Python/Spark/AI Developer Full Time

A company that runs a privacy-preserving data collaboration platform is seeking a AI Developer who will replatform legacy T-SQL systems onto modern Spark/Delta Lake pipelines, build robust FastAPI services around them, and integrate AI features.

Responsibilities:

• Data Engineering: Replatform T-SQL into Spark SQL and build production PySpark pipelines on Delta Lake.

• API Development: Build secure, idempotent FastAPI services with robust job-status semantics and authentication.

• Quality & Validation: Write type-hinted, tested Python (pytest) with CI gates; validate migrated pipelines against legacy systems with parity evidence.

• Spec-First Delivery: Work autonomously from design docs and ADRs, keeping documentation current alongside code changes.

Minimum Requirements:

• Experience: 4+ years in professional Python development, with 2+ years building production Spark/distributed data pipelines.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

• Certifications: Databricks Certified Developer for Apache Spark (or equivalent) is advantageous.

• Python (3.12+): Modern idiomatic Python, strict static analysis (mypy/pyright), Pydantic, ABC patterns, modern packaging (uv/Poetry), and CLI tooling.

• Apache Spark / PySpark: Production OSS Spark experience (DataFrame API, Spark SQL, tuning, driver/executor architecture, Spark Connect).

• Lakehouse Formats: Delta Lake (or Iceberg/Hudi) including MERGE INTO, schema evolution, time travel, and idempotent writes.

• SQL: Advanced, dialect-portable SQL skills to translate complex legacy T-SQL logic into Spark SQL.

• Testing & CI/CD: Pytest (fixtures, tiered suites), Git/GitHub flow, PR-driven workflows with linting (ruff) and type-check gates.

• APIs & Containers: FastAPI development and daily development using Docker Compose stacks.

• Preferred Skills

  • AI/LLM Engineering: Provider-neutral LLM integration, structured output validation, local/hosted inference, and guard-railing.

  • Governance & Security: PII tokenization, hashing schemes, and data privacy awareness (POPIA/GDPR).

  • Cloud & Platform: Azure data estate (ADLS Gen2, Key Vault), Trino, Hive Metastore, and OpenTelemetry observability.

Benefits:

Competitive salary based on experience (salary can potentially be more based on experience/skills)

IF you meet the above requirements and want to make a career-changing move, apply today by emailing your CV to itcareers@hireresolve.za.com