Machine Learning Engineer

SSS – Cybersecurity Specialists is one of New Zealand’s leading cybersecurity consultancies. They help organisations across government, healthcare, infrastructure, and enterprise improve resilience, reduce risk, and respond to increasingly complex security challenges.

SSS are now building their AI and machine learning capability and are looking for their first dedicated Machine Learning Engineer to help shape the future of AI-enabled cybersecurity services at SSS.
They are looking for someone who can design, build, deploy, and continuously improve production-grade AI systems that create measurable operational value.
You’ll work alongside SSS’s Data & Insights team and collaborate closely with engineers, consultants, and security specialists across the business.
If you enjoy solving practical problems, working with modern AI tooling, and building systems that actually get used — we’d like to hear from you.

About the Role
As a Machine Learning Engineer at SSS, you’ll be responsible for building and maintaining applied AI systems that support our managed security and consulting services.
You’ll design production-ready RAG pipelines, evaluate and integrate LLMs and SLMs, implement monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and help establish engineering standards and governance for AI systems across the organisation.
This role suits someone who enjoys operating at the intersection of software engineering, machine learning, systems thinking, and delivery.

What You’ll Be Doing
AI Engineering & Pipeline Development

• Design and implement production-grade RAG pipelines using internal knowledge sources
• Build, test, deploy, and iterate AI systems using modern LLM and SLM tooling
• Evaluate and integrate cloud-hosted and self-hosted model deployment options
• Develop embedding pipelines, retrieval strategies, orchestration workflows, and evaluation frameworks
• Improve AI system performance through prompt engineering, retrieval optimisation, and model selection

Production Operations & Reliability

• Operate and maintain AI systems in production environments
• Implement monitoring, logging, alerting, and quality evaluation processes
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues across AI pipelines and supporting systems
• Maintain system performance, reliability, and operational visibility

Architecture & Governance

• Produce architecture documentation and Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)
• Contribute to build-versus-buy assessments and technical recommendations
• Ensure AI systems align with Privacy Act 2020 obligations and internal governance standards
• Support AI impact assessments and data sovereignty requirements for regulated environments

Collaboration & Capability Growth

• Work closely with cybersecurity consultants, engineers, and leadership teams
• Communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Contribute to internal capability uplift through documentation, pairing, and knowledge sharing
• Help shape the future AI engineering capability within SSS

What We’re Looking For
Essential Skills & Experience

• Hands-on experience building and deploying production AI or RAG systems
• Strong Python and software engineering fundamentals
• Experience with vector databases, embedding pipelines, and LLM integration
• Familiarity with orchestration and workflow frameworks
• Experience evaluating or deploying self-hosted AI models using tools such as Ollama, vLLM, or similar
• Understanding of AI evaluation methodologies and quality monitoring
• Strong written communication and structured problem-solving capability
• Ability to work autonomously in a high-trust, fast-moving environment

Nice to Have

• Exposure to cybersecurity environments or security operations
• Experience fine-tuning or evaluating smaller language models (SLMs)
• Familiarity with enterprise knowledge systems such as Confluence or ITSM platforms
• Experience working within regulated industries such as government, healthcare, financial services, or defence
• Understanding of NZ privacy, sovereignty, or compliance requirements

Why Join SSS?
SSS are a high-performing, low-ego team that values curiosity, accountability, and practical execution. You’ll have the opportunity to work on meaningful problems, influence technical direction, and help establish AI engineering capability inside a respected cybersecurity consultancy.
Their core values guide how they work:

• Client First
• Don’t Settle
• You’re an Expert
• Love What You Do

SSS offer:

• Flexible hybrid working
• A collaborative and highly experienced team
• Opportunities for professional development and training
• Exposure to complex and meaningful cybersecurity challenges
• The chance to shape AI capability from the ground up

Location
Wellington or Auckland.
Apply Now
If you’re excited about building practical AI systems that deliver real operational value — and want to do it in a team that values expertise, ownership, and continuous improvement — we’d love to hear from you.

Apply now