AI Engineering Manager

AI Engineering Manager

Location: Remote (trial period) then on-site in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Company: Box Africa Group – Fast-growing IT services company (+100 employees) pivoting 100% to AI

Contract: Full-time – Permanent

About Us

Box Africa is a rapidly growing IT services company operating across West Africa. We are building a comprehensive AI & Cloud offering to support banking, fintech, telecom, insurance, and public sector clients.

Our ambition is to become the African leader in applied AI, combining technical excellence, real-world impact, and local talent development.

Main Responsibilities

As an AI Engineering Manager, you will play a key role in transforming Box Africa into a fully AI-driven company. Your mission will combine technical leadership, team management, and strategic innovation.

1. Leadership & Strategy

• Define and execute the company’s AI Engineering roadmap.
• Evangelize AI to clients and partners, with a pragmatic approach tailored to the African context.
• Co-design, with the Head of AI and the Data Science Manager, the AI & Agent-as-a-Service offering for Box Africa.
• Position Box Africa as a reference AI player in Côte d’Ivoire, UEMOA, and West Africa.

2. Team Management & Mentorship

• Train and mentor a team of junior Data Scientists and ML Engineers in:
• Advanced Data Science (multilingual NLP, computer vision, predictive analytics).
• MLOps & DataOps (MLflow, Kubeflow, W&B, CI/CD).
• DevOps applied to AI (containerization, orchestration, monitoring).
• Foster a culture of knowledge sharing and technical excellence.
• Implement agile practices (Scrum, Agile@Scale) suited to a growing R&D team.

3. Development & Delivery

• Design and deploy scalable, production-ready ML/AI pipelines (Python, PyTorch, HuggingFace, Spark, Scikit-learn, TensorFlow).
• Deliver real-world AI solutions for Africa: IFRS9 credit scoring, fraud detection, multilingual NLP, regulatory compliance (BCEAO, African GDPR).
• Build and scale agentic AI systems (multi-agent architectures, orchestration via LangChain, LangGraph, etc.).
• Ensure quality and reliability of deliverables (testing, CI/CD, monitoring, explainability).

4. Research & Innovation

• Lead applied research on:
• Explainable AI (XAI) and bias mitigation.
• Agentic AI Systems for process automation.
• Sector-specific AI applications (fintech, health, education, agriculture).
• Actively contribute to the AI community in Africa (conferences, publications, meetups).

Candidate Profile

Technical Skills

• Strong expertise in Machine Learning & Deep Learning (Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, HuggingFace, Spark).
• Hands-on experience in MLOps & DataOps (MLflow, Kubeflow, Weights & Biases, CI/CD, monitoring).
• Background in cloud & distributed systems (Kubernetes, Docker, Proxmox, OpenStack, GCP, Azure).
• Knowledge of agentic AI systems & multi-agent frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, RAG orchestration).
• Solid understanding of security & compliance frameworks (BCEAO, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, African GDPR).

Experience & Leadership

• 5+ years of proven experience delivering AI projects end-to-end.
• 3+ years in team leadership, mentoring, and engineering management.
• International or multicultural exposure (Africa + Europe/Asia preferred).
• Demonstrated ability to deliver scalable, impactful AI solutions.

Soft Skills

• Inspiring leader with strategic vision and entrepreneurial mindset.
• Excellent communication and client-facing skills.
• Passion for training and developing young African AI talents.
• Fluency in English required; French language proficiency would be a strong plus.
• Pragmatic, adaptable, and results-driven.

Why Join Box Africa?

• Join a fast-growing company (100+ employees, >50% annual growth).
• Build the AI Engineering practice from scratch within a future African tech leader.
• Work on high-impact projects (fintech, health, education, agriculture).
• Contribute to the next generation of African AI experts.
• Career-defining opportunity: become a pioneer of applied AI in West Africa.

Benefits

• Relocation & settling-in support (housing assistance, logistics).
• Annual round-trip flight ticket to home country.
• Relocation allowance (moving expenses covered).
• Comprehensive health insurance.
• Training & certification budget (AI, Cloud, MLOps, leadership).
• Annual performance bonus tied to company growth.
• Hybrid work flexibility (remote + on-site).
• Rapid career progression opportunities as Box Africa scales across UEMOA and West Africa.

Recruitment Process

1. Initial call (30 min) – Introductory discussion.
2. Technical Test/Interview (1h) – Test and/or Practical case study.
3. Leadership interview (45 min) – Team management & vision.
4. Executive meeting (45 min) – Strategy & cultural fit.
5. Final offer.