Head of Technology

About African Safari Group

African Safari Group is a luxury inbound safari travel company, connecting high-net-worth clients form the UK, EU, USA, Australia and New Zealand with world-class safari experiences across South, Southern and Eastern Africa.

We operate a custom-built CRM (Blaze), a suite of high-traffic destination websites, and an active AI and automation development programme. Technology is central to our growth strategy - we're building net generation booking infrastructure, AI agents, and data platforms that will shape how luxury travel is sold in Africa.

The Role

This is a rate dual-mandate role. You will lead out technology function - setting direction, making architecture decisions, an managing vendors and partners, while also being hands-on in the work.

With a lean team of two today, you can't just direct: you need to build, troubleshoot, solve problems and ship alongside your team.

You'll own everything from our custom CRM and server infrastructure to our AI and data projects. You'll be the person the CEO turns to when a new platform initiative needs scoping, a production issue needs diagnosing, or a technology investment needs a recommendation.

What you'll own

• Blaze CRM - our custom built .Net/SQL CRM used by 100+ staff daily. Own its architecture, stability, enhancements and long-term roadmap.
• Websites & servers - 20+ WordPress sites across multiple cloud servers (Cloudways, DigitalOcean and Linode). Own performance, uptime, infrastructure and security.
• AI & Automation - lead active projects involving AI agents, data extraction, crawling and workflow automation using technologies such as OpenClaw, Claude and Python.
• Rates & booking engine - oversee our PostgreSQL-backend rates extraction and quoting platform currently in active development.
• Technology governance - establish standards across Node.js, PHP, Python, PostgreSQL, Cloudflare, Cady, systemd and related technologies, and ensure they are consistently applied.
• Team leadership - manage, mentor and grow a small but capable technology team, while identifying future hiring requirements as the function scales.
• Technology strategy - translate business requirements into practical technology solutions and ensure our systems can scale with ASG's growth.

Must-have

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering or systems architecture, with at least 3 years in a leadership role.
• Strong hands-on full-stack or backend development capability (PHP, Python, Node.js or equivalent)
• Proven experience managing Linux serves and cloud infrastructure (DigitalOcean, Linode or similar).
• Strong database expertise particularly with PostgreSQL, and/or SQL Server.
• A proven track record of leading small, high-output engineering teams.
• The ability to operate strategically while remaining technically hands-on.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently in a fast-moving environment.
• Comfortable working directly with the CEO- structures thinker, commercially minded and clear communicator.

Strong Advantage

• Experience with AI/LLM integration, AI agents, automation or data pipelines
• Experience with WordPress or headless CMS environment at scale.
• .NET or Windows Server experience, particularly in relation to our Blaze CRM environment
• Experience with booking engines, travel technology, hospitality or other transaction-heavy platforms.
• Experience taking technology products or platforms from development through to production.
• Experience working in an environment where technology is a core part of business growth, rather than simply an internal support function.

What wont work

• Pure strategists who haven't coded or worked hands on with technology in years
• People who need a large team to be effective. We're looking for someone who can personally solve problems and build alongside the team.
• Candidates who need everything fully defines. You should be comfortable identifying problems, proposing solutions and taking ownership from the idea through implementation.
• Technology leaders ho operate in isolation. This role requires close collaboration with the CEO and the wider business.

What you'll get

• A sear at the leadership table with direct access to the CEO.
• Genuine ownership of ASG's technology function and roadmap.
• The opportunity to share a technology environment that is actively being built and scaled.
• A front-row seat to how AI and automation are reshaping the luxury travel industry.
• Significant autonomy to make architectural and technology decisions.
• A clear path towards CTO as the technology function and business continue to scale.
• A competitive package, discussed with shortlisted candidates.