Agentic Engineer (Entry level)

Deloitte Africa; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 200 000 - 300 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading advisory firm in Johannesburg is seeking an entry-level Agentic Engineer who can design and manage AI systems. This role involves developing architectures for AI agents and implementing security measures. Candidates should have a bachelor's degree and a strong interest in Generative AI. Successful applicants will join a three-month training program aimed at advancing their careers in a fast-paced environment. Expect opportunities for professional growth and to make a real impact on the future of AI.

Benefits

Three-month training program

Career development opportunities

Dynamic work environment

Qualifications

• A demonstrable interest in Generative AI and Agentic AI.
• Knowledge of relevant protocols and frameworks is beneficial.
• Previous experience with AWS, Azure, and GCP is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Design and manage systems for AI agents to act autonomously.
• Develop architectures for context gathering and decision-making.
• Implement security and governance measures for AI systems.

Skills

Proficiency in Python

Excellent communication skills

Problem-solving ability

Interpersonal skills

Adaptability in change

Education

Bachelor's degree in relevant field

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

LangChain

Job description

Company Description

Deloitte is a leading global provider of audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and related services. Our global network of member firms and related entities in more than 150 countries and territories (collectively, the “Deloitte organisation”) serves four out of five Fortune Global 500® companies. Learn how Deloitte’s approximately 345,000 people make an impact that matters at www2.deloitte.com.

Deloitte is dedicated to providing value-added solutions to our clients. We take pride in our reputation for providing a globally consistent quality service, an integrated approach and world‑class expertise. Deloitte is renowned for its innovative and collaborative culture, where talented people work closely with like‑minded individuals to achieve collective success.

A career with Deloitte offers you the opportunity to engage with and work alongside leading corporations within Africa, and an opportunity to start and grow your career within a dynamic and rewarding environment. You will get the support, coaching and training needed to advance your career.

What impact will you make?

At Deloitte we have a clear purpose: to make an impact that matters to our clients, our colleagues and our communities while you thrive in a dynamic culture of inclusion, collaboration and high performance. From professional development to leadership opportunities and career advancement, we empower our people to be their very best - because that’s how you make an impact.

Why Deloitte?

At Deloitte, our professional development plan focuses on helping people at every level of their careers to identify and use their strengths to do their best work every day. From entry‑level employees to senior leaders, we believe there is always room to learn. We offer opportunities to help build world‑class skills in addition to hands‑on experience in the global, fast‑changing business world.

If you are successful in your application for this role, you will spend 3 months in an Agentic Engineering FastTrack program. This program will expose you to all the facets of Agentic Engineering and will accelerate your growth in this exciting domain. This represents a significant investment in your future and is another enticing reason to choose Deloitte.

Our purpose

Deloitte is led by a purpose: to make an impact that matters. Every day, Deloitte people are making a real impact in the places they live and work. We pride ourselves on doing not only what is good for clients, but also what is good for our people and the communities in which we live and work—always striving to be an organisation that is held up as a role model of quality, integrity, and positive change. Learn more about Deloitte’s impact on the world. #Makinganimpactthatmatters

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Job Description

An Agentic Engineer designs, builds, and manages systems where AI agents can perceive, reason, act, and learn autonomously to achieve goals. An Agentic Engineer:

• Develops architectures that define how agents gather context, make decisions, coordinate with other agents, and interact with external tools or APIs.
• Designs and builds robust runtime environments for agents, which form the foundation for the cognition process.
• Designs and implements appropriate security, observability, and governance measures to supplement the runtime environment.
• Implements reasoning and control frameworks (e.g., planning, reflection loops, evaluation pipelines) that allow agents to operate safely and intelligently.
• Optimises human‑AI workflows, ensuring agents augment human capability rather than create friction or risk.
• Monitors, debugs, and improves agent behaviour, using telemetry and evaluation signals to refine performance over time.
• Ensures safety, reliability, and alignment, establishing guardrails and governance for autonomous operations.

Qualifications

Role profile

An Agentic Engineer designs, builds, and manages systems where AI agents can perceive, reason, act, and learn autonomously to achieve goals. An Agentic Engineer:

• Develops architectures that define how agents gather context, make decisions, coordinate with other agents, and interact with external tools or APIs.
• Designs and builds robust runtime environments for agents, which form the foundation for the cognition process.
• Designs and implements appropriate security, observability, and governance measures to supplement the runtime environment.
• Implements reasoning and control frameworks (e.g., planning, reflection loops, evaluation pipelines) that allow agents to operate safely and intelligently.
• Optimises human‑AI workflows, ensuring agents augment human capability rather than create friction or risk.
• Monitors, debugs, and improves agent behaviour, using telemetry and evaluation signals to refine performance over time.
• Ensures safety, reliability and alignment, establishing guardrails and governance for autonomous operations.

Required Qualifications and Experience

This is an entry‑level position and work experience is not a pre‑requisite. The following requirements do however apply:

• A bachelor’s degree. Based on the information presented in “Agentic Engineering in the Deloitte context”, a wide variety of degrees will be considered.
• A demonstrable interest in Generative AI and Agentic AI. This interest can be demonstrated through a wide variety of means, examples of which include courses completed, certifications obtained, projects completed, articles written, books and research papers read etc.
• Building AI systems requires programming and proficiency in Python is required.
• Knowledge‑and experience of relevant protocols (e.g. MCP, ACP, A2A, ANP etc.) and platforms/frameworks (e.g. LangChain, LangGraph, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen etc.) is beneficial.
• Previous experience with‑and certifications in AWS, Azure and GCP is also beneficial. AI and Generative AI certifications are particularly valuable.
• Important behavioural traits
• General:
• Excellent English communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Effective interpersonal and relationship‑building skills.
• Adaptable, managing change and ambiguity with ease.
• Effective problem‑solving ability.
• Role specific:
• Systems thinking. You view problems as interconnected systems rather than isolated components.
• Bias for experimentation and iteration. You like to prototype, observe, gather data and refine.
• Reflective and meta‑cognitive thinking. You enjoy practising second‑order and meta‑level reasoning.
• Clarity in instruction and decomposition. You are exceptional at breaking down tasks, specifying steps, defining boundaries and writing instructions that are unambiguous but flexible.
• Curiosity and cross‑disciplinary learning. You enjoy learning in‑and connecting many domains e.g., AI and ML, distributed systems, human factors, psychology, workflow design, product thinking etc.
• Ambiguity and emergent behaviour. You are comfortable navigating uncertainty and shaping it into predictable performance.
• Builder mentality. You enjoy building, testing, and improving working systems.

Additional Information

Agentic Engineering in the Deloitte context

Agentic Engineering is the discipline of designing, building and operating AI systems that can take autonomous, goal‑directed actions rather than simply respond to prompts. It combines software engineering, orchestration frameworks, reasoning models, tools, memory, and environment design to create AI agents that can plan, decide, execute tasks, observe outcomes, and iteratively improve their behaviour.

Our Agentic Engineering practice combines a diverse range of technology capabilities and domain expertise including functional and sector specific subject‑matter knowledge and experience. Our approach to building Agentic systems is to deliver tangible business value and the constitution of our practice enables this.

This background is important in how we think about the role of an Agentic Engineer in our context. Our Agentic Engineers come from diverse backgrounds – some come from technology and engineering related backgrounds, while others have a grounding in functional domains (e.g., Finance, Actuarial Science, Risk, Supply Chain, Human Capital etc.) or sectors (e.g. Banking, Insurance, Mining, Telecommunications, Retail etc.). While our Agentic Engineers come from diverse backgrounds, what they all share is a strong technology orientation and a belief that Agentic AI will transform the world.

Note: The list of tasks / duties and responsibilities contained in this document is not necessarily exhaustive. Deloitte may ask the employee to carry out additional duties or responsibilities, which may fall reasonably within the ambit of the role profile, depending on operational requirements.

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At Deloitte, we want everyone to feel they can be themselves and thrive at work—in every country, in everything we do, every day. We aim to create a workplace where everyone is treated fairly and with respect, including reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities.

We are committed to employment equity and building a diverse and inclusive workplace across the African continent. Our recruitment processes are aligned with our Employment Equity Plan and the principles of the Employment Equity Act. Preference may be given to candidates from designated groups.

We actively support the inclusion of people with disabilities and embrace neurodiversity in the workplace. We recognise and value the unique strengths that neurodivergent individuals bring, and we are committed to creating an environment where everyone can thrive.

If you require reasonable accommodations in relation to your disability and neurodiverse needs during the recruitment process, please let us know. We are happy to make adjustments to suit your individual needs.