Organization: Shaqodoon Organization
Duty Station: Somalia/Somaliland
Position: Senior Product & Software Engineer
Employment Type: Short-term Consultancy (2 Months, Daily Rate Basis)
Reporting To: Executive Director / Director of Programs & Innovation
Location: Somalia/Somaliland
- Background
Shaqodoon Organization is a Somali-led organization working to expand economic opportunities, strengthen employability, support entrepreneurship, and deliver innovative solutions that improve livelihoods and access to services.
As part of its continued organizational growth and digital transformation, Shaqodoon seeks to recruit a Senior Product & Software Engineer to lead the design, development, improvement, and technical delivery of digital products and software solutions.
The position will be based in Somalia/Somaliland, and will work closely with Shaqodoon’s leadership, program teams, product stakeholders, external partners, and technical service providers across the organization’s operations.
- Purpose of the Position
The Senior Product & Software Engineer will be responsible for translating business and program needs into scalable, secure, user-friendly, and sustainable digital products.
The role combines software engineering, product development, technical leadership, system architecture, and product management support. The successful candidate will take ownership of the full software development lifecycle, from understanding user needs and defining technical solutions through development, testing, deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement.
The position is expected to contribute to building technology products that can support Shaqodoon’s programs, internal operations, beneficiaries, partners, and future digital business opportunities.
- Key Responsibilities
- Product Development & Technical Leadership
• Lead the design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance of digital products and software
applications.
• Translate product requirements, business needs, and user feedback into effective technical solutions.
• Work with leadership and program teams to identify opportunities where technology can improve
organizational impact and efficiency.
• Contribute to product strategy, roadmaps, priorities, and technical feasibility assessments.
• Lead technical decision-making and recommend appropriate technologies, frameworks, platforms, and
development approaches.
• Ensure products are scalable, maintainable, secure, and cost-effective.
• Develop MVPs and prototypes to validate new product concepts and ideas.
• Continuously improve existing systems based on user feedback, performance data, and organizational
priorities. - Software Engineering
• Design and develop high-quality, scalable, and maintainable software applications.
• Develop clean, well-documented, reusable, and secure code.
• Build and maintain APIs, databases, integrations, and backend services.
• Develop responsive and user-friendly web applications and, where required, mobile solutions.
• Integrate third-party platforms, APIs, payment systems, authentication services, and other relevant
technologies.
• Conduct code reviews and establish appropriate software development standards.
• Troubleshoot technical issues and resolve software bugs and performance problems.
• Maintain appropriate technical documentation, including system architecture, APIs, deployment procedures, and user documentation. - System Architecture & Infrastructure
• Design appropriate software architecture for new and existing products.
• Assess infrastructure requirements and recommend appropriate cloud, hosting, database, and deployment
solutions.
• Implement CI/CD processes and automated deployment where appropriate.
• Establish monitoring, logging, backup, recovery, and system availability practices.
• Ensure solutions can scale as the organization’s users, data, and product requirements grow.
• Identify and address technical debt and system vulnerabilities. - Security & Data Protection
• Implement secure software development practices throughout the product lifecycle.
• Ensure appropriate access controls, authentication, authorization, encryption, and data protection
mechanisms.
• Identify and mitigate software and infrastructure security risks.
• Support compliance with applicable data protection and privacy requirements.
• Ensure sensitive organizational and user data is handled securely.
• Conduct or coordinate security testing where necessary. - Product User Experience
• Work closely with product stakeholders and users to understand their needs and challenges.
• Participate in user research, product discovery, requirements gathering, and usability testing.
• Collaborate with designers to create intuitive and accessible user experiences.
• Use user feedback and product analytics to guide continuous improvement.
• Ensure products are practical and accessible to their intended users, including users with varying levels of digital literacy. - Collaboration & Stakeholder Management
• Work collaboratively with program, operations, finance, communications, M&E, and leadership teams.
• Translate technical concepts into clear and understandable language for non-technical stakeholders.
• Manage relationships with external developers, technology vendors, consultants, and technical partners when required.
• Participate in project planning, technical meetings, product reviews, and demonstrations.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior developers or other technical personnel. - Innovation & Digital Transformation
• Identify emerging technologies and assess their potential value to Shaqodoon.
• Explore opportunities involving AI, automation, data analytics, digital platforms, and other emerging
technologies.
• Support the development of technology-enabled business models and digital services.
• Recommend opportunities to automate manual processes and improve organizational efficiency.
• Contribute to Shaqodoon’s broader digital transformation strategy. - Key Deliverables
The Senior Product & Software Engineer will be expected to deliver, as applicable:
1. Functional and scalable software products and applications.
2. Technical architecture and system designs.
3. Product roadmaps and technical implementation plans.
4. Working MVPs and prototypes for new digital products.
5. Well-tested and documented software releases.
6. APIs and third-party integrations.
7. Secure and reliable deployment and hosting environments.
8. Technical documentation and system manuals.
9. Regular product performance and technical reports.
10. Software maintenance, upgrades, and continuous improvement.
11. Technical assessments and recommendations for new technology initiatives.
12. Mentorship and technical capacity building for other team members