Senior AI Engineer

Awarri; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Awarri is seeking an AI/ML engineer to lead the design, training, and optimization of large-scale language models for African languages. You will work on data preprocessing, tokenization, and embedding for low-resource datasets, and fine-tune transformers for text generation, translation, and sentiment analysis.

You will collaborate with linguists, deploy in cloud environments, and build robust evaluation frameworks using metrics such as perplexity and BLEU.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 3 years in AI/ML engineering focusing on NLP/LLMs.
• Strong expertise with transformer models (GPT, BERT, T5).
• Proficiency in TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Hugging Face Transformers.
• Experience training and fine-tuning LLMs on large multilingual data.
• Strong programming skills and NLP library expertise.
• Experience building text data collection & annotation pipelines.
• Familiarity with AWS, Azure or GCP.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, training, and optimization of language models for African languages and dialects.
• Develop data preprocessing, tokenization, and embedding for low-resource datasets.
• Fine-tune transformer architectures for text generation, translation, and sentiment analysis.
• Design scalable pipelines for data collection, annotation, and preprocessing.
• Collaborate with linguists to ensure alignment with cultural sensitivities.
• Deploy, monitor, and maintain production LLM systems in cloud environments.
• Establish evaluation frameworks using perplexity and BLEU metrics.

Skills

NLP & LLMs

Transformer models

TensorFlow / PyTorch

Hugging Face Transformers

Multilingual NLP

Cloud computing

Tools

Hugging Face

Job description

About the Company

At Awarri, our mission is to enable the development and adoption of frontier technology on the African continent, starting in Nigeria, by building lasting technology solutions and creating a brighter future using the power of AI. We develop Language Models designed to represent and empower African languages and contexts.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, training, and optimization of large-scale language models for African languages and dialects
• Develop innovative solutions for data pre-processing, tokenization, and embedding for low-resource datasets
• Implement and fine-tune transformer-based architectures for text generation, translation, and sentiment analysis
• Design scalable pipelines for data collection, annotation, and pre-processing
• Collaborate with linguists and cultural experts to ensure LLM alignment with cultural sensitivities
• Deploy, monitor, and maintain production-level LLM systems in cloud-based environments
• Establish frameworks for model evaluation using metrics like perplexity and BLEU

Requirements

• Minimum of 3 years in AI/ML engineering with a focus on NLP and LLMs
• Strong expertise in transformer-based models such as GPT, BERT, or T5
• Proficiency with TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Hugging Face Transformers
• Experience training and fine-tuning LLMs on large-scale, multilingual datasets
• Strong programming skills and expertise in NLP libraries
• Experience building pipelines for text data collection and annotation
• Familiarity with cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with low-resource languages or multilingual NLP
• Knowledge of cultural and linguistic nuances in African contexts
• Familiarity with ethical AI principles for language technologies