Tech Lead – Messaging Experience Engineering Job Watu Credit

AI summary

Watu Credit is hiring a Tech Lead for Messaging Experience Engineering to lead a squad, manage 3-5 engineers, and own the technical architecture for messaging systems including SMS, WhatsApp, and FCM. The role is remote, based in Nairobi, with a deadline of 31/07/2026.

• Own technical architecture for messaging dispatch and conversational orchestration
• Manage 3-5 direct reports (Backend, Frontend, QA)
• Requires experience with WhatsApp Business API, event-driven systems, and multi-market delivery
• Remote role with light people management

Description

Home » Jobs In Kenya » IT Jobs In Kenya » Tech Lead – Messaging Experience Engineering Job Watu Credit Job Title: Tech Lead – Messaging Experience Engineering Date Posted: 15/07/2026 Job Type: Remote Job Level: Management Employer: Watu Credit Industry: IT Salary: Open Location: Nairobi Country: Kenya Deadline: 31/07/2026 Summary: IT Jobs, Watu Credit Jobs. Looking for an IT job in Kenya? Watu Credit is hiring a Tech Lead – Messaging Experience Engineering skilled in messaging system architecture, real-time communication protocols, and engineering team leadership. Job Summary Tech Lead is one of the most important individual roles in the engineering organization. You are the technical authority for your squad – you own the architecture, set the quality bar, govern external partners when applicable, and are the primary escalation point for every engineering decision in your domain. This role carries light people management alongside deep technical ownership. You will have 3-5 direct reports (Backend Engineers, Frontend/Mobile Engineer, QA Engineer). You are responsible for their day-to-day unblocking, their technical growth, and honest feedback on their work. Formal performance reviews and hiring decisions sit with the Head of Engineering – but in practice, your view of each engineer in your squad is the most important input into those decisions. Do not let the word “light” mislead you: if an engineer in your squad is struggling, that is your problem to solve. You are a peer of the Product Owner, not a subordinate. Product owns What. You own How and When. Sprint commitments are signed off by both of you together. If the roadmap is technically unrealistic, your job is to say so early and clearly. Squad: Messaging Experience Engineering Quick facts for this squad Partner governance: Infobip used as API layer only – all flow logic, orchestration, and business rules owned in-house. Avoid vendor lock-in. Primary tech focus: WhatsApp Business API · SMS · FCM · Conversational orchestration · Event-driven Domain responsibilities Own the messaging dispatch layer – SMS, WhatsApp, and FCM. The architecture must support high volume, low latency, and multi-market delivery. Own the conversational orchestration engine – the in-house logic layer that drives WhatsApp conversations, loan context notifications, payment-via-chat flows, and customer communications. No vendor lock-in on business rules. Govern the Infobip integration: Infobip is an API provider, not an architecture decision-maker. All flow logic lives in Watu’s systems. Own delivery reliability – message delivery tracking, retry logic, failure handling, and observability across all channels. Design for scale across multiple markets with different carrier and channel characteristics. Domain-specific requirements Experience building conversational product systems using WhatsApp Business API or similar – not just integration, but flow design and orchestration logic. Strong hands-on experience with one or several backend languages (Java, Python, Node.js, …) Understanding of event-driven messaging systems: Kafka, RabbitMQ, or equivalent at production scale. Familiarity with SMS gateway integration, delivery optimization, and multi-provider fallback strategies. Experience designing stateful conversational flows in a microservices architecture. Responsibilities Architecture & technical direction Own the technical architecture for your squad’s domain – system design, API contracts, data models, integration patterns, and the Architectural Decision Records that document why. Enforce the Watu engineering standards within your squad: GitHub for all code, mandatory PR review, coverage gates, OpenAPI documentation, runbooks, and secrets management. Be the squad’s representative to the Platform General Architecture – escalate cross-squad concerns, contribute to shared standards, and ensure your squad’s patterns align with the broader platform direction. Delivery & quality Review and approve all pull requests for your squad. Not as a bottleneck, but as the quality gate. Your name is on everything that ships. Define and maintain the squad’s Definition of Done. Work with the embedded QA engineer to ensure quality is built in, not bolted on. Own the squad’s release process. Nothing ships without your sign-off – including work from external partners where applicable. Drive sprint planning with the Product Owner – translate user stories into technical tasks, surface dependencies, flag risks early. Partner & vendor governance Where your squad governs an external partner, you are the technical point of accountability. The partner executes; you govern. Architecture decisions, code quality, and release timing are owned internally. Review partner code via PR access. Nothing a partner ships enters production without your review. People management (light but real) You have 4-6 direct reports: typically 1–2 Backend Engineers, 1–2 Frontend/Mobile Engineers, and 1-2 QA Engineers. They report to