Full Stack Developer | Technology | Ogilvy Africa

Role Summary 

We are seeking a highly experienced and versatile Senior Full Stack Developer with 6+ years of industry experience to join our innovative engineering team. This is a pivotal role for an individual who thrives on technical evolution and wants to make a significant impact on our clients' success.

You will be instrumental in developing and evolving our core technology stack, encompassing our existing PHP/Laravel backend and building out modern Node.js-based architectures (e.g., NestJS), alongside our cutting-edge React/Next.js frontend. A key aspect of this role involves integrating advanced AI capabilities into our products and enhancing our DevOps practices, ensuring swift responsiveness and robust solutions for our business needs.

We are looking for a proactive problem-solver, a strong collaborator, and crucially, an individual with a genuine eagerness to learn and adapt to an evolving technical landscape. If you're ready to push boundaries and contribute your skills to an extraordinary team, we want to hear from you!

Key Responsibilities

• Full Stack Development: Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain high-quality, scalable applications across the full stack, utilizing both current and future technologies.
• Backend Evolution & Development: Lead and actively contribute to the development of our backend services, maintaining existing PHP (Laravel) systems while building out new services with Node.js (e.g., NestJS).
• Frontend Development: Develop and optimize responsive, user-friendly interfaces using React and Next.js.
• AI Integration: Research, evaluate, and integrate AI/ML models/APIs (e.g., LLMs) to create intelligent features.
• DevOps Enhancement: Implement and improve CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker), and cloud infrastructure management (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Architectural Contribution: Collaborate on architectural decisions and technical designs for our evolving platform.
• Code Quality: Write clean, well-documented, testable code and participate in rigorous code reviews.
• Collaboration: Work effectively as one team with product managers, designers, and other developers, providing technical guidance as needed.
• Continuous Learning: Actively stay abreast of emerging technologies in Node.js, AI, and DevOps.

Role Requirements

Experience:

• 6+ years of proven experience in full-stack development.

Technical Skills & Knowledge:

• Frontend Expertise: Expert-level proficiency with JavaScript/TypeScript, React, and Next.js.
• Backend Development:
• Proven experience with or strong desire to master Node.js (NestJS, Express.js experience highly valued) to drive our future backend development.
• Experience with PHP (Laravel) for maintaining existing systems.
• AI/ML Integration: Practical experience integrating AI/ML models or APIs and understanding of core AI/ML concepts (e.g., LLMs).
• DevOps Practices:
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., GitLab CI, GitHub Actions).
• Experience with containerization (Docker).
• Experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Database Management: Solid experience with relational databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL) and familiarity with NoSQL databases.
• System Design: Strong understanding of RESTful API design and scalable system architecture.
• Software Engineering Principles: Adherence to clean code principles, design patterns, and testing methodologies.

Soft Skills & Attributes:

• Problem-Solving: Excellent analytical and debugging skills.
• Communication & Collaboration: Strong communication skills and a proven ability to collaborate effectively within a diverse team, providing technical guidance as needed.
• Learning Agility: A genuine, demonstrable passion for learning new technologies and adapting to change.

Preferred Skills & Qualifications (Good to Have):

• Direct experience with NestJS.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform).
• Familiarity with Kubernetes.
• Experience with modular building in Content Management Systems (CMS).

What We Offer at Ogilvy Africa (WPP Scangroup):

• Impactful Work: Opportunity to shape and build our future tech landscape, leading critical initiatives that directly contribute to making brands matter and achieving impactful results for clients across Africa.
• Growth & Learning: A supportive environment that encourages continuous learning and professional development, surrounded by extraordinary people.
• Cutting-Edge Tech: Work with and help define our future tech stack (Node.js, React, Next.js, AI, modern DevOps).
• Collaborative Culture: Be part of a diverse, inclusive, and highly collaborative team where belonging and respect are paramount.
• Wellbeing: A commitment to employee wellbeing and a balanced work life.
• Competitive Compensation: Attractive salary, health benefits package.

Company Overview 

Ogilvy Africa is the largest network agency on the continent catering to 40 countries with a team of ~900 people across Central, East and West Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi - Kenya, Ogilvy Africa manages a portfolio of over 100 brands for clients such as AB Inbev, Airtel, Africa CDC, Bill & Melinda Gates, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Distell, Equity Bank, Exxon Mobil, Kenya Airways, Mastercard Foundation, Mondelez, NCBA, Nestle, Philips, PWC, SAB Miller, Sanlam, Standard Chartered, Total, Tullow, UNICEF, Unilever, Visa, Vodafone and WWF amongst others.

We offer services across the full spectrum of marketing domains including advertising (on and offline), Customer Engagement & Commerce, Digital Transformation, Shopper Marketing, Media, PR & Influence; all under one unified setup. We’ve also created proprietary marketing products in areas such as real-time marketing, social intelligence, virtual experiences, influencer management, e-commerce enablement and content hubs. Our unique operating model, One Ogilvy, allows clients and brands to cut the complexity of agency structures and create seamless omni-channel experiences for their consumers, across touchpoints. Fuelled by the holy trinity of content, data and technology; Ogilvy Africa strives to be the best-practice agency model, for Developing & Emerging markets.

In our 20+ years in Africa, we have won the highest number of regional and global awards for the region including Cannes Lions, Clio awards, Dubai Lynx Festival, SABRE Awards (Global and Africa); to name a few.

Ogilvy is a leading global creative network of WPP. Launched by David Ogilvy over 70 years ago, it’s referred-to as the Agency of Giants, by several industry experts.

Ogilvy Africa Beliefs

• People need regular OS upgrades: Even the best OS will be obsolete tomorrow unless its constantly upgraded. Same is true for people.
• We need more cows than milk men: We are a culture of practitioners, not managers. We contribute before we comment.
• Creative about creativity: Creativity is, and will always be, our differentiator. Creativity now includes holy trinity of Data -Content -Tech.
• Diversity is a competitive advantage: New profiles, new skills, new styles of leadership make us a stronger company.
• Collaborative advantage > Competitive advantage: Find partners who are on top of their game at the skillset we need. It’s the only way to scale at the speed without pretending to have all the answers.
• Team > Individual: You get a lot more done when everyone stops worrying about who gets credit at the end. Teams Succeed, individuals fail.
• Fail often, fail fast: We see entrepreneurs in all our people and encourage a culture of pilots. Test, succeed and scale; or fail-fast learn, learn from the failure, and start something new.