor data).
• Solid understanding of software security, access control, and data protection principles, particularly when working with sensitive or regulated data.

Are you qualified for this position and interested in working with us? We would like to hear from you. Kindly send us a copy of your updated resume and letter of application (ONLY) quoting “Senior Software Engineer” on the subject line to
recruitment@strathmore.edu by 27th February 2026.

Due to the large number of applications, we may receive, kindly note that only the shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Please be advised that Strathmore University is an equal opportunity employer and does NOT ask for money from applicants under any circumstances during its recruitment process.

Interested applicants are encouraged to exercise caution upon receiving any such interview opportunity that requires payment of any money.