AI Engineer

SupportFinity™; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,700,000; Full time

Job summary

iqbusiness seeks a highly skilled AI Engineer with strong data engineering foundations to design, build, and operationalise AI solutions in modern cloud environments.

This role focuses on scalable AI systems, robust data pipelines, MLOps, and AI application development, translating AI architecture into measurable business value. You will work across Azure/AWS/GCP, implement RAG, embeddings, and vector databases while ensuring governance and cost efficiency.

Qualifications

• Degree in CS, data, or engineering.
• 3+ years consulting experience.
• GenAI experience with 1–2 years.
• 7+ years in data/engineering.
• Experience deploying AI/ML and data pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Build and deploy ML models and Generative AI applications.
• Design and maintain data pipelines for ML workloads.
• Develop RAG pipelines including embeddings and indexing.
• Implement CI/CD for ML/AI and scalable inference.
• Engage stakeholders and translate requirements into solutions.

Skills

AI/ML eng

GenAI/LLM

RAG pipelines

Data pipelines

MLOps

Cloud platforms

CI/CD

Stakeholder mgmt

Business value

Communication

Knowledge graphs

Azure/AWS/GCP

Education

CS/Data/Engineering degree

Tools

Azure ML

AWS SageMaker

Containerisation

IaC

Vector DBs

Embeddings

Job description

We are seeking a highly skilled AI Engineer with strong data engineering foundations to design, build, and operationalise AI solutions within modern cloud environments. This role focuses on implementing scalable AI systems, ensuring robust data pipelines, and enabling production‑grade machine learning and Generative AI solutions. The ideal candidate combines deep technical execution capability with practical experience in data platforms, MLOps, and AI application development. This role plays a critical part in translating AI architecture into working, scalable solutions that deliver measurable business value.

Key Responsibilities

• AI & ML / Generative AI Engineering
  • Build and deploy ML models and Generative AI/LLM‑based applications.
  • Develop RAG pipelines including chunking, embedding, indexing, retrieval.
  • Implement AI‑powered automation workflows.
  • Integrate AI models into enterprise systems.
• Data Engineering for AI
  • Design and maintain data pipelines for ML workloads.
  • Prepare and manage structured and unstructured data.
  • Develop ingestion, modelling, feature engineering.
  • Ensure data quality, lineage, governance.
• MLOps & Operationalisation
  • Build CI/CD for ML/AI.
  • Manage deployment, monitoring, versioning.
  • Implement scalable inference architectures.
  • Apply Responsible AI and compliance.
• Cloud & Platform Engineering
  • Deliver AI workloads on Azure/AWS/GCP.
  • Use containerisation, serverless, APIs.
  • Apply IaC and optimise cost/performance.
• Consulting & Delivery
  • Engage stakeholders, translate requirements.
  • Contribute to discovery, design, estimation.
  • Communicate risks and trade‑offs.
  • Produce documentation and governance artefacts.

Skills & Experience

• Degree in CS/Data/Engineering.
• 3+ years consulting.
• Certifications advantageous.
• AI/LLM engineering: 1–2 years GenAI.
• 3+ years ML/AI delivery.
• RAG, embeddings, vector DBs, prompts.
• Data engineering: pipelines, SQL, modelling, lakehouse.
• 7+ years in data/engineering.
• Cloud: Azure ML, AWS Sagemaker, containerisation, CI/CD.
• Business acumen: link AI to business value, ROI.
• Soft skills: communication, collaboration, analytical.
• Microsoft Fabric, Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI.
• Knowledge graphs, integration patterns, multi‑agent.
• Advanced RAG, agent orchestration.
• MRM exposure, productising AI solutions.

Success Measures

• Production‑grade AI solutions deployed.
• Scalable data/AI pipelines established.
• Contribution to revenue and pre‑sales.
• Reduced time‑to‑production.
• Mentorship and capability uplift.

As all iqbusiness roles require honesty in the handling of or access to cash, finances, financial systems, or confidential information; our recruitment process requires that the following background checks be completed: credit, criminal, ID, and qualification verification.