Software Engineer (Machine Learning)

Techrepo.co.za; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,350,000; Full time

Job summary

Sanlam in South Africa seeks an experienced software engineer to own end-to-end ML/data products from concept to production. You will design and implement scalable systems, including ML pipelines and data workflows, while writing robust, well-tested code.

The role requires independence, leadership, and mentoring of junior engineers, with strong collaboration across Product, Design, and Engineering teams to ensure delivery aligns with business needs.

Qualifications

• Degree or diploma in Computer Science, IT or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Typically 5+ years of software engineering experience.
• Proficient in multiple programming languages with strong problem solving.
• Experience with distributed systems, APIs, databases and scalable architecture.
• Exposure to ML frameworks such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch.
• Understanding of cloud services (AWS) and container-based infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Take full ownership of new features and ML/data products from concept to production.
• Design and implement moderately complex systems, including ML pipelines and data workflows.
• Write robust, well-tested code and participate in code reviews.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to team practices and standards.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, and Engineering to understand business context.

Job description

Job Description

About the Role

Sanlam was established as a life insurance company in South Africa but has since transformed into a diversified financial services group that operates across the African continent, India, Malaysia and selected developed markets, with listings on the Johannesburg, A2X and Namibian Securities Stock exchanges. In 2018 the Group celebrated its centenary as well as 20 years since demutualisation and listing in South Africa and Namibia. Sanlam is one of the largest internationally active insurance groups in the world with a presence in 27 countries and has the biggest non-banking financial services footprint on the African continent.

Responsibilities

• Take full ownership of new features and ML/data products, delivering them from concept to production independently.
• Work independently to create solutions without constant direction or supervision.
• Design and implement moderately complex systems, including ML pipelines and data workflows, with understanding of trade-offs.
• Solve problems in any part of the codebase, including data and ML components, demonstrating breadth of technical capability.
• Balance feature delivery with long-term code quality and technical considerations.
• Proactively identify and address small pieces of technical debt within work scope.
• Focus on operational and code excellence during code reviews and feature development.
• Contribute to coding standards and ensure code efficiency and reusability.
• Write robust, well-tested code that meets team quality standards.
• Participate actively in code reviews, providing constructive feedback to peers.
• Apply understanding of design principles and software engineering best practices.
• Work with multiple frameworks and explore libraries as needed for solutions, including ML frameworks such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow, or PyTorch.
• Apply understanding of the ML model lifecycle: training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Design and maintain data pipeline orchestration and workflow management.
• Apply data versioning, feature stores, and ML metadata management practices.
• Build and maintain model serving patterns and APIs for ML systems.
• Articulate the pros and cons of relevant data structures and algorithms for time and space complexity, including trade-offs as scope evolves.
• Participate actively in on-call rotations and handle incidents effectively.
• Implement robust monitoring, logging, and alerting for owned features, services, and ML systems.
• Respond to production issues promptly and elevate appropriately when necessary.
• Contribute to incident postmortems and help prevent recurrence of issues.
• Understand operational practices - scalability, robustness, fault tolerance, load balancing, and health checking - and apply them to ensure system and model reliability.
• Work effectively with Product Management and Design teams to understand business context and requirements and shape solutions.
• Effectively collaborate with engineering team members to bring out the best in others.
• Communicate complex technical ideas clearly and facilitate team discussions.
• Participate in technical discussions and contribute to team decision-making.
• Proactively improve the team's development, testing, and operational practices.
• Begin mentoring junior engineers and provide constructive feedback.
• Take ownership of tasks and demonstrate leadership in feature delivery.
• Demonstrate growing influence beyond individual tasks to impact the broader team.
• Start scaling through others by guiding team members and delivering through them.
• Relevant degree or diploma in Computer Science, IT, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Typically 5+ years of software engineering experience.
• Proficient in multiple programming languages with understanding of language-specific best practices.
• Comfortable with complex algorithms and optimised data structures.
• Experience with distributed systems, APIs, databases, and scalable architecture.
• Understanding of cloud-based infrastructure and operational practices (monitoring, metrics, fault tolerance).
• Exposure to ML frameworks (scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar).
• Knowledge of cloud services such as AWS VPC, Auto Scaling, serverless computing, storage (EBS, S3), containers, and DNS is preferred, though not a prerequisite.
• Independent Contribution: Proven ability to work independently on moderately complex problems, make sound technical decisions, and deliver complete features and ML/data solutions without constant supervision.
• Problem-solving Skills: Efficient at debugging and troubleshooting moderately complex issues across code and data/ML systems. Can analyse problems systematically and develop effective solutions with minimal guidance.
• Collaboration & Communication: Strong communication skills to facilitate team discussions, work effectively across functions, and explain technical concepts clearly. Builds positive working relationships with Product, Design, and Engineering colleagues.
• Business Awareness: Understanding of business context and how technical and ML work supports product goals. Aware of business model and contributes to product decisions with technical perspective.
• Mentorship Capability: Beginning to develop coaching skills through mentoring junior engineers. Provides constructive feedback during code reviews and helps others grow their capabilities.
• We're all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future - your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping our employees to realise their worth. Through its five business clusters - Sanlam Fintech, Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Allianz, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office - the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.
• The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.