Data

Platform Core

Reliability

Python

Azure

ML/AI

Pipelines

Ontology

SQL

Claude

GPT

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Join TACo

Platform Engineer

July 2026

The role

We're looking for a deeply technical Platform Engineer to own the backend and infrastructure heart of HYDRA — the systems everything else runs on. This is the most load-bearing engineering role at TACo. You'll own the data platform, the services, and the deployment infrastructure that turn millions of operational data points into a fast, reliable, multi-tenant product, and you'll lead the single most important delivery of our year: migrating every customer onto our next-generation platform.

At TACo, we're building HYDRA, our AI-powered operational intelligence platform serving customers operating complex physical environments across Africa. This role owns the platform foundations HYDRA stands on: the data layer, the core services, authentication, scale and reliability, and the CI/CD and cloud infrastructure that ships it all.

This is not a role for someone who wants tickets handed to them. You'll be the technical authority on backend platform and infrastructure, working directly with the CTO to make the architectural calls that determine whether HYDRA is fast, stable, and scalable — or not.

Above all, you work AI-first. We are a heavily AI-leveraged engineering team — Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and Copilot are core to how we build, not curiosities. We expect an experienced engineer using these tools to reach completion several times faster than the same engineer without them. You bring the judgement, architecture, and verification; AI carries much of the build.

You'll be part of a lean, high-agency startup team where your work directly determines whether customers get a platform they can rely on.

Current Tech Stack

Backend: C# .NET, Razor MVC, Azure Functions, Entity Framework — migrating C# .NET Core 3.1 → .NET 8 and Azure Functions v3 → v4

Data: SQL, NoSQL; a new read-optimised data layer is being introduced as the queryable substrate

Cloud: Azure — Functions, Key Vault, Entra ID (Azure AD); AKS / Container Apps / App Service — you'll make the platform compute call in your first month

Auth: Migrating off IdentityServer4 (end-of-life) to a modern SSO + passwordless stack

Frontend (context only, not owned by this role): Vue.js today, moving to React; Mapbox

Languages: C#, Python, JavaScript

AI tooling in the build pipeline: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot — actively used across plan, build, and ship

You'll have real influence to evolve this stack — and you'll inherit some deliberate architectural decisions already made.

What you'll do

Platform & Data Architecture

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Own HYDRA's backend platform: the core services, the data layer, and the contracts everything else depends on

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Build and harden the new read-optimised data foundation — the substrate that makes real-time operational queries fast at scale

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Design and optimise data pipelines ingesting from diverse sources: telemetry, WhatsApp, field agents, documents, and third-party systems

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Fix and prevent the failure modes that take platforms down — connection-pool exhaustion, query amplification, cache concurrency, unbounded load

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Build the rules engine and event infrastructure that alerts and automations ride on

DevOps, Infrastructure & Reliability

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Own the CI/CD pipeline, infrastructure-as-code, and deployment path for all backend services on Azure

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Own observability — metrics, logging, alerting, dashboards — so we detect ingestion lag, disconnects, and failures before customers do

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Carry primary incident response for the platform — we keep incidents rare by design, but when it breaks, you're the one who knows why

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Set and hold the reliability, performance, and scale targets as customer and data volume grow

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Manage secrets, service-to-service identity (Entra ID / managed identity), and the security posture of the platform

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Write and own the runbooks that make the platform operable by the whole team (and our AI agents), not just by you

The Platform Migration (your headline deliverable)

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Own the migration of all 100+ existing customers onto our next-generation platform — the single most important delivery of the period, targeted within your first 90 days

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Build and validate the shadow-run, the migration scripts, the rollback plan, and the cutover

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Deliver the auth overhaul: migrate off end-of-life IdentityServer4 to modern SSO + passwordless, coupled with the .NET 8 and Azure Functions v4 runtime upgrade

AI-Leveraged Delivery & Technical Leadership

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Build AI-first: use Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and Copilot as core tooling to deliver at multiples of conventional pace, while keeping full ownership of architecture, judgement, and verification

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Help extend our AI leverage from the build stage into testing, review, and operations

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Set technical standards for backend, data, infrastructure, and DevOps across the team

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Partner with the CTO on architecture and with the frontend and AI engineers on the contracts between their work and the platform

About you

Critical skills (must-have)

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A degree in Computer Science or Engineering (or equivalent depth) — for this role we place real weight on strong technical foundations, and give preference to formally qualified candidates. We test for depth, not paper — but the foundations must be there

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Substantial experience building and operating backend platforms and data systems in production — enough depth to own a platform end-to-end, with clear ownership of scale and reliability

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A doer, first and foremost — still hands-on and shipping code every day. We want a builder at the centre of the platform, not someone who has moved into managing builders. You lead through the work

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Current with modern tooling and AI-native workflows — you keep up with how engineering is changing and you build the way the best teams build today, not the way they built five years ago

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Deep C# / .NET expertise and the backend depth to own a platform end-to-end — services, data layer, performance

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Strong DevOps / platform-ops: CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, cloud deployment, observability, incident response — you build it and you run it

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Serious SQL and data-layer performance skill — query optimisation, connection management, caching, the ability to diagnose and fix a platform buckling under load

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Demonstrably AI-first in how you build — you use Claude Code / Cursor / Codex / Copilot (or equivalents) as a core part of your workflow and can show how they multiply your output

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Migration experience — you've moved real customers/data onto new architecture without losing either

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Autonomous, high-agency operator who thrives with ambiguity and a ‘figure it out’ mandate

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Excellent technical communicator who can absorb, transfer, and document deep context — you'll own a platform others depend on, so keeping it legible matters from week one

Important skills

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Azure in depth: Functions, Key Vault, Entra ID, and a container/compute platform (AKS, Container Apps, or App Service)

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Distributed-systems patterns: caching, queues, event-driven architecture, idempotency

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Auth systems: OAuth/OIDC, SSO, passwordless; experience migrating an auth provider

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Multi-tenant SaaS architecture and tenant-isolation enforcement at the data layer

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Runtime/framework upgrades on live systems (e.g. .NET major-version migrations)

Nice to have

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Experience building or consuming projection / CQRS-style read models

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Rules engines and event-processing infrastructure

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Industrial IoT, property tech, or infrastructure data at scale

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African tech ecosystem experience

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A track record of introducing AI tooling into a team's engineering practice

Your first 90 days

Month 1: Get Deep, Own, Stabilise

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Get deep on HYDRA's architecture fast — the data model, the services, the deployment path, the known failure modes, and the in-flight platform work — working closely with the CTO

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Take ownership of the platform: services, data layer, CI/CD, cloud infrastructure, observability

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Get deep on the new platform architecture and the migration plan already in motion

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Ship an early reliability win — close out the known scale/performance issues so the platform is solid going into the migration

Month 2–3: Deliver the Migration

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Own the shadow-run, validation, scripts, rollback plan, and execution of the migration — all customers onto the new platform, zero data loss, targeted within your first 90 days

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Deliver the auth overhaul (off IdentityServer4 to SSO + passwordless) and the .NET 8 / Functions v4 runtime upgrade

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Stand up the observability, alerting, and runbooks the platform needs for launch-grade operation

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Establish the CI/CD and infra-as-code standards the whole team builds against

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Document the platform so it's owned by the team, not trapped in one head — resilient, maintainable, and extensible by the wider team

Success by Day 90

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All customers migrated onto the new platform with no data loss — the migration landed

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The platform is fast, observable, and reliable at v1-target load, with the known incident classes designed out

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Auth and runtime upgrades shipped

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CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, monitoring, and runbooks are in place and owned across the team

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You are the technical authority on the HYDRA platform — and the context is documented, not fragile

Self assessment

If most of these feel like a confident yes, you'll likely thrive here.

Have you owned a production backend platform end-to-end — services, data, deployment, and operations?

Have you migrated real customers or data onto a new architecture without losing either?

Have you diagnosed and fixed a platform failing under load, down at the query and connection level?

Do you own DevOps as part of your work — CI/CD, IaC, observability, incident response?

Do you build AI-first, using tools like Claude Code or Cursor as core to your pace?

Are you comfortable being the technical authority for the platform?

Can you absorb deep context fast and start owning it within weeks?

Can you work autonomously in a lean startup with high agency?

What we offer

Technical Authority — Own the core platform. Your architectural decisions determine whether HYDRA is fast and reliable.

The Headline Deliverable — Lead the platform migration: the most important engineering delivery of our year.

Hard Problems — Scale, multi-tenancy, projections, migrations, reliability under real-world load.

AI-First Engineering — Work on a team that genuinely builds with AI at the core and is pushing that leverage further into testing and ops.

Real-World Impact — Power operational and sustainability decisions across Africa's complex physical environments.

Startup Velocity — Ownership, autonomy, and pace, at a funded startup at an inflection point.

Team & Culture — A lean, high-agency team collaborating in person at our Fourways office, 4x per week.

About TACo

The Awareness Company (TACo) is a South African AI startup building HYDRA: AI for the physical world. We're creating the operational intelligence platform that helps organisations running complex physical environments make better decisions through live data, smart analytics, and automated insights.

We serve B2B customers across Africa — from property portfolios to mining, rail, and critical infrastructure — helping them optimise operations, improve sustainability performance, and unlock financial value from their physical assets. From energy and water management to security and workforce optimisation, HYDRA turns operational data into strategic advantage.

While most AI companies focus on digital-first use cases, we're tackling the harder problem: bringing intelligence to the physical world of buildings, infrastructure, and industrial operations. We combine IoT integration, data engineering, and AI/ML to create a platform that works in the real world, not just in the cloud.

Why now? We're scaling our technical foundation to serve enterprise customers across the continent — and moving every customer onto our next-generation platform this year. You'll own that. Your technical decisions have outsized impact.

Apply now to own the platform at the heart of HYDRA.

Current Tech Stack