Head of Machine Learning & MLOps

Placements24; Midrand; On-site; ZAR 1,100,000 - 1,700,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Medical and dental cover

Generous leave and holidays

Professional development opportunities

State-of-the-art tools

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Lead Machine Learning Engineer in Midrand to spearhead advanced ML initiatives. You will guide a team through the full ML lifecycle—from data prep to deployment—aligning with product goals and platform architecture.

The ideal candidate has a strong hands-on background, 6+ years in ML, and proven leadership. Expect a competitive, performance-driven environment with access to leading tools and cloud services.

Qualifications

• Master's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field.
• 6+ years of hands-on machine learning engineering experience.
• Experience leading technical teams and ML projects.
• Expertise in Python and ML libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras and scikit-learn.
• Experience with cloud ML services (AWS, Azure, GCP) and MLOps.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and implementation of advanced machine learning models and algorithms.
• Manage and mentor a team of machine learning engineers, fostering technical excellence.
• Oversee the data pipeline for quality and efficient model training.
• Implement and optimize MLOps for deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management.
• Collaborate with product managers to define ML roadmaps and deliverables.
• Conduct model evaluation and validation to ensure performance and reliability.
• Research and evaluate new ML technologies, tools, and methodologies.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex ML and infrastructure issues.
• Contribute to architectural design of AI systems and platforms.
• Champion best practices in ML engineering and software development.

Skills

Team leadership

Mentor engineers

Strategic thinking

Communication

Problem solving

Education

Master's degree in CS/Statistics/Math

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Keras

scikit-learn

MLflow

Kubeflow

AWS

Azure

GCP

CI/CD for ML

Job description

Placements24 is seeking a Lead Machine Learning Engineer in Midrand to spearhead advanced ML initiatives. You will guide a team through the full ML lifecycle—from data prep to deployment—aligning with product goals and platform architecture.

The ideal candidate has a strong hands-on background, 6+ years in ML, and proven leadership. Expect a competitive, performance-driven environment with access to leading tools and cloud services.