Platform Engineering Lead

ABOUT ALU

At the African Leadership University (ALU), we are more than an academic institution, we are a launchpad for Africa’s next generation of leaders. Our mission is bold: to develop ethical, entrepreneurial changemakers who will shape Africa’s future. Through an innovative curriculum, hands-on learning, and a vibrant pan-African community, we equip our students to tackle complex challenges, connect the dots across diverse perspectives, and create solutions that drive lasting impact. We don’t just teach; we nurture adaptable, globally minded problem-solvers ready to thrive in ambiguity, build from scratch, and lead Africa into a prosperous 21st century.

African Leadership University is incorporated in Rwanda as The African Leadership University (ALU) and in Mauritius as the African Leadership College of Higher Education (ALCHE). Each entity is separately accredited to offer qualifications by the Council of Higher Education in Rwanda and the Higher Education Commission in Mauritius. The ALU School of Business (ALUSB) is the engine of education in business, leadership, and entrepreneurship for both campuses.

We are dedicated to fostering an open yet secure environment, balancing the safety of students, staff, and visitors with respect for individual rights, and safeguarding responsibilities.

HOW WE WORK

The ALU Team works in starkly different ways to traditional academic bureaucracies. We approach education from first principles, empower individuals to design, test, and implement creative new ideas, and work closely together to craft transformative learning experiences. We are deeply passionate about our students and excited by the challenge of building something entirely new.

The African Leadership University is committed to ensuring the safety and Well-being of all students under our care. As part of this commitment , we have a comprehensive safeguarding policy in place , which outlines our Zero-tolerance approach to any violation of safeguarding.

ABOUT THE ROLE

ALU is undergoing a major shift to scale its platforms and unify its tech ecosystem. This role is critical to bring structure, drive best practices, and improve the delivery pipeline across multiple teams. We are seeking a Lead Salesforce Platform Engineer & Enterprise Architect to lead the architectural execution and evolution of ALU’s digital ecosystem, with Salesforce as the primary system of engagement and orchestration. The ideal candidate will enjoy building hands-on while shaping architecture decisions, deploying automation at scale, and establishing modern engineering practices (CI/CD, testing, code quality, documentation, etc).

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will design, build and govern Salesforce while also shaping how it integrates with AWS, NetSuite, BambooHR and other enterprise systems. You will set standards, contribute to development and administration, mentor engineers and work closely with external vendors to ensure all contributions align with ALU’s long-term platform vision.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in a builder environment and is comfortable working hands-on in evolving systems rather than polished, static platforms.

This role is suited to someone who:

• leads with strong Salesforce platform expertise
• understands enterprise systems end-to-end, not in isolation
• is comfortable making architectural trade-offs across multiple platforms
• values disciplined engineering, documentation and long-term maintainability
• wants to leave a durable architectural foundation in a mission-driven institution

YOUR FIRST 90 DAYS

In your first 90 days, your priority will be to stabilise and structure the existing platform. You will review and understand the integrations with other systems, and bring clarity to deployment and ownership processes.

This role is not about doing all the development yourself. It is about setting clear standards, improving development practices, and ensuring that internal teams and vendors work in a documented and reliable way.

We are looking for someone who can bring technical leadership, make pragmatic decisions, and improve platform maturity step by step.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Salesforce-Led Platform Architecture

• Lead the architecture, development and administration of ALU’s Salesforce platform across domains.
• Design and govern integrations between Salesforce and AWS, Oracle NetSuite, BambooHR and other platforms.
• Define and document data models, integration patterns and API standards involving Salesforce.
• Ensure architectural decisions are practical, scalable and aligned with institutional needs.
• Balance scalability, flexibility and cost-efficiency in architectural and implementation decisions.

Hands-on Development & Salesforce Administration

• Remain an active technical contributor through Salesforce development (Apex, LWC, integrations) and configuration.
• Oversee and, where required, perform Salesforce administration including security models, roles, permissions and environment management.
• Review code and configurations to ensure quality, performance and alignment with architectural standards.

Enterprise Integration & Cloud Architecture

• Design scalable, modular integration architectures using APIs, event-driven patterns or microservices where appropriate.
• Optimise and secure cloud and integration infrastructure, particularly within AWS.
• Ensure integrations are resilient, observable and well documented in production.
• Ensure appropriate monitoring, logging and observability are in place across integrations and platforms to support operational stability and incident response.

Engineering Standards, Governance & Documentation

• Establish and enforce technical standards across Salesforce and integrated platforms, including:
• async processing and integration patterns
• error handling and resilience approaches
• naming conventions and data ownership
• documentation and architectural decision records
• Define where technical knowledge is captured and how it is maintained over time.
• Influence and continuously improve delivery models across teams and vendors, ensuring work moves predictably from design through to production.

DevOps, Version Control & Release Discipline

• Define and own the version control and Git strategy across Salesforce and integrated platforms.
• Establish CI/CD pipelines and release management practices, ensuring environment parity across development, QA and production.
• Ensure traceability, controlled releases and rollback strategies across vendors and teams.

Vendor & Technical Leadership

• Act as the technical authority across internal teams and external delivery partners.
• Review vendor designs and deliveries, challenge assumptions and enforce architectural standards.
• Mentor engineers and product teams, raising the overall technical and architectural bar.

Responsible Use of AI in Engineering

• Use AI tools to accelerate development, improve code reviews, enforce standards and support documentation.
• Contribute to a structured, responsible approach to AI use within engineering workflows.

REQUIREMENTS

Essential

• 9+ years of experience in Salesforce platform engineering, enterprise architecture or technical leadership roles.
• Salesforce certifications (Platform Developer, Application Architect, System Architect or similar).
• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field.
• Deep, hands-on Salesforce development and administration experience.
• Proven full-stack development experience and operation at Lead Architect, Technical Architect or Principal Engineer level.
• Strong experience integrating Salesforce with enterprise systems such as ERP, HR and cloud platforms.
• Solid understanding of Salesforce data models, security architecture and performance constraints.
• Experience designing integration and cloud architectures across AWS or similar environments.
• Hands-on experience in API design, CI/CD pipelines and cloud infrastructure management, with version control and collaboration using Git and Jira.
• Proficiency in setting up and managing secure, scalable development environments and automation pipelines.
• Strong grasp of software architecture, including monolith-to-microservice transitions.
• Experience working with and holding external vendors to account.

Desirable

• Experience with Oracle NetSuite, BambooHR or comparable SaaS ERP platforms.
• Exposure to event-driven or microservices architectures.
• Experience using AI tools to improve engineering productivity and quality.
• This is a remote role, with a desirable time zone alignment in EMEA