Software Technical Lead
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation3 days ago
Pretoria, South AfricaStaff+
Responsibilities
- Define and maintain software architecture, technical standards, and engineering practices across the software and firmware ecosystem.
- Own the software backlog, including work breakdown, prioritization, estimation, and task assignment.
- Design, develop, review, and maintain production software using Python and C++.
- Develop and support software and firmware interfacing with hardware platforms, sensors, and peripherals.
- Provide technical leadership for machine vision development, model training, evaluation, and deployment.
- Lead troubleshooting and root-cause investigations involving software, firmware, and hardware integration.
- Improve CI/CD pipelines, build automation, software quality processes, and release management.
- Conduct code reviews and promote software quality, testing, documentation, and maintainability.
- Mentor software engineers through coaching, technical reviews, knowledge sharing, and professional development support.
- Partner with hardware, electronics, production, quality, field support, and product management teams.
- Support technical recruiting through candidate assessment and interview participation.
- Ensure development aligns with safety, quality, traceability, and regulatory expectations.
- Occasionally travel to customer and mine sites for deployment support, troubleshooting, and technical discussions.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline; equivalent experience may be considered for exceptional candidates.
- At least 7 years of professional software development experience.
- At least 2 years of experience in a Technical Lead, Principal Engineer, Senior Engineer, or similar technical leadership role.
- Must reside in South Africa and be legally authorized to work in South Africa.
- Strong hands-on programming experience with Python and C++.
- Experience developing software or firmware that interfaces directly with hardware devices, sensors, and peripherals.
- Experience with Linux on ARM-based platforms, including cross-compilation and deployment.
- Experience debugging hardware-software integration issues using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, or protocol analyzers.
- Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, automated build processes, software quality checks, and release workflows.
- Strong knowledge of Git and modern software development practices.
- Hands-on experience with OpenCV, PyTorch, TensorFlow or TensorFlow Lite, and ONNX.
- Understanding of machine vision model lifecycle management, including dataset creation, model training, evaluation, and deployment.
- Experience with GitLab CI/CD is preferred.
- Familiarity with Jira and Confluence is preferred.
- Knowledge of edge AI deployment, model optimization, and embedded inference is preferred.
- Experience with Yocto, Buildroot, or similar embedded Linux build systems is preferred.
- Experience with CAN Bus, RS232/485, TCP/IP, MQTT, or related communication protocols is preferred.
- Experience with IoT, telemetry, telematics, GPS, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi technologies is preferred.
- Familiarity with IEC 61508 or ISO 26262 is preferred.
- Experience in mining, heavy industrial, automotive, or other safety-critical industries is preferred.
- Strong troubleshooting, problem-solving, root-cause analysis, written communication, and verbal communication skills are required.
Benefits
- The role is based in South Africa and requires occasional travel to customer and mine sites.
- The position offers cross-functional collaboration and technical leadership opportunities within Wabtec.
- Wabtec states that it is an equal opportunity employer and supports accommodations for applicants.
About Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (Wabtec) builds freight locomotives, braking and signaling systems, rail components, and software used by freight railroads, transit agencies, and industrial operators. The Pittsburgh-based public company (NYSE: WAB) sells original equipment, digital solutions, and aftermarket services worldwide; it combined with GE Transportation in 2019 and traces its roots to George Westinghouse’s 19th‑century air brake business. Its portfolio spans rolling stock, parts, condition‑monitoring, and train control platforms.