VML South Africa
Apr 18, 2024
Full time
At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse. Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150+ offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences.Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work. Cloud Architect required to join Satalia our AI division. The opportunity: You will be responsible for creating enterprise-quality AI, ML, and Data Science based solutions. You will be involved in technology selection, API design, and establishing core patterns within our products and client projects. You will consider the functional and non-functional requirements to inform these decisions and lead our development team in implementing them. You will work with our world class Data Science and Data Engineering teams to provide robust, high quality, performant cloud based solutions for our customers. This is not a role for someone who doesn't love development. Our technical architects are expected to prove solutions and contribute to the development team, as well as reviewing code and driving improvement to our development practice and processes. At the same time, you need to be a great communicator: the role includes direct interaction with our clients and business stakeholders, which are a mixture of technical and non-technical audiences. The world of AI is evolving at a staggering pace, and we keep our knowledge fresh by continually looking for fresh technologies and sharing what we've learned. As an architect you would be expected to exemplify this both by bringing new ideas to our projects, but also listening to and assessing ideas from the team. What you'll be doing: Writing enterprise-quality solutions, with extensive experience and familiarity with how enterprise software solutions fit into a wider technical landscape Creating serverless solutions to execute data science and ML models Leading a team comprised of Data Science, Data Engineering, Cloud Engineering and QA Understanding and relating customer/business needs to the technical solutions we create Liaising with the customer, product owners and business analysts to ensure that the work we are doing is correct and architecturally sound Making technology and approach choices to meet NFRs whilst delivering good value for money What we want from you: Having an excellent understanding of Typescript and/or Python, currently our core cloud languages Experience writing enterprise quality solutions, with extensive experience and familiarity with how enterprise software solutions fit into a wider technical landscape Having a solid understanding of traditional Design Patterns and the ability to adapt these to the AI world Having in-depth knowledge of at least one cloud platform (e.g. GCP, AWS, Azure), including an understanding of appropriate technologies for a given use case. Being a strong proponent for rigorous quality processes, automated testing and IaC principles Having excellent written, spoken and diagrammatic communication skills, with the ability to convey technical and abstract principles to technical and non-technical audiences Industry experience with an Infrastructure-as-Code platform (e.g. Cloudformation, Terraform) Experience of creating robust CI/CD pipelines that fully automate testing and release processes A strong understanding of both serverless development and containerisation approaches to deploying software to the cloud If you know some of this, even better: A strong understanding of event-driven architectures Terraform experience Good working knowledge of Azure Experience with or knowledge of data engineering platforms and principles Experience with or knowledge of data science platforms and technologies Working knowledge of Rust What we can offer you: Opportunity to work at the forefront of AI technology A chance to contribute to groundbreaking commerce AI solutions Alongside the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting brands around the world, we'll also prioritise your career development and help you grow your skills. We'll empower you to make a difference, allow you to be yourself, and respect who you are. Satalia , a VML Enterprise Solutions Company, is a community of individuals devoted to working on diverse and challenging projects, allowing you to flex your technical skills whilst working with a tight knit team of high performing colleagues. As an organisation, we push the boundaries of data science, optimisation and artificial intelligence to solve the most complex problems in industry. We build technologies that radically improve the operational efficiency, customer and employee satisfaction of our clients. We do this through product development and bespoke AI services. Led by our founder (who is also WPP's Chief AI Officer), Satalia's ambition is to become a decentralised organisation of the future. Today this involves developing tools and processes to liberate and automate manual repetitive tasks, with a focus on freedom, transparency and trust. At the core of our thinking is an approach to wellbeing and inclusivity. We unpack human behaviour and unpick prejudice to ensure a safe and inviting environment. We offer true flexible working and allow our employees to find the working practice that makes them most productive. At Satalia , your opinion matters and your achievements are celebrated. We're using technology, and concepts like organisational swarms and decentralisation to redesign how organisations operate . Using ourselves as a testbed, we're building the foundations for a new, more effective organisational structure that anyone can use. We are investing massively in developing next generation generative AI tools, including workstreams covering text, image, video, audio, and research. We are building large scale, enterprise grade solutions and serving these innovations to our clients and WPP agency partners. AT VML Enterprise Solutions Our Enterprise Solutions division houses strategic consultants, creative and technical architects and skilled developers and operators that together help some of the world's leading organisations to deliver outstanding digital experiences across all major routes to market worldwide: marketplaces, online retailers, D2C, B2B and social platforms. With over 4,200 experts in 55 operational centres across 34 countries, our capabilities span the entire buying journey from customer acquisition, through engagement, to conversion and loyalty, driving multi-channel growth for world-leading brands. We work with some of the most exciting brands such as The Coca-Cola Company, EY, Bosch, Unilever, Ford, DFS, Mercedes-Benz, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Sainsbury's, Selfridges, Shell and Tiffany & Co. We've built over 500 platforms for brands and retailers and generate in excess of $29bn annually for our clients and work with over 50 strategic partners including Adobe, SAP, Salesforce, HCL, Shopify, Sitecore, BigCommerce, commerce tools and Acquia. Our reputation is based on our people, and we believe we have some of the best in the business. As our business grows internationally, we're looking for new people to join us on our journey to inspire and take Next> a key role in shaping some of the best commerce solutions, services, and websites in the world. Working as a team, no problem is insurmountable; we share in our client's successes and believe that anyone can show creative bravery no matter what their role is in the team. At VML, we are committed to fostering an all-inclusive work environment that is both rewarding and career-forward. Our Inclusion, Equity & Belonging initiatives, alongside the VML Foundation, reflect our dedication to giving back and making a positive impact in our communities and beyond. Our people are the heartbeat of our organization-creators, doers, innovators, makers, and thinkers-who drive not just marketing, but meaningful experiences that resonate in every action and interaction. When you click "Submit Application", this will send any information you add below to VML. Before you do this, we think it's a good idea to read through ourRecruitment Privacy Policy . California residents should read ourCalifornia Recruitment Privacy Notice . This explains what we do with your personal data when you apply for a role with us, and, how you can update the information you have provided us with or how to remove it. When you click "Submit Application", this will send any information you add below to VML. Before you do this, we think it's a good idea to read through our Recruitment Privacy Policy . California residents should read our California Recruitment Privacy Notice . This explains what we do with your personal data when you apply for a role with us, and, how you can update the information you have provided us with or how to remove it.