Senior AI Engineer

PlaceTalent Pty; Gauteng; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

PlaceTalent Pty is seeking a seasoned software engineer to build and deploy production-ready LLM-based solutions. You will craft reliable workflows, integrate AI services with internal systems, and implement robust data processing and security practices.

Applicants should have strong Python skills, hands-on experience with AI provider SDKs, Docker, and CI/CD, and a track record of delivering scalable AI-enabled applications in enterprise environments.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, including hands-on LLM deployments.
• Strong Python skills with typing and modern tooling.
• Experience with AI provider SDKs and structured outputs.

Responsibilities

• Build reliable workflows with structured outputs, tool calling and routing.
• Design and deploy agentic AI systems across provider ecosystems.
• Develop document and knowledge-processing solutions for diverse data sources.

Skills

Python

LLM deployment

AI provider SDKs

Docker

CI/CD

Data pipelines

SQL

Parquet

Pydantic

Security for LLMs

Tools

pytest

Parquet

Pydantic

Job description

Minimum Requirements

• Build reliable workflows using structured outputs, tool calling, routing, budget controls and human approval when required.
• Design and deploy agentic AI systems using leading model providers, including Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, Google Vertex AI and open-source models.
• Develop document and knowledge-processing solutions for PDFs, scans, spreadsheets and internal documentation, including extraction, validation, search and citation capabilities.
• Integrate AI solutions with company systems such as email, shared drives, CRM, ERP, internal databases and external APIs.
• Transform prototypes into reliable production services using containerisation, CI/CD, logging, monitoring and operational runbooks.
• Develop and maintain evaluation frameworks, reference datasets, regression tests and quality metrics for AI systems.
• Monitor model usage, token consumption, cost and performance, implementing alerts when quality or expenditure deviates from expected levels.
• Apply security-by-design principles, including least-privilege access, secure secrets management, prompt-injection protections and appropriate data governance.
• Ensure AI solutions are developed in line with relevant data protection and AI regulations, including GDPR and the EU AI Act.
• Partner with business teams to identify and assess automation opportunities, determining when to use traditional software, AI solutions or alternative approaches.
• Develop reusable libraries, templates and internal AI guidelines.
• Provide support and practical training to colleagues using AI tools.
• Document technical decisions and maintain agreed interfaces, schemas and architecture standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Minimum 7 years of software engineering experience, including hands-on experience deploying LLM-based solutions used in production environments.
• Strong Python skills, including typing, Pydantic, testing frameworks such as pytest and modern dependency management tools.
• Direct experience working with AI provider SDKs and concepts such as structured outputs, tool calling, prompt caching and token management.
• Strong understanding of AI evaluation methodologies, quality measurement and regression testing.
• Experience with Docker, CI/CD, cloud infrastructure, logging and monitoring.
• Strong data engineering fundamentals, including SQL, APIs, schema management, data pipelines and formats such as Parquet.
• Experience managing AI systems with defined cost and resource constraints.
• Strong understanding of security considerations for LLM-based systems and responsible tool access.
• Ability to communicate technical limitations and recommendations clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Professional English for technical documentation, code and communication.