Senior IA Developer

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Certified by the Top Employer Institute 2026.

Role Purpose/Business Unit:

Design, develop, test, deploy, document and support secure, scalable and reusable robotic process automation solutions that translate approved business requirements into measurable operational outcomes. The role works with process engineers, business analysts, solution architects, data and AI specialists, technology teams and business stakeholders to deliver automations across the full software development lifecycle, while applying Vodacom governance, security, quality and responsible-AI controls.

Organisational Context

The Big Data, AI & Intelligent Automation function drives the use of data, artificial intelligence and automation to create measurable business value. Its operating context includes enterprise productivity, cost optimisation, customer experience, new revenue streams, reusable agent frameworks, AI democratisation and governed delivery. The role therefore extends beyond traditional rules-based bots and supports the convergence of RPA, APIs, OCR, document understanding, workflow, data platforms and AI-enabled automation where these capabilities are approved and appropriate.

Your responsibilities will include:

Solution Design and Development

• Design and build end-to-end RPA workflows from approved process and business requirements.
• Convert process design documents, business requirements and technical designs into maintainable automation components.
• Develop reusable libraries, templates and components to reduce duplicated effort and improve cross-use-case reuse.
• Configure robust exception handling, retries, logging, queues, assets, credentials and operational alerts.
• Integrate automations with enterprise applications, databases, APIs, e-mail, SharePoint, file systems and approved cloud or AI services.
• Use UI automation, selectors and approved computer-vision techniques where APIs or stable technical interfaces are unavailable.
• Contribute technical estimates, delivery plans, dependency identification and MVP sequencing before build commitments are made.

Testing, Quality and Release

• Create and execute unit, integration, regression and negative test scenarios, including business and application exceptions.
• Perform peer code reviews and resolve quality findings before release.
• Support system testing, user acceptance testing, business validation and production-readiness reviews.
• Prepare release artefacts, deployment instructions, rollback considerations and handover documentation.
• Validate that successful robot execution also produces the intended business output, reports, notifications and downstream updates.
• Support hypercare after release and clearly distinguish hypercare results from stable production performance.

Production Support and Continuous Improvement

• Monitor automation health, investigate failed jobs and perform root-cause analysis across development, test and production environments.
• Resolve defects and production incidents in collaboration with support, application, infrastructure and business teams.
• Maintain automations when applications, authentication methods, data structures or business rules change.
• Use operational data and stakeholder feedback to improve stability, utilisation, cycle time, straight-through processing and exception rates.
• Maintain technical documentation, version history, support guides and known-error information.

Governance, Security and Responsible Automation

• Comply with Vodacom architecture, cyber-security, privacy, access-management, source-control and release-governance requirements.
• Secure credentials and sensitive configuration outside code and prevent unauthorised exposure of business or customer data.
• Ensure AI or LLM components used within an automation have the required assessments, approvals, guardrails and human checkpoints.
• Maintain traceability between requirements, Jira work items, source code, test evidence, approvals and production releases.
• Escalate design, data, access, licensing and control risks that could affect delivery or production stability.

Collaboration and Capability Building

• Work alongside business analysts and process engineers to clarify process logic, data, controls, exceptions and acceptance criteria.
• Partner with solution architects, software engineers, data scientists, AI engineers and platform teams on integrated solutions.
• Provide technical input during discovery without prescribing technology before the business problem and process are understood.
• Coach associate developers and citizen developers on development standards, solution quality and safe deployment practices.
• Demonstrate completed solutions to stakeholders and communicate technical issues in accessible business language.

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• Relevant tertiary qualification in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, Software Engineering or a related discipline.
• Hands-on experience designing, developing, testing and supporting enterprise automation solutions.
• Experience with the complete automation SDLC, including requirements clarification, technical design, development, testing, release, hypercare and support.
• Experience integrating automations with enterprise applications, databases, REST or SOAP APIs, document repositories and e-mail platforms.
• Experience diagnosing production incidents and maintaining automations across controlled environments.
• Experience working in Agile delivery teams and using source control and work-management tools.

Core competencies, knowledge, and experience:

• UiPath Studio and Orchestrator, including queues, assets, triggers, logging and exception handling.
• REFramework or equivalent enterprise automation framework patterns.
• UI automation, selectors, browser automation and computer-vision-assisted automation.
• Document and data extraction, OCR and document-understanding concepts.
• Programming and scripting capability in one or more of C#, VB.NET, Python or JavaScript.
• SQL and relational database concepts.
• API integration, JSON, XML, authentication and secure service consumption.
• Git-based source control and CI/CD concepts.
• Windows, Microsoft 365, SharePoint and enterprise application integration.
• Testing, debugging, monitoring and root-cause analysis.
• Working knowledge of cloud services and intelligent-automation patterns is advantageous.
• Analytical problem solving and attention to detail.
• Engineering discipline and quality orientation.
• Business-value focus and ability to distinguish activity from realised impact.
• Adaptability in a changing RPA, AI and agentic-automation landscape.
• Clear written and verbal communication.
• Collaboration across business and technology teams.
• Ownership, accountability and timely escalation.
• Learning agility and willingness to coach others.
• Judgement when balancing speed, control, usability and maintainability.

Preferred Certifications

• UiPath Certified Professional Automation Developer Associate or equivalent.
• UiPath Automation Developer Professional learning path or advanced developer certification.
• Microsoft Power Platform, Azure, Google Cloud or relevant DevOps certification, where aligned to the delivery environment.
• Agile, Scrum or software-testing certification is advantageous.

Key Working Relationships

• Process Engineers and Business Analysts.
• RPA Architects, Software Engineers and Automation Support teams.
• Data Scientists, AI Engineers and Data Engineers.
• Cyber Security, Privacy, Risk and Architecture governance teams.
• Business owners, subject-matter experts and Finance Business Partners.
• Platform, infrastructure, application and service-management teams.
• Citizen Developers and automation communities of practice.

We make an impact by offering:

• Enticing incentive programs and competitive benefit packages
• Retirement funds, risk benefits, and medical aid benefits
• Cell phone and data benefits, advantages fibre connection discounts, and exclusive staff discounts offered in collaboration with partner companies

Closing date for Applications: 16 October 2026. 

The base location for this role is  Midrand, Vodacom Campus. 

The company's approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.
Vodacom is committed to an organisational culture that recognises, appreciates, and values diversity & inclusion.