Senior Software Development Engineer
AnyVan|Posted 1 day ago
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Skills and experience
Location and salary
Role description
**Got Drive? **Join AnyVan as we make moving anything, anywhere miles better and build a career that moves just as fast.
Back in 2009, our CEO Angus saw half-empty vans everywhere and knew there had to be a better way! That's how AnyVan began. He set out to create the world's most efficient logistics technology and help halve the number of wasted miles by filling those empty vans.
Since then we've become the nation's favourite way to move, with over 150k five-star reviews and 5 million customers in the UK and Europe. Our team of 400 AnyVanners across London, Cape Town and Bogota is proving that moving doesn't have to cost the earth by helping save 8,520 tonnes of Carbon each year.
Build systems that move the real world
At the heart of our business is a sophisticated optimisation platform that connects customer demand with real-time driver availability, helping us deliver a world-class service at market beating prices.
By intelligently matching jobs to vans already on the road, we reduce wasted miles, cut emissions, and ensure drivers earn fairly. It’s logistics, pricing, and marketplace dynamics - all driven by software.
And we’re only just getting started......
Over the next few years, we’re evolving our platform from a strong foundation into a truly intelligent logistics marketplace.
You’ll help design and build systems that:
Model true job-level costs in real time, enabling smarter, more dynamic pricing
Deepen our driver platform, embedding into their daily workflows and unlocking new revenue opportunities
Create a two-sided marketplace, including buying and selling non-core jobs between drivers to maximise utilisation
Scale reliably, as we grow volume, complexity, and ambition
This is a role for engineers who enjoy solving ambiguous, high-impact problems and shaping how a platform evolves at scale.
How our engineering teams deliver:
We’re a product-led, agile organisation. Most teams run Scrum with two-week sprints, but we care far more about outcomes than rituals. Engineers are trusted to adapt processes, challenge assumptions, and improve how we work.
Senior engineers here are not just heads-down coders, you’ll:
Work closely with product, data, and commercial stakeholders
Influence technical direction and architectural decisions
Balance speed with long-term sustainability
Regularly ship meaningful improvements to production
We’re pragmatic and cloud-first, choosing the right tools for the problem:
Cloud: AWS
Backend: Java (Spring), Python
Frontend: JavaScript (Vue.js)
Other: TypeScript where it makes sense
Legacy: A PHP stack we’re actively migrating away from (because scale-ups are real life)
You don’t need experience in everything - we value strong fundamentals and good engineering judgement over keyword matching.
What you'll be doing:
Designing, building, and operating production-grade systems that scale
Tackling complex technical challenges across backend, infrastructure, and data flows
Writing clean, pragmatic, well-tested code with long-term maintainability in mind
Collaborating with technical and non-technical stakeholders to shape solutions
Championing testing, observability, and quality improvements
Mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar across the team
You’ll thrive here if you have:
Experience in a scale-up or fast-growing product environment
Strong backend engineering skills (Java, Python, or similar)
A solid understanding of distributed systems, scalability, and performance
Experience with CI/CD, modern deployment practices, and cloud infrastructure
Comfort working with ambiguity and evolving requirements
A bias toward action - shipping value quickly, then iterating
A collaborative mindset and the ability to influence beyond your code
Strong alignment with our values
Bonus points for exposure to marketplaces, logistics, pricing, or e-commerce systems
Location and Eligibility:
Cape Town -based, able to commute to the Central Business District
Happy to be onsite at least 3 days per week
Fully eligible to work in South Africa
What We Offer:
💰 Competitive Salary - Highly competitive salaries
🌴 Generous Time Off - 20 days +public holidays and Christmas Eve on us
💪 Health & Wellbeing - ZAR1000 pr month towards cover with Momentum/Discovery
📈 Future Ready - 5% you, 5% us
🚲 Easy Travel - Free parking or transport home after 7pm
☕ Daily Perks - In-house barista coffee, free breakfast every day
🎉 Culture & Community - Weekly drinks, fun socials, and rewards that take you places (literally - last winners hit the Alps)
🚀 Career Growth - Join a disruptive technology leader and fast forward your career move
Our company values are:
Have fun, get it done (work hard play hard, satisfaction in results, do the right thing)
Progress over perfection (Innovate and disrupt, Curious and adaptable, Work quick, learn quicker)
One team thinking big (Collaborate and communicate, Celebrate wins , Embrace challenges)
DE&I
We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse workplace where every voice is heard, every perspective is valued, and every individual has the opportunity to thrive. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds to be part of our mission and contribute to our vibrant culture
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About AnyVan
AnyVan got its start in 2009, when founder Angus discovered that 50% of vans on the road were traveling half empty. He realised that filling those empty vans would create cheaper delivery costs and it would be better for the environment.
We’re on a mission at AnyVan; we’ve shaken up the traditional logistics model to do things leaner and greener and are proud to say we’ve achieved carbon neutral status on all our transport moves and have industry leading customer Trustpilot ratings of 4.7.
We’ve done this by developing a best in class technology platform using clever algorithms, whilst still providing our customers with unparalleled levels of service.
Our Technology Team
The team is fast growing and forward thinking and plays a key role in driving business growth. Our software delivers industry leading products and services for our customers and transport partners, whilst minimising our impact on the environment.
We have a new CTO with an exciting vision to take our platform to the next level. The new scale AnyVan will be operating at will mean bigger technology challenges and a need to find ever more efficient ways for technology to support our ability to fulfill deliveries and provide seamless experiences for our transport partners and consumers. There’s no shortage of complex scale, experience, data, and logistics problems to solve that will keep our team technologically and intellectually challenged!
To help us tackle these challenges, we’re investing heavily in tech and recruiting multiple product, data, and engineering roles at all levels across our three sites in the UK, South Africa, and Hungary. The team is highly collaborative, organised as cross-functional squads with product, data engineering, data science, and software engineering working in partnership to deliver value to our customers. We run 100% in AWS, with high levels of automation and infrastructure as code and increasing usage of serverless technologies.
More About AnyVan:
We believe in the power of route optimisation and its ability to create efficiencies and cost savings, which we pass on to our customers and transport providers. All whilst helping do our bit for the planet by fulfilling more deliveries with fewer vans, driving fewer miles.
Our innovative approach means we now have 8 million users and 70,000 transport partners, across the UK and Europe, have successfully established our B2B Offering and have seen our teams grow to 280 people across the UK (mainly London & Newcastle), South Africa.
2023 saw us celebrate unprecedented growth and open our Cape Town office. We’re expecting 2024 to be just as exciting, with further expansion into Europe and increased technology investment, to help us solve more complex challenges and improve our customer offerings. We also know as we scale we’re going to have to come up with more creative ways to reduce our carbon footprint.
All of this won’t be possible without continuing to add to our fantastically talented teams. Our people really are the best thing about working at AnyVan. We’ve built a fun, collaborative culture and alongside our hyper growth and success, it keeps things exciting and dynamic. Our people have personality, ambition, passion, and purpose! We know they’re our biggest asset and that good ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. It’s why we champion empowerment, support our people to have an impact, and add value to the business through providing ongoing development and learning opportunities and open two-way communication.
Our Benefits Package:
- Competitive base salary with scope for progression
- 5% contribution towards pension fund
- 20 days holiday a year
- Opportunities for fast internal career progression based on outputs, not tenure
- In-house barista & Friday beers
- An opportunity to pilot new ideas that impact the growth and direction of the business
- The chance to work for a fast-growing disruptive technology business
Diversity and Inclusion At AnyVan we’re focused on equality. We believe that diverse teams are the best teams and foster an inclusive environment where we celebrate our differences and where our people can be their authentic selves. We believe this encourages collaboration and supports opportunities for our people and teams to deliver their best work. We encourage and welcome applications from anyone that shares this passion.
Research also tells us that imposter syndrome is real and that some applicants may not apply unless they tick every requirement. We believe in employee development and hiring for potential so if you’re not sure – take a chance, we’d love to hear from you!
We support flexible working and hybrid working wherever possible. However, we are extremely proud of our culture and believe in the many benefits that being in the office provides and all our roles require some time in one of our key offices depending on where you’re based (UK - London (Hammersmith), Newcastle, Cape Town, Szegad in Hungary.
Perks at AnyVan
Tech Stack
application and data
business tool
dev ops
