Lead Technical Trainer at Bulb Africa

Industry: Technology

Job Description

• Fellowship at The Bulb is a 6-month program targeted at young adults pursuing or switching to a career in Software Engineering, DevOps Engineering or Product Design.
• A crucial aspect of this program is ensuring that the fellows work on complex, industry-grade projects while adhering to recommended engineering standards and methodologies.
• The Lead Technical Trainer (LTT) is tasked with coaching these trainees as they acquire this project-based experience.
• The LTT is an experienced software engineer who works with the Fellowship Faculty to provide technical and industry guidance to fellows as part of their training.

Responsibilities
The main responsibilities for this role are as follows:

Technical projects:

• Architecting real or simulated projects of varying complexity for the fellows to work on
• Enforcing adherence to industry standards, recommended workflows and best practices

Leading teams of trainee engineers and designers (based on the Scrum framework) in:

• Requirements gathering, project scoping and planning
• Sprint planning, task allocation and estimation
• Iterative design, development and testing
• Reviewing and merging pull requests (code review)
• Iterative product release, with demos to real or simulated customers

Training support:

• Facilitating expert sessions to acquaint trainees with concepts used in the industry
• Leading practical, workshop-style sessions to help trainees reinforce concepts learnt and sharpen their problem-solving skills
• Working with the Learning Lead and Fellowship Faculty towards the actualization of training goals
• Making recommendations regarding curriculum improvement and the incorporation of practical elements in the training program

Mentorship:

• Holding unblocking sessions and check-ins with trainees individually or as a group
• Pair programming with the fellows when necessary
• Being available physically or online for office hours with the fellows
• Giving TASK (timely, actionable, specific and kind) feedback to trainees

Requirements
Technical (mandatory):

• A minimum of 4 years hands-on software engineering experience, preferably full-stack and in an agile environment, with proven expertise in the following areas:

Computer science fundamentals:

• Solid background in data structures; deep knowledge of algorithmic analysis (time and space complexities for common algorithms/ Big-O notation)
• Knowledge of different programming paradigms: Imperative vs Declarative Programming, Object-Oriented Programming vs Functional Programming.

Languages and frameworks:

• Mastery of the core features of at least one backend language, preferably: C# or JavaScript/Node,
• Advanced understanding of at least one web framework: ASP.NET Core for C# or Node/Express for JavaScript
• Deep knowledge of the fundamental front-end languages/technologies e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Deep knowledge of at least one front-end framework e.g., React, Angular, Vue
• Deep knowledge of object-oriented programming and functional programming concepts

Data stores:

• Deep knowledge of fundamental database concepts
• Deep knowledge of at least one relational (SQL) database e.g., MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL
• Working knowledge of at least one non-relational (NoSQL) database e.g., MongoDB, Redis
• Working knowledge of ORMs/ODMs e.g., Sequelize, Mongoose, Entity Framework Core
• Deep knowledge of Web Storage API e.g., session storage, local storage
• Working knowledge of caching frameworks e.g., Memcached, Redis
• Working knowledge of message brokers e.g., RabbitMQ, Apache Kafka

Testing and security:

• Deep knowledge of unit and integration testing, and testing frameworks/libraries e.g., Jasmine/Mocha/Jest for JavaScript or MSTest/xUnit/NUnit for C#
• Working knowledge of network security e.g., HTTP/HTTPS, SSL/TLS
• Working knowledge of BDD and TDD
• Familiarity with the OWASP Top 10 Web Security Vulnerabilities (and ways to mitigate against them) 

Architecture and technical design:

• Deep knowledge of object-oriented design principles e.g., SOLID principles   
• Working knowledge of the Gang-of-Four software design patterns and when/where to use them: 
  • Creational patterns (Abstract Factory, Singleton, Builder) 
  • Structural patterns (Decorator, Facade, Adapter) 
  • Behavioural patterns (Observer, Templa)