Senior Ai Engineer (Python, Langchain)

e-Merge IT Recruitment; Pretoria; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,100,000; Full time

Job summary

e-Merge IT Recruitment seeks a Senior AI Engineer in Pretoria to design and deliver advanced AI systems and autonomous agents. The role blends deep software engineering with AI architecture and system design, including RAG-based approaches and scalable backend services.

You will lead technical decisions, mentor teams, and collaborate with frontend groups to integrate AI capabilities across modern web applications in a hybrid work setup.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of general software engineering experience.
• Experience with LLM-based applications or AI agents.
• Proven technical leadership in delivering complex software projects.
• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related IT field.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and deploy production-grade AI systems with autonomous agents.
• Design vector search architectures with efficient indexing and retrieval.
• Lead decisions around LLM usage, context window, and cost/performance.
• Develop backend services and APIs using Python and FastAPI/Flask.
• Architect and operate cloud-native AI platforms on AWS or Azure.
• Implement containerization with Docker and Kubernetes.
• Design data architectures including PostgreSQL and NoSQL integration.
• Apply software engineering best practices like microservices and SOLID.

Skills

Software engineering

Technical leadership

System design

Mentorship

Team collaboration

Education

Degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

LangChain

Python

FastAPI/Flask

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

Azure

PostgreSQL

NoSQL

Infrastructure as Code

Job description

Senior AI Engineer (Python, LangChain) – Pretoria – up to R1mil per annum

We are looking for a Senior AI Engineer with 6+ years of software engineering experience to take a leading role in delivering advanced AI solutions. This hybrid position blends deep software engineering expertise with specialised knowledge of AI systems and software architecture.

You will be responsible for designing and building autonomous agents, sophisticated reasoning pipelines, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) solutions using LangChain and modern large-language-model frameworks. The role requires hands-on technical leadership, from solution design through to production deployment.

Responsibilities:

• Architect, build, and deploy production-grade AI systems, including autonomous agents, multi-agent workflows, and RAG-based solutions using LangChain and modern LLM frameworks.
• Design and optimize vector search architectures, implementing efficient indexing, retrieval, and relevance strategies across enterprise-scale datasets.
• Lead decisions around LLM usage, including fine-tuning versus RAG trade-offs, context window management, and inference cost, latency, and performance optimization.
• Develop and maintain high-performance backend services and APIs using Python and FastAPI/Flask, applying asynchronous patterns and scalable system design principles.
• Architect and operate cloud-native AI platforms on AWS or Azure, leveraging managed AI services, containerized workloads, and serverless components.
• Implement and manage containerization and orchestration using Docker and Kubernetes/ECS, supported by Infrastructure as Code practices.
• Design robust data architectures, including PostgreSQL schema design, query optimization, and integration with NoSQL systems where appropriate.
• Apply advanced software engineering best practices, including microservices and event-driven architectures, SOLID principles, and system design patterns.
• Collaborate with frontend teams to guide the integration of AI capabilities into modern web applications.
• Establish and enforce engineering quality standards, including testing strategies, code reviews, CI/CD pipelines, and operational reliability.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship, contributing to architectural decisions, delivery excellence, and continuous improvement across engineering teams.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related IT field
• 6+ years of general software engineering experience
• Proven experience or portfolio demonstrating LLM-based applications or AI agents
• Demonstrated technical leadership in delivering complex software projects.

The Reference Numberfor this position isNG60986which is a Permanent Hybrid position based in Pretoria offering a cost to company of up to R1mil CTC negotiable on experience and ability.