AI Engineer

Embelo; Wes-Kaap; Hybrid; ZAR 600,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Embelo is hiring an AI Engineer for a major transformation programme in a hybrid Cape Town setting. You will design, build and deploy AI agents and agentic workflows to solve real business problems, integrating with Google Cloud, Gemini and other platforms.

The role emphasizes delivering production-ready AI solutions and collaborating with stakeholders across tech and business teams. You will work with consultants and data engineers to translate complex processes into practical AI automation,

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience building AI agents and agentic workflows.
• Strong programming skills, particularly Python.
• Experience with large language models such as Gemini, Claude, OpenAI models or equivalent.
• Experience using LLM APIs and building applications around them.
• Prompt engineering and designing reliable structured interactions with LLMs.
• Tool calling / function calling and enabling agents to interact with external systems.
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), embeddings and vector search.
• API development and integration with enterprise applications and data sources.
• Designing multi-step AI workflows and orchestrating interactions between models, tools and systems.
• Understanding of AI evaluation, observability, guardrails and responsible AI principles.
• Experience moving AI solutions into production environments.
• Good software engineering practices: version control, testing and deployment.
• Confidence working with business stakeholders to translate problems into technical solutions.
• Curiosity about the evolving generative AI landscape.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and deploy AI agents and agentic workflows to solve real business problems.
• Translate redesigned business processes into practical AI and automation solutions.
• Build multi-step AI workflows that can reason, retrieve information, interact with systems and complete defined business tasks.
• Develop prototypes quickly and evolve successful concepts into production-ready solutions.
• Work with Google Cloud, Gemini and associated AI technologies within the client environment.
• Integrate generative AI solutions with enterprise applications, APIs, data sources and existing workflows.
• Explore opportunities to use Microsoft Copilot and the wider Microsoft ecosystem alongside other AI platforms.
• Implement techniques such as prompt engineering, structured outputs, tool/function calling, retrieval-augmented generation and agent orchestration.
• Evaluate the effectiveness, reliability and quality of AI-generated outputs and agent behaviour.
• Build guardrails, monitoring and human-in-the-loop controls around AI solutions.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to understand processes and transformation opportunities.
• Work with consultants, product specialists, data engineers and other teams to deliver ideas from concept to delivery.
• Experiment with emerging AI tools and frameworks to create genuine business value.
• Explain technical approaches, limitations and trade-offs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Skills

AI agents

Python

LLMs

Prompt engineering

Tool calling

RAG

Embeddings

API development

Workflow orchestration

Observability

Guardrails

Production deployment

Version control

Testing

Stakeholder communication

Job description

At Embelo, we’re dedicated to helping founders of consulting businesses start and scale efficiently. Backed by our UK-based investors and clients, we deliver exceptional client services to a growing group of UK businesses, combining technical expertise, South African spirit, and the latest in AI-powered services. One of those is Inference Group, a fast-growing data and AI consultancy on a mission to help businesses unlock their true potential and drive sustainable growth.

Role Overview

We’re looking for a hands-on AI Engineer to join a major business transformation programme for one of our UK enterprise clients. The programme is rethinking how core business processes operate and exploring how AI agents, intelligent automation and AI-enabled workflows can fundamentally improve the way work gets done.

You’ll work alongside business transformation specialists, consultants and engineers to understand existing processes, identify opportunities for AI and automation, and then design and build solutions that work in practice.

This is not primarily a traditional machine learning or model-training role. We’re looking for someone who enjoys building with modern generative AI technologies (creating agents, orchestrating workflows, integrating AI with enterprise systems and rapidly turning business problems into working solutions).

The client environment uses Google Cloud and Gemini, alongside Microsoft Copilot, although we’re open to candidates who have built agentic solutions using other platforms such as Claude, OpenAI or similar technologies.

Location: This is a hybrid role based in Cape Town, with a minimum of three days per week in our Woodstock office. Candidates looking to relocate to Cape Town are welcome to apply, although any relocation costs would need to be covered personally.

Key Responsibilities Include

• Design, build and deploy AI agents and agentic workflows to solve real business problems.
• Translate redesigned business processes into practical AI and automation solutions.
• Build multi-step AI workflows that can reason, retrieve information, interact with systems and complete defined business tasks.
• Develop prototypes quickly and evolve successful concepts into robust, production-ready solutions.
• Work with Google Cloud, Gemini and associated AI technologies within the client environment.
• Integrate generative AI solutions with enterprise applications, APIs, data sources and existing workflows.
• Explore opportunities to use Microsoft Copilot and the wider Microsoft ecosystem alongside other AI platforms.
• Implement techniques such as prompt engineering, structured outputs, tool/function calling, retrieval-augmented generation and agent orchestration.
• Evaluate the effectiveness, reliability and quality of AI-generated outputs and agent behaviour.
• Build appropriate guardrails, monitoring and human-in-the-loop controls around AI solutions.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to understand processes, pain points and opportunities for transformation.
• Work closely with consultants, product specialists, data engineers and other technical teams to take ideas from concept through to delivery.
• Experiment with emerging AI tools and frameworks and help determine where they can create genuine business value.
• Clearly explain technical approaches, limitations and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

What You Bring

We’re looking for someone who combines strong engineering fundamentals with genuine hands-on experience building with modern generative AI technologies.

You’ll ideally bring experience in some or all of the following:

• Hands-on experience building AI agents, agentic applications or AI-powered automated workflows.
• Strong programming skills, particularly Python.
• Experience working with large language models such as Gemini, Claude, OpenAI GPT models or equivalent.
• Experience using LLM APIs and building applications around them.
• Prompt engineering and designing reliable structured interactions with LLMs.
• Tool calling / function calling and enabling agents to interact with external systems.
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), embeddings and vector search.
• API development and integration with enterprise applications and data sources.
• Designing multi-step AI workflows and orchestrating interactions between models, tools and systems.
• Understanding of AI evaluation, observability, guardrails and responsible AI principles.
• Experience moving AI solutions beyond proof of concept into usable, production environments.
• Good software engineering practices, including version control, testing and deployment.
• Confidence working directly with business stakeholders and translating ambiguous business problems into technical solutions.
• An experimental mindset and genuine curiosity about the rapidly evolving generative AI landscape.

Experience with any of the following would be highly valuable but you do not need to have worked specifically with Google Cloud or Gemini if you have strong hands-on experience building agentic AI solutions using another modern AI platform. We care most about your ability to understand how agents work, build them effectively and apply them to real business problems.

• Google Agent Development Kit or other agent frameworks
• OpenAI
• LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI or similar orchestration frameworks
• Workflow automation
• Process automation or business process transformation

The Kind of Person Who Will Thrive Here

You’ll probably enjoy this role if you:

• Like turning new AI capabilities into things people can actually use.
• Are constantly experimenting with new models, tools and frameworks.
• Enjoy solving loosely defined problems rather than waiting for detailed specifications.
• Can move comfortably between understanding a business process and writing the code that improves it.
• Know that an impressive AI demo is only the beginning — reliability, integration and adoption matter too.
• Can challenge an approach when there is a simpler or more effective solution.
• Enjoy working collaboratively with clients and multidisciplinary teams.
• Are excited by the opportunity to help shape how a large organisation adopts AI at scale.

Working With Us

At Inference Group, we’re a young and fast-growing consultancy built by people who are naturally curious and passionate about lifelong learning. If you’re driven and want to help shape the early stages of a dynamic business, we’d love to have you on board. You’ll be part of a team exploring the limitless opportunities of data and AI, driving excellence, growing together, and we’ll be having plenty of fun along the way.

We’re committed to hiring future leaders who will help shape our next chapter, and we’ll invest in your growth through access to the latest technology, hands‑on experience, mentorship and ongoing training and certifications. As AI continues to evolve, we promise our clients a team of people who stay ahead of the curve, equipped with the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to deliver truly innovative solutions. Our Values are:

> We Geek Out Loud:

we excel in our data and AI domain, using our expertise to deliver solutions that realise value. We share our wisdom and experience proudly, no egos, just pure tech passion.

> We Act Boldly, and Collaborate Openly:

we explore uncharted territories, working on the new to deliver operational solutions at scale. We don’t tread over old ground. We collaborate openly with full transparency, learning from each other as a community.

> We are the Connectors:

we bridge the gaps between business value, data engineering, data science and deployment. Working seamlessly as one unified team internally and externally to deliver working solutions for our clients.

> We Empower our Customers:

we equip our clients with the skills and knowledge to fully leverage, scale and deploy data and AI solutions. We prioritise delivering operational success over prototypes and proof of concepts to provide long term value. We build trust.

> We Love our Work:

we are proud of the work we do and take ownership of it. We work on the things we love and care about, we work with passion with people we respect.

> We are Data Jedis:

we work on hard problems and aim to deliver working solutions at scale. We don’t have time for politics, backbiting, gossiping, game playing or selfish behaviour. We work as one team with a mission to deliver and we will only achieve that together.