AI/ML Lead Engineer - Full Remote, South Africa - Up to R130,000 CTC
*Applicants must be based in South Africa*
We’re looking for a hands-on AI / ML Engineer to join a specialist engineering team delivering real-world machine learning and generative AI solutions on AWS, for an AWS Premier Tier Partner.
This is not a research or theory-heavy role. It’s about building, integrating, and shipping, taking AI workloads from early discovery through to MVPs and production-ready solutions for clients across multiple industries. They tend to work with start-ups or small to medium size businesses.
You’ll work closely with clients during technical discovery and delivery, while collaborating with experienced cloud and DevOps engineers to deploy scalable, production-grade ML and GenAI systems.
What you’ll be doing
- Owning delivery of ML and GenAI workloads from discovery through to deployment
- Designing, building, and deploying solutions using AWS SageMaker and AWS Bedrock
- Implementing GenAI workflows (prompt pipelines, embeddings, retrieval-based patterns)
- Building Python-based services and APIs to support AI workloads
- Contributing to PoCs, MVPs, and client proposals
- Working with DevOps teams on CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
- Engaging directly with technical and non-technical stakeholders during delivery
What we’re looking for
- 3+ years’ hands-on experience in applied ML, AI engineering, or software engineering with real AI exposure
- Strong Python skills with experience writing production-level code
- Practical experience delivering ML workloads using AWS SageMaker
- Hands-on experience with AWS Bedrock or similar managed GenAI platforms
- Experience deploying GenAI / LLM-based solutions into production or near-production
- Experience building and integrating APIs
- Comfortable working in cloud-native, Linux-based environments
- Confident leading technical discussions with clients
Nice to have
- Experience with OpenSearch, RDS, Step Functions, ECS/EKS
- Exposure to AWS managed AI services (Rekognition, Transcribe, Comprehend, etc.)
- Experience with Golang
- Background in consulting or client-facing delivery environments
