AI ENGINEERING LEAD

This is a rare opportunity for an AI ENGINEERING LEAD to design, build, and scale end-to-end AI solutions for one of the world's most recognisable Wellness & HealthTech brands, used by > 1 million consumers across South Africa, the UK, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, and Qatar.Based in CAPE TOWN, this AI ENGINEERING LEAD role offers a salary of R2.3m – R2.6m.If you're a senior, hands-on AI engineer who thrives at the intersection of software engineering, machine learning, quantitative analytics, and product innovation, this is where you'll lead high-impact AI initiatives from idea to global production.WHY THIS ROLE IS EXCEPTIONAL:Greenfields global AI function with full executive support.Multi-country scale: your systems will operate across 7 markets.High ownership: lead entire domains such as CRM/personalisation, operations optimisation, or digital coaching.Massive data and real consumer impact: shape how millions engage, and interact digitally.Hands-on technical leadership: architect, build, mentor, and set engineering standards for the group.THE COMPANY:This globally recognised brand is a HealthTech & Wellness company that blends smart technology and world-class facilities into transformative wellbeing experiences. They are a next-generation HealthTech brand using intelligent tools, digital platforms, and science-backed training environments to optimise how people move, recover, and live.Their digital innovation journey is in full-swing, and now at the point where AI INNOVATION will result in an even better experience for their >1 million consumers.THE ROLE:As the Lead AI Engineer, you will drive the design, build, and delivery of production-grade AI systems end-to-end. You'll own complex problem spaces, shape the AI roadmap for your domain, and lead engineers and data scientists through discovery, experimentation, deployment, and scaling.You will work closely with teams across Marketing, Digital, Operations, Finance, and Legal to turn real-world problems into reliable, measurable, and safe AI-powered products.This role blends technical depth, architectural thinking, product sense, and cross-functional leadership.WHAT YOU WILL LEAD & BUILD:End-to-end AI systems powering personalisation, churn prediction, lead scoring, digital coaching, operational optimisation, RAG-based assistants, and more.Production-grade ML & LLM solutions using classical ML, forecasting, uplift modelling, and generative AI.AI services & APIs that integrate into digital journeys and operational tools across multiple countries.Experimentation & measurement: A/B tests, offline/online evaluation strategies, model acceptance criteria.MLOps & reliability: monitoring, drift detection, retraining, guardrails, and global-scale performance.Technical direction: mentoring engineers, reviewing designs, defining patterns, templates, playbooks, and raising engineering standards.REQUIRED SKILLS:8–10+ years in applied ML, data science, ML engineering, or software engineering with heavy AI/ML responsibility.Proven ability to ship end-to-end production AI systems, not just prototypes.Experience leading technical delivery and mentoring engineers/data scientists.Strong background in customer analytics, personalisation, marketing optimisation, conversational AI, or operations optimisation.Expert Python and SQL with solid system design skills.Hands-on experience with scikit-learn, XGBoost, PyTorch, TensorFlow, LightGBM, and modern LLM/GenAI techniques (prompt engineering, RAG, evaluation frameworks).Familiar with MLOps, registries, experiment tracking, CI/CD, monitoring, and cloud platforms (Azure ideal).Ability to turn ambiguity into structured plans, influence senior stakeholders, and communicate risks, trade-offs, and model limits clearly.Deep appreciation for privacy, governance, and responsible AI.WHAT YOUR FIRST 180 DAYS LOOK LIKE:Lead 2-3 priority AI initiatives from design to pilot.Ship at least one AI service or model into production with monitoring in place.Establish domain-specific ways of working, patterns, and templates.Deliver measurable uplift in marketing, operations, or digital engagement.Build reusable AI components that accelerate delivery across the group.If you want to lead the next wave of AI innovation for a global HealthTech brand - building real systems used by millions - this is the role where you'll do the most meaningful and high-impact work of your career.