AI Engineer; Intermediate

Closing Date: 2026/03/13
Reference Number: AGO
251214-2

Job Title:

AI Engineer (Intermediate)
Entity: AGGPA
Department:
Information Technology

Employment Type:

Fixed-term Contract

Location:

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

The Intermediate AI Engineer focuses on hands‑on implementation: building features, wiring up APIs, running experiments, and maintaining AI‑enabled tools. They work closely with the Senior Cloud Engineer to turn AI use cases into working solutions and help scale pilots into reliable tools that support teams across AGGP. This role provides cost‑effective delivery capacity, increases the number of AI pilots that can be run per year and helps build AI proficiency among internal AI Builders.

• Implementation & Prototyping
  • Build and iterate on AI‑powered workflows, assistants and internal tools aligned to priority use cases (program support, grantmaking support, knowledge retrieval, reporting, internal productivity).
  • Implement backend services, scripts or integrations needed for AI pilots and MVPs.
  • Collaborate with the Senior Cloud Engineer on technical design and code reviews.
• Experimentation & Evaluation
  • Design and run experiments on prompts, models and UX flows (prompt variants, model comparisons, temperature settings).
  • Log, visualise and document experiment results in a reproducible and understandable way.
  • Support the development of standard evaluation processes for AI tools (quality checks, safety checks).
• Data & Integration Work
  • Assist with data preparation for AI tools, including small‑scale ETL tasks, preprocessing and cleaning.
  • Integrate AI components with existing systems and APIs, in collaboration with Group IT and data teams.
• Maintenance, Support & Continuous Improvement
  • Help keep AI tools and pilots running smoothly: monitor health, fix bugs and address performance issues.
  • Respond to user feedback, triage issues and implement improvements that enhance usability and reliability.
  • Ensure code, configs and documentation are kept up‑to‑date.
• Documentation, Knowledge Sharing & Training Support
  • Maintain clear technical documentation, READMEs and “how‑to” guides for AI tools.
  • Support AI training and enablement by preparing demos or simple examples, especially for AI Builders and Champions.
  • Contribute to internal forums such as AI Lunch & Learns and hackathons.
• Compliance & Responsible Use
  • Follow AI and data policies (data classification, acceptable use, tool approval processes).
  • Flag potential risks or issues to the Senior Cloud Engineer and Head of AI Strategy & Enablement.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering or a related field; or equivalent practical experience.

• 3–5 years of software development, data engineering or related experience.
• Demonstrated experience building small applications, scripts or integrations that solve real user problems.
• Experience with AI/ML or LLMs (e.g. using APIs such as OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic) is strongly preferred.
• Experience in nonprofit, education or social impact environments is an advantage but not required.

• Technical Proficiency
  • Comfortable with at least one general‑purpose programming language (Python, JavaScript/Type Script).
  • Familiarity with calling APIs, handling JSON, and working with SDKs for AI/LLM providers.
  • Basic understanding of cloud services (Azure and/or AWS), especially serverless functions, storage and identity.
  • Experience with version control (Git) and basic CI/CD pipelines.
  • SQL and/or basic data transformation skills are a plus.
• Behavioural Competencies and Technical Skills
  • Curious, proactive learner with a strong interest in AI and its responsible application.
  • Practical, delivery‑focused and comfortable iterating based on feedback.
  • Collaborative and open to pairing with Senior Cloud Engineer, AI Builders and domain experts.
  • Able to communicate clearly with non‑technical colleagues about tool capabilities and limitations.
  • Values AGGP’s mission and ethics, particularly fairness, transparency and responsible use of data and AI.