Senior ML Engineer
Clutch
🇿🇦 Hirezar Summary for South African Applicants
This fully remote full time position at Clutch is open to applicants from South Africa. As a remote position, you can work from anywhere in South Africa — whether you're based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, or a smaller town.
Job Description
About the Role
We're hiring a Senior ML Engineer to be the data team's owner of production ML and AI agent systems. You'll take models from prototype to production, build and maintain the low-latency ML API that powers our Next Best Action (NBA) engine, and partner with our HAL team to ship LLM agents that turn NBA recommendations into real conversations with credit union members and partners. This is a builder's role at a builder's moment: NBA is going live, the agent infrastructure is being shaped now, and you'll define how Clutch does production AI for years to come.
About the Team
The Data team today is five people: one data scientist, two data engineers, one data analyst, and one product manager. We're small, ambitious, and shipping fast - two ML models heading to production, an ML API being built, and two AI agents (one customer-facing, one partner-facing) in active development. You'll be the senior technical voice for ML and AI engineering inside the team, and the bridge to HAL, the platform team that builds Clutch's agent runtime. Expect tight feedback loops, real autonomy, and a team that values pragmatism over purity.
What You'll Do
Within 3 months, you will:
* Take ownership of the ML API that serves NBA recommendations, partnering with the data engineer who's been building it, and harden it for low-latency production traffic
Take ownership of the ML API that serves NBA recommendations, partnering with the data engineer who's been building it, and harden it for low-latency production traffic
* Ship your first agent tool contract end-to-end: schema design, handler implementation, structured-error contract, unit tests, deployed via HAL's runtime
Ship your first agent tool contract end-to-end: schema design, handler implementation, structured-error contract, unit tests, deployed via HAL's runtime
* Set up the eval foundation for our agents: golden transcripts, rubric-based judges, regression suites that run on every prompt or model change
Set up the eval foundation for our agents: golden transcripts, rubric-based judges, regression suites that run on every prompt or model change
* Build a working relationship with HAL and become the data team's go-to on agent infrastructure decisions
Build a working relationship with HAL and become the data team's go-to on agent infrastructure decisions
Within 6 months, you will:
* Be the primary owner (with data engineer support) of the ML API and the agent tool layer that wraps NBA and our ML models
Be the primary owner (with data engineer support) of the ML API and the agent tool layer that wraps NBA and our ML models
* Have shipped at least one production-grade agent (customer-facing or partner-facing) with prompt versioning, evals, observability, and multi-tenant gating in place
Have shipped at least one production-grade agent (customer-facing or partner-facing) with prompt versioning, evals, observability, and multi-tenant gating in place
* Define the data team's playbook for shipping a new ML model as an LLM-callable tool, end-to-end
Define the data team's playbook for shipping a new ML model as an LLM-callable tool, end-to-end
* Mentor the data engineers on ML/AI patterns so they can confidently support and extend the systems you own
Mentor the data engineers on ML/AI patterns so they can confidently support and extend the systems you own
Within 9 months, you will:
* Operate as the technical lead within the data team for NBA production AI at Clutch - the person other teams come to when they want to understand how NBA ships ML and agents responsibly
Operate as the technical lead within the data team for NBA production AI at Clutch - the person other teams come to when they want to understand how NBA ships ML and agents responsibly
* Have measurably improved agent cost and latency (target: 30%+ reduction on P95 latency or per-conversation cost on at least one agent)
Have measurably improved agent cost and latency (target: 30%+ reduction on P95 latency or per-conversation cost on at least one agent)
* Be shaping the data team's roadmap for the next generation of ML and AI products, in partnership with the PM and data scientist
Be shaping the data team's roadmap for the next generation of ML and AI products, in partnership with the PM and data scientist
* Help us decide what to hire next as the team scales
Help us decide what to hire next as the team scales
What You'll Bring
Required
* 7+ years of engineering experience, with a proven track record of building and shipping production ML systems - you've taken models from prototype to production and own what happens after deploy
7+ years of engineering experience, with a proven track record of building and shipping production ML systems - you've taken models from prototype to production and own what happens after deploy
* Strong Python - most of the work (ML training, evaluation, the ML API, data pipelines) is in Python, and you're comfortable in production codebases, not just notebooks. Some TypeSc
Tips for South African Applicants
Timezone Advantage
South Africa (SAST, UTC+2) overlaps well with European business hours and has a few hours of overlap with US East Coast. Mention your timezone flexibility in your application.
Salary in Context
Even without a listed salary, international remote roles typically pay 2-3x more than equivalent local positions in South Africa due to the exchange rate advantage.
Application Tips
Tailor your CV to international standards — use a clean format, highlight remote work experience, and include your English proficiency. Many SA applicants succeed by emphasising their strong work ethic and cultural adaptability.
Load Shedding Preparedness
If you're applying for a remote role, having a backup power solution (UPS, inverter, or generator) and mobile data as a backup internet connection shows employers you're prepared for South Africa's infrastructure challenges.
About Clutch
Clutch is a company in the design industry that hires remote workers from South Africa.