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Senior Software Architect


Do you want to do work that is impactful? Do you want to help improve the lives of some of the most hardworking people in Africa, while also reducing carbon emissions? Do you want to use your skills to advance Africa towards a zero-carbon future, not just to make a living? Ampersand is your answer.

About Ampersand

Headquartered in Kigali in Rwanda, Ampersand is achieving the world’s first true mass-market shift to electric vehicles [1], a vital tipping point in the fight against climate change, through providing electric motorcycles to moto taxis drivers in East Africa. Our electric motorcycles offer savings that can double a driver’s income [2], in addition to reducing carbon emissions by more than 75%. Converting just one petrol motorbike to electric is the equivalent of the carbon captured by 128 trees. 

We have successfully piloted an electric motorcycle and battery swap network in Kigali, with motorcycles in daily operation for two years and nearly 2 million km traveled. We have successfully raised $4M in venture capital. We are and are ready to further develop and scale up our tech and scale our operations. This is where you come in. The team has grown from a tiny, bootstrapped R&D garage project into East Africa's leading electric vehicle operation, with a team of 59 staff drawn from diverse backgrounds. We are rapidly scaling our operations [3], and we are looking for innovative professionals who are passionate about clean energy and environmental impact to lead and contribute to our rapid growth.

About the role

Ampersand manages a fleet of batteries that our moto drivers change at one of our many Swap Stations. Optimizing this flow or energy is key to ensuring the efficiency of our charge infrastructure and the ultimate cost savings for our customers.

The Senior Software Architect will support our mission by overseeing the development of the AmperOps platform, our digital toolkit for the management of drivers, vehicles, and batteries. We are looking for someone with the range and experience to build large distributed systems and is not afraid to dive deep to assist with debugging or coding.

This role will report directly to the CTO and will manage a small team of Jr. developers and support team members. In this role, you will hold the following responsibilities:

  • Help to shape Ampersand’s digital products.
  • Gain a deep understanding of our client’s stories to distill their needs into applications and features.
  • Setup the software dev cycle from development, to testing, to deployment. Choose what tools we use for CI, log management, and overall devops.
  • Bring together and mentor a new team of Junior Software Engineers and Data Scientist.
  • Shape the data back-end of Ampersand to allow for and business intelligence to be easily extracted.
  • Harness machine learning as a way of optimizing Ampersands charging and battery infrastructure.
  • Tracking and understanding the data layers within the battery, vehicle telematics and backend.
  • Lead and review devops of the digital portfolio (android app and AmperOps platform).
  • Coordinate with other engineering teams to ensure synergy between hardware and software products.

Minimum requirements

  • Minimum of 6 years of prior experience in Software Development and large team management 
  • Degree in computer science/ electrical engineering is a bonus, but the experience is also valued
  • Technical abilities with Linux, Bash, VM’s, Docker, Networks, Distributed systems
  • Experience with time series and transactional data
  • A strong work ethic, and the ability to manage shifting priorities and unforeseen challenges  
  • Strong communication skills with a supportive and nurturing disposition
  • (Bonus) Experience in a start-up environment

Timing 

The deadline for applications is August 12th, 2021

Compensation

A competitive compensation package commensurate with international market rates and experience including health insurance, an annual flight allowance and relocation support.


  1. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-22/east-africa-s-electric-motorbikes-are-fueling-a-carbon-free-future
  2. https://www.fastcompany.com/90460273/this-electric-motorcycle-startup-is-transforming-the-rwandan-taxi-industry
  3. https://f66ed5c1-d920-4ad3-9c37-a0f039a551a4.filesusr.com/ugd/c06c2a_63679bae01d94f838b78d233d8363f29.pdf

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