AI Engineer

Centrax Group; Sandton; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

21 days annual leave

Job summary

Centrax Digital is an AI-first consultancy based in Bryanston, Sandton, delivering production AI systems for clients. You will bridge experimentation, engineering and operation of AI in production, owning safety, performance and measurability of shipped solutions.

You will design, deploy and operate AI workloads in production using LLMs, vector databases and CAIF framework, ensuring robust monitoring, evaluation and cost control. Hybrid working with standard hours applies.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/Math or related field.
• Minimum 3 years' professional software engineering experience.
• At least one production AI application shipped with measurable outcomes.
• Proficiency in Python and LLM frameworks.
• Experience operating AI workloads: containers, CI/CD, monitoring.
• An AI, ML or cloud AI certification is an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Design and build production-grade AI applications using LLM frameworks, vector databases and the CAIF reference architecture.
• Implement retrieval-augmented generation pipelines: chunking, embedding, indexing, retrieval, ranking, generation and citation.
• Build and maintain evaluation frameworks: golden datasets, regression suites, online evaluation and human review.
• Engineer for safety: prompt injection defence, output filtering, sensitive data redaction and escalation paths.
• Deploy and operate AI workloads in production, including monitoring, drift detection and incident response.
• Triage and improve underperforming AI capabilities through prompt, retrieval and model tuning.
• Contribute reusable components, prompts and evaluation kits to the AI Practice Library.
• Support client thought leadership and pre-sales on AI engagements.

Skills

Python programming

LLM frameworks

Vector databases

CI/CD for AI workloads

Monitoring and incident response

Cost control for AI workloads

Hybrid search / RAG

Production AI experience

Safety and security focus

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or related quantitative field

Master's in CS, ML or AI (advantage)

Tools

Azure AI Engineer

AWS ML Specialty

GCP ML Engineer

Job description

You build the production AI systems Centrax Digital ships to clients, and you are accountable for how safely and how well they perform.

ABOUT CENTRAX DIGITAL

Centrax Digital is an AI-first consulting and digital engineering firm operating from Bryanston, Sandton and Grand Prairie, Texas. We are a Level 1 B-BBEE, black woman-owned Advanced Zoho Partner. Our work spans AI and advisory, platforms, cloud and security, and digital engineering, delivered on our own published methodology. Because Innovation Matters.

THE ROLE

To design, build, deploy and operate production AI systems for Centrax Digital clients on CAIF-5, the Centrax AI delivery framework. You bridge experimentation, engineering and operation of AI in production, and you own the safety, performance and measurability of what you ship.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Design and build production-grade AI applications using LLM frameworks, vector databases and the CAIF reference architecture.
• Implement retrieval-augmented generation pipelines: chunking, embedding, indexing, retrieval, ranking, generation and citation.
• Build and maintain evaluation frameworks: golden datasets, regression suites, online evaluation and human review.
• Engineer for safety: prompt injection defence, output filtering, sensitive data redaction and escalation paths.
• Deploy and operate AI workloads in production, including monitoring, drift detection and incident response.
• Triage and improve underperforming AI capabilities through prompt, retrieval and model tuning.
• Contribute reusable components, prompts and evaluation kits to the AI Practice Library.
• Support client thought leadership and pre-sales on AI engagements.

WHAT YOU NEED

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or a related quantitative field. A Master's in CS, ML or AI is an advantage.
• Minimum 3 years' professional software engineering experience.
• At least one production AI application shipped, with measurable outcomes, and hands-on experience with LLMs in production rather than prototypes only.
• Professional Python, with working knowledge of LLM frameworks, vector databases, hybrid search and evaluation methods such as RAGAS or LLM-as-judge.
• Experience operating AI workloads: containers, CI/CD, monitoring and cost control.
• An AI, ML or cloud AI certification (for example Azure AI Engineer, AWS ML Specialty or GCP ML Engineer) is an advantage. A visible technical portfolio or open-source contribution is an advantage.

WHERE THE BOUNDARIES SIT

Solution architecture for AI workloads sits with the AI Solutions Architect. AI strategy, business cases and client AI governance sit with the AI Strategy Consultant. The wider client solution landscape sits with the Solution Architect.

HOW THIS ROLE EVOLVES

Centrax is concurrently advertising an AI Solutions Architect and a Lead / Principal AI Strategy Consultant. Progression from this role runs through Senior AI Engineer to Principal AI Engineer, with a path to AI Practice Lead.

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

Standard working hours of 08:00 to 17:00, Monday to Friday, with flexibility expected around AI deployment windows and incident response. Hybrid working in line with company policy. Standby duty may apply when AI capabilities run in production. Standard 21 days annual leave and BCEA leave entitlements apply.

REMUNERATION

Market related, commensurate with experience.

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY AND POPIA

Centrax Digital is an equal opportunity employer. Appointments are made in line with the Employment Equity Act and the company's employment equity plan, and preference may be given to suitably qualified candidates from designated groups. By applying, you consent to the processing of your personal information for recruitment purposes in accordance with POPIA.