AI Engineer

Sabenza IT & Recruitment; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900 000 - 1 200 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading IT recruitment firm in Johannesburg is seeking a highly skilled AI Engineer to design, build, and deploy scalable AI and Machine Learning solutions. The role requires a minimum of 5 years of professional experience, with at least 2 years dedicated to AI/ML. Candidates should have a strong programming background in Python and familiarity with modern AI and LLM frameworks. Join a dynamic team to solve complex business challenges and help ensure the reliability and efficiency of AI systems.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years professional experience in software development.
• At least 2 years of experience in AI and Machine Learning.
• Experience in Generative AI is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement end-to-end AI/ML pipelines.
• Build and optimise Generative AI applications.
• Implement MLOps best practices.
• Collaborate with data scientists for technical solutions.
• Ensure data quality and governance.

Skills

Python programming mastery

OOP and design patterns

Asynchronous programming

Experience with LangChain and LLM frameworks

Strong understanding of RAG

Knowledge of MLflow

Experience with MLOps practices

Git and CI/CD tools

Familiarity with Kafka and AWS services

Tools

AWS SageMaker

Databricks

Job description

Overview

Johannesburg, South Africa | Posted on 15/01/2026

We are seeking a highly skilled AI Engineer to join our team. In this role, you will design, build, and deploy scalable AI and Machine Learning solutions. You will work across Data Engineering, DevOps, and Machine Learning disciplines to deliver robust Generative AI and traditional ML solutions. You will apply modern frameworks and cloud services to solve complex business challenges, ensuring AI systems are reliable, efficient, and secure.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement end-to-end AI/ML pipelines from data ingestion to deployment and monitoring
• Build and optimise Generative AI applications using RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures and LLM frameworks
• Implement MLOps best practices for model lifecycle management, versioning, and automated deployment
• Collaborate with data scientists and stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions
• Ensure data quality, governance, and security across all AI and data platforms

Requirements

• Minimum of 5 years professional experience
• At least 2 years in AI/ML
• At least 1 year in Generative AI is highly desirable

Skills and Experience

Core skills, tools, and frameworks

• Programming mastery: Expert-level Python, strong OOP, design patterns, and asynchronous programming
• AI & LLM frameworks: Experience with LangChain, Langflow, AutoGen, agent development, and LLM orchestration
• Strong understanding of RAG, vector search (Pinecone, Chroma, Milvus), and advanced prompt engineering
• MLflow, feature stores, and model serving (TFServing, TorchServe, KServe)

Version control & CI/CD

• Git workflows, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps

Orchestration

• Data governance: Unity Catalog, lineage, access control, and security

Streaming

• Kafka, AWS Kinesis, Spark Structured Streaming
• Amazon S3
• AWS IAM
• VPC and networking concepts
• Amazon Bedrock
• Amazon SageMaker
• Amazon Kinesis
• ARM templates / Bicep
• VNETs, Private Endpoints, Managed Identities, Key Vault
• Mosaic AI
• MLflow
• Unity Catalog
• Databricks Jobs, Workflows, DLT
• SparkSQL and PySpark optimisation
• Databricks CLI and REST API automation

Certifications (nice to have)

• NVIDIA Certified Associate: AI in the Data Center or similar
• DeepLearning.AI Generative AI and LLM specialisations

AWS

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

Databricks

• Databricks-related certifications or demonstratedexperience with Databricks platform