AI/ML Lead Engineer - South Africa - Full Remote

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