AI Solution Architect
IQbusiness South Africa
Johannesburg, Gauteng
Sales roles range from in-store assistants and promoters to field reps and consultants, often paying commission on top of a basic salary.
This listing does not state a salary. As a guide, sales roles in South Africa typically pay R6 000 to R25 000 a month (indicative).
Job description
We are recruiting an AI Solutions Architect to lead the design and delivery of enterprise-grade AI and Generative AI solutions across cloud platforms, with a strong emphasis on production deployment, business value and consulting-led delivery.
This role sits at the intersection of:
- Solution architecture (end-to-end systems design)
- AI engineering (capability awareness, not hands-on build ownership)
- Consulting (client engagement, commercial alignment, pre-sales)
The successful candidate will translate complex business problems into scalable AI architectures, lead multidisciplinary teams, and ensure AI solutions are aligned to enterprise systems, governance, and measurable outcomes.
Role Context & Positioning:
- Senior member of the AI & Data capability working across multiple client engagements
- Acts as the bridge between AI engineering, architecture, and business stakeholders
- Owns solution design, architecture governance and delivery oversight
- Plays a key role in pre-sales, client shaping, and capability development
Responsibilities:
AI Solution Architecture & Design
- Lead the design of end-to-end AI architectures across data, application and integration layers
- Design solutions spanning:
- Generative AI (LLMs, RAG, agents)
- Document intelligence and automation
- Enterprise AI platforms and APIs
- Define:
- Data flow, integration patterns, and system architecture
- Retrieval, orchestration and agent interaction patterns
- Security, governance and deployment architectures
Client Advisory & Solution Shaping
- Lead discovery workshops and use case definition sessions
- Translate business problems into AI-enabled solutions and architecture blueprints
- Advise clients on:
- AI adoption roadmaps
- Architecture approaches (build vs buy vs hybrid)
- Trade-offs, risks, and ROI
Delivery Leadership
Own architecture across delivery lifecycle: Discovery design build oversight deployment* + optimisation
- Guide engineering teams on:
- Architecture decisions
- Design patterns and best practice
- Ensure:
- Production-grade delivery
- Alignment to enterprise systems and constraints
Cloud AI Architecture
- Architect solutions across at least one hyperscaler (Azure preferred), including:
- Azure OpenAI, AI Foundry, AI Search, Document Intelligence
- Equivalent AWS (Bedrock) or GCP (Vertex AI) services
- Define:
- Deployment patterns (APIs, microservices, serverless)
- Integration into enterprise ecosystems
- Security, networking and governance models
Data & AI Platform Design
- Design data foundations required for AI:
- Data pipelines, ingestion patterns, storage and modelling
- Vector databases, embeddings and retrieval strategies
- Ensure:
- Data quality, lineage, and governance alignment
- AI-readiness of enterprise data platforms
Pre-Sales & Commercial Contribution
- Support and lead:
- Solution design for proposals and RFPs
- Estimation, costing and effort modelling
- Contribute to:
- Client pitches and demos
- Opportunity shaping and deal conversion
Capability Building & Thought Leadership
- Develop:
- Reference architectures and reusable solution patterns
- Mentor:
- Engineers and consultants
- Contribute to:
- Internal capability development and AI maturity
Requirements
Consulting & Leadership
- 7–12+ years in technology, data or solution architecture
- 3–5+ years in consulting / client-facing architecture roles
- Proven experience:
- Leading AI or data engagements
- Managing multidisciplinary teams
- Engaging senior stakeholders and executives
AI & Generative AI
- Practical experience designing solutions involving:
- LLMs and Generative AI applications
- RAG architectures and retrieval systems
- AI agents / orchestration patterns
- Strong understanding of:
- Prompting, evaluation and guardrails
- Enterprise AI use cases and limitations
Solution Architecture
- Strong experience designing:
- Distributed systems and microservice architectures
- API-driven integrations
- Enterprise-scale cloud solutions
- Ability to clearly articulate architecture decisions and trade-offs
Cloud (At least one CSP, Azure preferred)
- Azure (preferred): OpenAI, AI Foundry, Synapse, Data Lake, App Services
- AWS: Bedrock, Lambda, S3
- GCP: Vertex AI, Cloud Run
Data & AI Platform Understanding
- Strong grounding in:
- Data engineering concepts (pipelines, modelling, lakehouse)
- AI system data flows (embeddings, chunking, indexing)
- Experience designing AI-ready data ecosystems
Business & Communication
- Ability to:
- Translate technical designs into business outcomes
- Communicate with C-suite and architecture boards
- Strong commercial acumen and delivery mindset
Please Note:
As all iqbusiness roles require honesty in the handling of or access to cash, finances, financial systems, or confidential information; our recruitment process requires that the following background checks be completed: credit, criminal, ID, and qualification verification
iqbusiness is committed to sustainable growth and transformation, we embrace diversity and employ previously disadvantaged individuals
Good to know
What does this sales job pay?
This listing does not state a salary. As a guide, sales roles in South Africa typically pay R6 000 to R25 000 a month (indicative).
Do I need experience for sales jobs in Johannesburg?
This sales role may ask for some experience or a relevant qualification. Read the listing for the specifics before you apply.
How do I apply for this job?
Tap "Apply on Indeed" to open the original listing, where you can read the full description and apply directly. JobsZA never charges you to apply, and you should never pay money to get a job.
Found on Indeed · Posted 5 days ago
More sales and similar jobs in Johannesburg
Confidential
R15K - R15K/mo