{"id":2950474,"url":"https://alion.io/job/network-finance-ai-product-engineering-lead-role","title":"AI Product Engineering Lead Role","company":{"id":3827505,"name":"Network Finance","domain":"networkfinanceinternational.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/network-finance","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":true,"employer_type":"agency","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":"jobmail.co.za","ats_vendor":null,"truth_index":{"grade":"C","score":58,"open_postings":587,"ghost_share":0.591,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0.756,"time_to_fill_p50_days":7,"computed_at":"2026-11-06T05:58:05Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["South Africa"],"countries":["ZA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":45000,"max_usd":112000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":1286},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"ASP.NET Core","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"C#","optional":false},{"name":"Function Calling","optional":false},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","optional":false},{"name":"OpenAI","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-20T19:52:49Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-20T19:52:49Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":16,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":16},"description":"About the opportunityThe platform is already live and being used by customers. As the product continues to scale, the AI Product Engineering Lead will be responsible for driving the next phase of growth by developing dependable intelligence that helps users:\nExecute work more effectively\nManage operational processes\nDesign and optimise workflows\nAccess organisational knowledge at scale\nImprove decision-making and productivity\nThis is a hands-on leadership role. You'll remain close to the technology, writing code, validating solutions, diagnosing AI behaviour, and delivering production-ready improvements while providing strategic direction for the product's AI capabilities.Key responsibilities\nAI Product Ownership\nDefine and drive the product's AI vision and roadmap alongside Product Owners.\nTake accountability for delivering AI capabilities from concept through deployment and adoption.\nEnsure assistance, automation, organisational knowledge, and learning capabilities work together to achieve meaningful product outcomes.\nEstablish best practices, standards, and patterns that raise the AI capability of the wider engineering team.\nBusiness Process & Product ThinkingUnderstand how organisations operate and identify opportunities where AI can create measurable value.\nDesign intelligent experiences that improve operational outcomes rather than simply adding AI features.\nWork directly with stakeholders to understand decision-making, accountability, exceptions, and business processes.\nDetermine when AI should assist, automate, or remain in the background.\nApplied AI EngineeringAnalyse and improve AI performance by identifying issues relating to context, data, tooling, prompts, or process design.\nBuild, test, and deploy enhancements within Azure-based .NET services.\nOwn quality, evaluation, testing, behavioural controls, and continuous improvement processes.\nImplement solutions using Microsoft AI technologies, Azure AI services, and modern agent frameworks.\nKnowledge & Learning SystemsEnable secure and scalable access to organisational knowledge, policies, procedures, decisions, and operational history.\nDevelop approaches that retrieve relevant experience, analyse outcomes, incorporate expert feedback, and drive continuous improvement.\nEvaluate when retrieval, product design, or model training is the most effective solution.\nWhat We're Looking For\nEssential Experience\nStrong commercial experience with C# and .NET (ASP.NET Core).\nProven experience building and deploying AI-powered applications in production environments.\nHands-on experience with:\nAzure OpenAI\nAzure AI Foundry\nMicrosoft AI SDKs\nTool and function calling\nAgent-based architectures\nModel Context Protocol (MCP)\nExperience evaluating, testing, and improving AI systems for reliability and performance.\nStrong understanding of data, knowledge management, governance, and permissions models.\nTechnical ExpertiseExperience designing intelligent, production-grade AI solutions rather than proof-of-concept demonstrations.\nKnowledge of multi-agent or agent-to-agent architectures.\nExperience implementing governed and secure tool access patterns.\nFamiliarity with event-driven architectures and messaging platforms.\nComfortable working within API-first product environments.\nLeadership & Product SkillsAbility to connect technical decisions with product outcomes and customer value.\nExperience partnering closely with Product Owners and cross-functional teams.\nStrong decision-making skills with ownership of end-to-end delivery.\nAbility to mentor, review, and elevate engineering standards across a growing team.\nPersonal AttributesHands-on and delivery-focused.\nStrong communicator capable of explaining AI concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.\nCommercially minded with excellent problem-solving skills.\nComfortable working in a fast-paced, scaling product environment.\nPassionate about emerging AI technologies while maintaining a practical, outcome-driven approach.\nWhy Join?Take ownership of AI strategy within a live and growing product.\nWork at the forefront of Microsoft's AI ecosystem.\nInfluence product direction and technical standards.\nCollaborate with a talented, ambitious team.\nMake a direct impact on how organisations use AI to improve work and operations.\nEnjoy the opportunity to shape a product at a pivotal stage of growth.\n Don’t miss out, apply today!*ONLY South African ID holders who are currently located in South Africa will be considered.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4474,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"South Africa","iso":"ZA","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Recruiting & Staffing","Executive Search"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-20T19:52:49Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":9,"band":"cold","label":"Long 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