Hands-on AI Principal Engineer: Build Platforms & Tools

Rank Group; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 1,500,000 - 2,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Rank Group in Cape Town seeks a Principal Engineer to shape AI-powered software delivery. You’ll stay hands-on, writing production code while guiding technical direction, architecture and tooling at scale.

Work across Java, .NET, React and Flutter to build platforms, guardrails and telemetry, mentoring senior engineers and influencing practices without direct management. This is a high-impact role in a regulated, high-volume environment.

Qualifications

• Significant software engineering experience at senior levels.
• Hands-on capability across multiple tech stacks (Java, .NET, React or Flutter).
• Experience with cloud-native architectures, AWS and CI/CD pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Design and build AI-enabled tooling and workflows for software engineering.
• Develop prototypes and production solutions to boost productivity and quality.
• Create reusable patterns across Java, .NET, React and Flutter stacks.
• Shape technical standards for AI-generated code in collaboration with Architecture and Security.
• Build telemetry to measure AI impact on delivery and quality.
• Evaluate new AI models and developer tools against real engineering challenges.
• Mentor senior engineers and provide technical leadership across teams.

Skills

Java

NET

React

Flutter

Tools

AWS

Job description

Rank Group in Cape Town seeks a Principal Engineer to shape AI-powered software delivery. You’ll stay hands-on, writing production code while guiding technical direction, architecture and tooling at scale.

Work across Java, .NET, React and Flutter to build platforms, guardrails and telemetry, mentoring senior engineers and influencing practices without direct management. This is a high-impact role in a regulated, high-volume environment.