Lead ai engineer
Summary
Lead AI Engineer builds and scales production-grade AI systems for a fintech client, including RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, and voice/IVR automation while mentoring teams and enforcing security/governance standards.
This is a 6 month contract role with our client in the Fintech Space. Lead AI Engineer, you will serve as the absolute technical authority for production‑grade AI solutions across our Fintech ecosystem. This is a strategic, high‑impact engineering leadership position where you will translate AI strategy into buildable, scalable architecture, moving enterprise AI from isolated pilots into secure, daily production.
Key Responsibilities AI Engineering Leadership: Set the gold standard for enterprise AI code quality, architecture patterns, API design, and observability while mentoring Full Stack AI and automation engineers. Solution Architecture & Delivery: Own the end‑to‑end technical design and deployment of high‑visibility MVPs, including voice/IVR automation, finance bots, automated testing tools, and internal knowledge copilots. Advanced RAG & Agentic Design: Architect bulletproof Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) structures and agentic workflows embedded with guardrails, evaluation frameworks, and human‑in‑the‑loop controls. Model Orchestration: Define enterprise patterns for when to deploy cloud platforms (Azure AI Foundry, Azure Open AI), commercial models (Claude), or open‑source solutions using frameworks like Lang Graph, Semantic Kernel, or Copilot Studio. Security & Governance: Partner with Cybersecurity and Risk teams to safeguard against prompt injection and data leakage, ensuring strict alignment with data privacy laws (POPIA/GDPR). Requirements 8+ years in software engineering, solution architecture, or platform engineering. 3+ years of direct, hands‑on experience building and shipping production‑grade AI, automation, or advanced data platforms. Proven track record acting as a technical authority within large corporate or regulated environments. Deep proficiency in cloud platforms (preferably Microsoft Azure) and API‑first engineering using Python or Type Script (Fast API, Node.js, Nest JS). Hands‑on experience with vector databases, agentic frameworks (Lang Graph, Auto Gen), and LLM evaluation metrics (latency, cost, and hallucination tracking). Preferred Bonus Skills Experience in financial services, fintech, telecommunications, or digital payment channels. Relevant certifications (Microsoft Azure AI Engineer Associate, Azure Solutions Architect). Exposure to voice AI, conversational IVR, or MLOps/LLMOps governance frameworks.