Lead AI Engineer

Recruiter:

A 1L Realization (Pty) Ltd

Job Ref:

JHB001011/Tshid

Date posted:

Thursday, July 9, 2026

Location:

Johannesburg, South Africa

SUMMARY:
Our client in the telecommunications sector is looking for a Lead AI Engineer on a contract duration of 6 months.

1. Role Purpose

Lead the technical design, engineering standards, architecture and delivery of enterprise-grade AI solutions across Group Fintech. This role acts as the technical authority for LLM applications, RAG, agentic AI, AI orchestration, model evaluation, responsible AI engineering and production readiness for priority AI use cases.

2. Business Justification for the Role

This is a new strategic role required to move AI from experimentation into repeatable, secure and production-grade delivery. The organization requires a senior technical leader who can translate AI strategy into buildable architecture, guide engineers, reduce dependency on external vendors, accelerate delivery of priority use cases and ensure solutions are safe, governed, measurable and scalable.

POSITION INFO:
Deliverables Expected in the First 6-12 Months Establish clear delivery patterns and reusable assets for priority AI use cases. Support at least two to four high-priority MVPs\/pilots moving from discovery into controlled pilot or production readiness. Create documentation, reusable code, deployment patterns, evaluation methods and operational practices that reduce future delivery effort. Demonstrate measurable improvements in delivery speed, automation, user productivity, AI quality, operational efficiency or cost avoidance. Build credibility with business stakeholders by delivering practical, secure and usable AI solutions rather than conceptual prototypes. 7. Technical Skills and Capabilities Python, TypeScript and API-first software engineering Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, Azure Functions, Azure App Service and Azure DevOps\/GitHub Actions LLM application development using OpenAI, Claude, open-source models and model gateways RAG architectures using vector databases, embeddings, search indexing and knowledge ingestion pipelines Agentic frameworks such as LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen or equivalent Backend engineering with FastAPI, Node.js, NestJS or similar Secure enterprise integration patterns, REST APIs, OAuth, RBAC and secrets management Evaluation frameworks for LLM quality, regression testing, cost, latency and safety Prompt engineering, system prompt governance and prompt lifecycle management Observability, logging, monitoring and production support for AI systems 8. Required Qualifications and Experience 8+ years in software engineering, solution architecture, AI engineering or platform engineering. 3+ years hands-on experience building production AI, ML, automation, data or advanced digital platforms. Demonstrated experience leading technical teams or acting as technical authority across complex initiatives. Experience delivering enterprise applications in regulated or large corporate environments. Experience with cloud platforms, preferably Microsoft Azure. Experience designing secure integrations with internal enterprise systems and APIs. 9. Preferred Qualifications and Experience Experience in financial services, fintech, telecoms, digital channels or payments. Microsoft Azure AI Engineer Associate, Azure Solutions Architect, Azure Developer or equivalent certifications. Experience with voice AI, IVR automation, contact centre AI or conversational AI. Experience with MLOps\/LLMOps, model evaluation and AI governance frameworks. Exposure to data privacy, POPIA\/GDPR, information security and responsible AI controls. Please note only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. If you have not heard from us in 2 weeks, please consider your application unsuccessful.

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