Senior Front Arena Engineer

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Absa is committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from suitably qualified individuals from diverse backgrounds. In support of our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) commitments and Employment Equity objectives, preference may be given to candidates from underrepresented designated groups, including persons with disabilities. We encourage applicants who may require reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process to let us know so that appropriate support can be provided.

Job Summary

Provide engineering capability for the CIB Front Arena platform.
The role requires a hands-on engineer who can take ownership of complex Front Arena development and technical problem solving across the full delivery lifecycle, from understanding a business problem and designing the solution through to development, testing, implementation and production support.
The successful candidate must have strong development experience within Front Arena, combined with Python engineering skills and an understanding of Corporate and Investment Banking.
The role will work closely with business stakeholders and product teams to ensure the Front Arena platform continues to meet evolving Global Markets requirements.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

Front Arena Engineering

• Design, develop, enhance and support solutions within Front Arena.
• Develop and maintain Front Arena core scripts, including components such as FValidation.
• Develop solutions using Python, ACM/AEL, ADFL, ATS, ADS, AMBA/AMB and relevant Front Arena APIs.
• Troubleshoot complex business-raised production issues across batch and process functionality, perform root-cause analysis, and implement sustainable fixes.
• Participate in Front Arena upgrades and migrations (e.g. Cloud).
• Ensure Front Arena solutions are performant, maintainable and aligned with platform standards.

Solution Design and Technical Ownership

• Translate business requirements into robust Front Arena technical solutions.
• Provide technical direction for complex enhancements and platform changes.
• Assess whether requirements should be addressed through standard Front Arena capabilities, configuration, scripting, integration or custom development.
• Challenge designs that introduce unnecessary customisation, performance issues or long-term support risk.
• Review technical designs, solution approaches and code before production implementation.
• Own complex problems through to resolution rather than relying on detailed technical direction from others.
• Engage with the Front Arena vendor where product expertise or vendor intervention is required.
• Working with version control, branching, merging, pull requests, and team-based development workflows.

Technical Leadership

• Act as a senior technical authority for Front Arena engineering.
• Review technical designs, solution approaches and code before production implementation.
• Establish and reinforce development standards and engineering practices.
• Mentor engineers with less Front Arena experience.
• Support technical analysis of high-severity incidents.
• Identify systemic problems rather than repeatedly implementing tactical fixes.
• Improve documentation and reduce dependency on individual technical SMEs.
• Work effectively with Product, Business, Support, Infrastructure, Data and other engineering teams.

 

Critical Skills and Experience required

• 8+ years relevant engineering experience, including 5+ years hands-on Front Arena development and Python experience
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience supporting Front Arena deployments within cloud-hosted environments (AWS or Azure).
• Advanced: Front Arena APIs / ACM / AEL / ADFL
• Strong: Front Arena core scripts / Production troubleshooting / Solution design / Version control (preferably Git and GitHub) / CI/CD and automated deployment
• Experience supporting Front Arena within Global Markets environments, including exposure to Fixed Income, FX, Derivatives or Treasury products.
• A hands-on engineer first, rather than purely an architect or manager.
• Comfortable taking ownership of ambiguous technical problems.
• Strong at debugging existing Front Arena implementations.
• Able to understand both business context and technical consequences.
• Pragmatic about when to configure, customise, integrate or escalate to the vendor.
• Comfortable working in a production-critical banking environment.
• Able to communicate clearly with both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Comfortable providing technical leadership while continuing to write and review code.

Advantageous Experience

• Power BI and data visualization
• Data analysis and reporting
• AI-assisted development tools and automation
• Microsoft Power Platform
  

Bachelor's Degree: Information Technology