Overview
AI Data Engineer Jobs in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa at 1Digit
Title: AI Data Engineer
Company: 1Digit
Location: Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa
AI / Data EngineerAbout 1Digit
1Digit is an architecture and engineering firm specialising in AI and data solutions for enterprise clients.
We help organisations move beyond one-off AI models and slide decks by building the robust data architectures, governance frameworks and secure platforms required for real-world AI adoption.
Our work includes AI readiness assessments, smart data platforms and production-ready AI products with embedded guardrails, model governance and security from the outset. We work through fixed scopes, transparent pricing and milestone-based delivery, partnering closely with clients to deliver practical, scalable solutions.
The Role
We are looking for an AI / Data Engineer to design and deliver data platforms, pipelines and AI-enabled solutions for our clients.
This is a hands-on consulting and delivery role for someone who can take ownership of ambiguous client problems, shape a practical technical approach and deliver robust solutions across data engineering, data architecture and AI innovation.
You will work closely with 1Digit colleagues, client stakeholders and external technical teams to acquire, structure, transform and expose data through analytics, applications, APIs and AI-enabled experiences.
Key Responsibilities
- Own client data and AI engineering delivery from discovery and design through implementation, testing and deployment.
- Work with client stakeholders to understand business problems, clarify requirements and translate them into practical technical solutions.
- Design and build ingestion pipelines from APIs, third-party systems, files, online sources and operational platforms.
- Develop scalable warehouse and transformation layers that convert raw data into trusted, reusable data products.
- Apply strong data architecture, modelling, quality, lineage, observability and governance practices.
- Identify and implement opportunities for AI, automation, retrieval and agent-based workflows within client solutions.
- Build or support APIs, data-access layers and application integrations for analytics, software products and AI experiences.
- Contribute reusable technical patterns, documentation and engineering standards across 1Digit.
What We Are Looking For
You take ownership of outcomes and are comfortable working through ambiguity. You ask the right questions, identify gaps and help clients move from a business problem to a practical, scalable solution.
You have a strong interest in AI and understand how LLMs, retrieval, agents and automation can improve data collection, enrichment, research, decision support and operational workflows.
You bring solid hands-on experience in modern data engineering and cloud warehousing. You understand ingestion patterns, pipeline orchestration, data modelling, transformation layers, quality controls, monitoring, lineage, performance and security.
You are comfortable with concepts such as API integration, batch and event-driven pipelines, raw/staging/curated data layers, dimensional modelling, historical data management, data marts, transformation testing and deployment practices. Experience with dbt or a similar transformation framework is expected.
You work well in a collaborative consulting environment, communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, and are comfortable sharing ideas, challenging assumptions and working closely with client teams.
Experience and Skills
We are looking for someone with approximately 5–10 years of relevant experience in data engineering, analytics engineering, data platform delivery or related technical consulting roles.
You should have practical experience across several of the following areas:
- Modern cloud data warehouses such as Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks or Synapse.
- SQL, data modelling and transformation frameworks such as dbt.
- Cloud platforms including AWS, Azure or GCP.
- API integration, external data ingestion and pipeline orchestration.
- Data quality, monitoring, observability and governance practices.
- Software engineering practices including Git, automated testing and CI/CD.
- Building data products for analytics, reporting, APIs or software applications.
Experience with AI orchestration frameworks, LLM tool calling, retrieval workflows, vector search, agent-based systems or related AI technologies would be advantageous.
Success in the Role
Success in this role means delivering reliable, scalable and commercially useful data and AI solutions for 1Digit clients.
- You will combine strong engineering discipline with practical client problem-solving: understanding the real need, designing the right solution, delivering it effectively and helping clients derive measurable value from their data.