Lead AI Engineer

Location: Cape Town · Keywords: AI Jobs, Lead ML Engineer Jobs, LLM Jobs, Data Jobs, MLOps Jobs

Perks: Hybrid work, global remit, strategic impact, ownership of domains

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Who You’ll Be Joining

Picture a global consumer brand with millions of daily interactions and a digital ecosystem that stretches across continents. They’re scaling AI fast – responsibly, thoughtfully, and with a clear focus on business impact, not hype.

And that’s where you come in. They need a Lead AI Engineer who can set direction, own domains, guide others, and make sure the big, important stuff actually ships – safely, reliably, and with measurable results.

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What You’ll Be Doing

As a Lead AI Engineer, you’re the one steering the most complex, high‑impact work. You’ll still build things hands-on, but you’ll also be the person others come to for architectural decisions, delivery strategy, and coaching.

You’ll get to:

• Own one or more AI domains end-to-end (e.g., personalisation, optimisation, digital coaching – whatever your sweet spot is).
• Set the technical direction for your space: architecture, modelling approach, evaluation strategy, reliability expectations.
• Build and ship AI systems from idea all the way to production – and ensure they stay healthy once they’re there.
• Lead discovery, experiments, A/B tests, and scoping sessions, turning fuzzy business questions into a structured, prioritised roadmap.
• Work with digital, data, and commercial teams across regions to align AI efforts and make smart trade-offs.
• Build reusable templates, pipelines, APIs, and patterns that others can build on.
• Coach other engineers, guide modelling decisions, and review work to keep quality consistently high.
• Establish ways of working for your domain and influence how AI engineering operates across the organisation.
• Become a trusted technical counterpart for senior stakeholders.
• Champion safe, ethical, privacy-aware AI practices.

If you love solving hard problems, influencing strategy, mentoring others, and still getting stuck into code, this role was basically designed for you.

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Who You Are

You don’t have to tick every box – but if you’re operating at a senior/lead level in ML, data science, or software engineering, and you care deeply about building real AI products, you’re likely a great fit.

You’ll thrive if:

• You’ve spent around 10+ years building and shipping AI/ML systems (not just prototypes).
• You’ve led delivery of complex AI initiatives, including coordinating other engineers or partners.
• You’ve shaped an AI/ML roadmap before, or played a major role in one.
• Python + SQL are your everyday tools, and you write production-grade code.
• You’re comfortable making system-level decisions: architecture, latency, observability, fallbacks, governance.
• You have experience with ML frameworks (scikit-learn, XGBoost, PyTorch, TensorFlow, LightGBM).
• You know your way around LLMs, RAG, prompt design, tuning, and evaluation.
• You can review pipelines, data work, and MLOps architectures with confidence.
• You’re fluent in cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP all welcome).
• You handle ambiguity well and can shape direction for yourself and others.
• You communicate clearly and calmly with non‑technical audiences.
• You actively mentor and love raising team standards.
• You care about responsible AI, security, privacy, and long-term sustainability.
• You’re comfortable pushing back when an idea isn’t viable – and suggesting a better path.

In short: you’re a calm, capable problem-solver who knows how to lead people, technology, and outcomes.

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Why This Role Stands Out

This isn’t a “write a model and hand it off” role. You’ll influence the roadmap, shape architecture, guide other engineers, and deliver solutions used across multiple international markets.

You’ll get:

• Global scope and complex, interesting datasets
• A seat at the table in shaping AI strategy for your domain
• Ownership of big initiatives and the chance to materially impact the business
• A modern stack with room to introduce new tools and patterns
• A collaborative, low-ego team that genuinely values engineering excellence
• Support for deep dives, experiments, and staying ahead of the LLM/AI curve
• Flexibility, autonomy, and opportunities to grow into broader leadership roles

If you want to actually shape how AI works in a global organisation – not just build one-off models – this is the place to do it.

Salt is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.