What the job is

This is a contract position for an AI Data Engineer specializing in Claude Code, offered by E-Merge IT Recruitment. The role is fully remote and based in Johannesburg, Gauteng. You will work on advanced data systems, AI integrations, and automation solutions for modern production environments.

What you will do

You will design and build scalable data pipelines that handle both batch and near-real-time processing. Your tasks will include ingesting and processing data from various sources like APIs, databases, files, event streams, and web scraping. You will develop and maintain large-scale data acquisition systems and clean, validate, and transform data for analytics and AI use. Additionally, you will create AI-powered workflows and agentic systems using tools like Claude Code, structured outputs, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and API integrations. You will also support data lake, warehouse, and lakehouse architectures, and implement monitoring, observability, and data quality controls.

What you need

You must have strong experience with Python and/or Node.js/TypeScript, as well as advanced SQL and relational database skills. Experience building production-grade data pipelines and working with cloud platforms like AWS is required. You should have hands-on experience with data lakes, warehouses, or lakehouse technologies, and practical knowledge of LLM platforms such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Claude Code. Familiarity with scraping frameworks like Playwright, Puppeteer, Scrapy, or Selenium is also needed. A strong understanding of APIs, containers, CI/CD, testing, and secure engineering practices is essential.

What you will get

This is a contract role offering a salary of up to R650 per hour, negotiable based on your experience. The position is fully remote, allowing you to work from anywhere. You will have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI and data engineering projects with a focus on innovation and scalability.