Associate AI Process Engineer

Who are we?
Sanlam Life and Savings (SLS) is focused on serving our retail and corporate clients in South Africa and further developing our strategic advantages in the South African market. Sanlam Life and Savings consists of the following business units Retail Mass, Corporate, Risk and Savings, Glacier and various business enabling functions. The Sanlam Life and Savings Office provides strategic direction, coordination and support to the four clusters, as well as performing governance oversight that includes assurance provided by second line of defense functions in SLS, to enable us to meet our business objectives.

Role Description
As an Associate Process AI Engineer, you will be positioned within a specialized squad in the AI Solutions teams focused on leveraging cutting-edge tools and technology in the cloud to deliver value to the business. The Associate Process AI Engineer supports the design, development, and deployment of intelligent process and generative AI solutions that enhance automation, decision-making, and efficiency across Sanlam. This role provides hands-on exposure to building, integrating, and maintaining AI-driven systems within a modern cloud environment, contributing to Sanlam's broader digital transformation strategy.

You will be expected to have a "start-up" mentality where you will need to be proactive and work independently to learn and implement state-of-the-art technologies. You will collaborate closely with AI Engineers, Data Engineers, Data Scientists, and Architects to productionize and scale solutions that are integrated in Sanlam business processes and technological infrastructure.

This role requires the ability to solve complex ill-structured problems through extensive research on latest trends in the world of AI and Automation as well as empathetic engagement with stakeholders and users to ensure solutions meet business needs.

This is a fantastic opportunity to gain hands-on experience and grow your skills in a dynamic data centric environment at the forefront of AI.

What will you do?

• AI & Automation Development
• Develop and maintain components of AI-driven automation solutions using tools such as AWS Lambda, Step Functions, Textract, Comprehend, and Bedrock.
• Assist in developing intelligent document processing, workflow automation, and conversational agent solutions.
• Support the building and integration of RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems and LLM-based applications.
• Use frameworks like LangChain, Bedrock Agents, Strands, or Crewai to orchestrate multi-step agentic workflows.
• Integrate external APIs and internal systems into multi-agent ecosystems that perform context-aware actions
• Data Engineering & Integration
• Work with structured and unstructured data from internal and external sources (e.g., Snowflake, SAP HANA, SharePoint, Confluence).
• Implement ETL/ELT workflows and data ingestion pipelines using AWS Glue, dbt, or Python-based frameworks.
• Ensure data quality, lineage, and traceability across AI pipelines.
• Model Deployment & MLOps (light)
• Support model versioning, deployment, and monitoring pipelines.
• Learn to work with CI/CD tools and contribute to the team's MLOps maturity.
• Collaborate with data scientists to integrate models into production systems and evaluate performance.
• Collaboration & Experimentation
• Participate in the design and experimentation of generative AI use cases (e.g., underwriting assistants, document summarization, knowledge base chatbots).
• Work closely with cross-functional teams (Data Science, Actuarial, Engineering, and Business).
• Document work, share learnings, and contribute to knowledge repositories.
• Research and Development
• Proactive approach to continuous learning by staying updated with the latest trends and advancements in machine learning, AI, and integration frameworks to further develop and grow professionally.

What will make you successful in this role?
Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics or a related field.
• Experience with programming languages such as Python, R, SQL; experience with Java is a plus.
• Basic understanding of databases and how to query them.
• Knowledge and understanding of LLMs, embeddings, RAG, agentic reasoning, and tool-use patterns.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).
• Knowledge of big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark) is a plus.
• Familiarity with machine learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn).
• Familiarity with APIs, JSON, REST, and integration patterns
• Familiarity with parallelization frameworks such as Dask, Ray is a plus.
• Basic understanding of hyper-parameter tuning frameworks.
• Familiarity with version control systems (e.g., Git).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a keen attention to detail.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. – Being able to comfortably present and articulate deliverables to internal members of the team and external technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team-oriented environment.

Personal Attributes
Interpersonal savvy - Contributing independently

Decision quality - Contributing independently

Optimises work processes - Contributing independently

Plans and aligns - Contributing independently

Build a successful career with us
We're all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future – your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping our employees to realise their worth. Through its five business clusters – Sanlam Fintech, Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Allianz, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office – the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.

Core Competencies
Being resilient - Contributing independently

Collaborates - Contributing independently

Cultivates innovation - Contributing independently

Customer focus - Contributing independently

Drives results - Contributing independently

Turnaround time
The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.

Closing date: 17 October 2025
Our commitment to transformation
The Sanlam Group is committed to achieving transformation and embraces diversity. This commitment is what drives us to achieve a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace as we believe that these are key components to ensuring a thriving and sustainable business in South Africa. The Group's Employment Equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the selection process.