Job Purpose

We are seeking a Senior AI engineering specialist with deep expertise in designing and scaling hyperscale cloud systems and advanced AI platforms. This role requires a strong foundation in distributed systems, machine learning, statistics, and big data ecosystems, combined with hands-on experience across modern AI frameworks and programming languages.

The successful candidate will play a critical role in architecting, deploying, and optimising AI systems powered by both small language models (SLMs) and large language models (LLMs), ensuring the right models and infrastructure are applied to each use case for optimal performance, scalability, and cost efficiency.

Job Responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable AI systems leveraging SLMs and LLMs embedding responsible AI.
• Select appropriate models based on use case, performance, and cost constraints, optimising value versus investment (FinOps for AI).
• Develop end-to-end architectures from data ingestion through to inference and monitoring.
• Architect solutions across cloud and on-premise environments using Kubernetes and modern cloud platforms.
• Optimise compute utilisation across CPU and GPU environments, including CUDA-based acceleration.
• Build and integrate pipelines using Apache Spark, Databricks, Kafka, PrestoDB, and Hadoop ecosystem tools.
• Enable secure, governed, and scalable access to enterprise data.
• Oversee model lifecycle management including deployment and monitoring.
• Act as a subject matter expert and guide stakeholders on AI capabilities and opportunities.

Critical Skills

• Strong experience in distributed systems and hyperscale architectures.
• Deep knowledge of machine learning, statistics, and AI system design.
• Proficiency in Python, C++, Java, Go, Rust (R advantageous).
• Experience with GPU computing and CUDA optimisation.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs/SLMs and AI frameworks.
• Expertise in Kubernetes and cloud-native architectures.
• Experience with big data platforms such as Spark, Databricks, Kafka, PrestoDB, Hadoop.
• Strong communication skills and ability to translate technical concepts to business value

Preferred Qualification

Honours or Masters Degree (or higher) in either Information Systems or Computer Science

Preferred Certifications

TOGAF Certification, Information Technology Architect Certification (ITAC) (Open Group)

Minimum Experience Level

5+ Years experience in developing strategic IT plans/roadmaps and

10 Years in System design and development

Technical / Professional Knowledge

Behavioural Competencies