What we do

Bag Learning is an AI study platform for South African university students. A student uploads their own lecture material (slides, PDFs, notes, recordings) and Bag turns it into notes, flashcards, quizzes, mock exams and cheat sheets in their own study style. Zazi, our AI tutor, answers questions from that student’s material alone, in the app and over WhatsApp. Students buy Bag themselves, and bursary providers and student residences buy it for the students they support.

Why work for us

We are a lean team by design, and this role is the one developer who owns the whole platform, from the app students use to the AI pipeline underneath it. The technical decisions are yours, made directly with the founders, and what you ship reaches students within days. The role carries equity, because the person in it is building the company as much as the product.

The engineer we want is at the front of AI, both in how they build and in what they build. They keep up as the tools change, and they can show us software they have shipped and owned. If you would rather own something than work on a slice of someone else’s system, and you learn fastest when the problem is yours, this seat is for you.

Our culture

We are delusional optimists. We believe a lean team can change how South African students learn, and we work as if that is already decided. Everyone here is constantly learning, from students, from the data, from each other and from tools that change month to month, and nobody is expected to arrive knowing it all. Input is welcome from anyone on any part of the business, and debate is how we make decisions. If you disagree, we want the argument, made well and made early. AI runs through how we work, and it is the reason a team our size can aim this high.

Our engineering process

You own the whole platform: a React and TypeScript student app, a Python and FastAPI API, the AI pipeline underneath it, and our internal tools. We release weekly, often faster. AI-assisted development is the default here, with Claude Code a first-class part of the workflow, and you review, test and own everything that reaches production. Infrastructure cost is a design constraint, and the product has to work on the phones and connections our students actually have.

Our hiring process

Four stages: an introductory call, a technical interview, a technical assessment, and a final interview with the founders. Bring your usual AI tools to the technical stages. We expect you to use them and to explain how. There is no minimum number of years and no required degree, and work you have built and shipped counts for far more than a CV.