Cape Town: AI Operations & Strategy Engineer posted by DataFin Recruitment

ENVIRONMENT:

An award-winning marketing technology agency based in Century City is seeking a highly skilled, strategically minded AI Operations & Strategy Engineer to join its senior engineering team, reporting directly to the CTO and Technical Lead. In this pivotal role, you will serve as the custodian of the companys AI and LLM strategydriving organisation-wide adoption, optimising infrastructure and costs, ensuring ethical and reliable outputs, and shaping the roadmap for future AI-powered products. Youll thrive in a fast-paced Agile environment with one-week sprints and bi-weekly retrospectives, where your expertise in AI systems, automation, and applied machine learning will directly influence business KPIs and OKRs. This is a role for someone who can bridge strategy and execution and elevate how the organisation thinks about and leverages AI at scale.

DUTIES:

AI Governance & Prompt Management Design and maintain a centralised prompt repository; manage version control; refine prompts for performance, brand alignment, and consistency.
AI Cost Management (AI FinOps) Monitor token usage, model selection, and cloud AI costs; optimise for ROI across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, AWS, and other providers.
Evaluation Frameworks & Assurance Implement and enforce evaluation metrics (incl. RAG-specific metrics, HITL validation) to ensure accuracy, fairness, and reliability of AI outputs.
Internal AI Enablement & Support Train, guide, and support teams on responsible usage of integrated AI tools; act as internal AI champion.
AI Strategic Roadmap Contribution Research, prototype, and recommend new models, features, and integrations; contribute to technical specifications and strategic product evolution.
Documentation & Knowledge Sharing Produce high-quality documentation covering AI frameworks, prompt guidelines, best practices, and governance processes.
Cross-Functional Collaboration Participate in standups, sprint ceremonies, and engineering discussions; provide expertise for ethical and effective AI deployment.

REQUIREMENTS:

Experience & Qualifications
5+ years experience as a Business Intelligence Analyst, AI Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, or similar LLM-focused role.
Strong English language proficiency.
Authorised to work in South Africa (permanent resident status).
Must be able to work remotely (South Africa-based).

Must-Have Skills
Prompt Engineering
Machine Learning
OpenAI API
Anthropic Claude API
Gemini Developer API
RAG Engineering
HumanAI Collaboration

Nice-to-Have Skills
Python
Amazon SageMaker
Google Vertex AI
MLOps and cloud AI services
Bias Detection & Mitigation
Git and version control
Knowledge of ethical AI frameworks

Additional Requirements
Strong problem-solving skills and proactive mindset.
Ability to work within a senior engineering team and contribute to high-impact AI operations.
Excellent documentation, communication, and cross-functional support capabilities.

ATTRIBUTES:

• Strategic thinker with a strong ability to align AI initiatives with business objectives.
  Highly analytical with attention to accuracy, fairness, and ethical AI outputs.
  Strong ownership mindset with an ability to independently drive initiatives.
  Collaborative, supportive, and able to mentor others on AI adoption.
  Adaptable and continuously learning in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.
  Detail-oriented, organised, and committed to high-quality governance and documentation.