Lead AI Engineer - Natural Language Processing

Placements24; South Africa; Remote; ZAR 1,800,000 - 2,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Performance bonuses

Comprehensive insurance

Continuous learning & conferences

Job summary

Placements24 in Gauteng seeks a Lead AI Engineer specializing in NLP to drive AI initiatives in Tembisa. You will lead a team of AI engineers and researchers, shaping the end-to-end development lifecycle from concept to deployment and optimization of language AI products.

The role requires a strong NLP background, proven leadership, and hands-on expertise with Python, NLP libraries, and deep learning frameworks, plus cloud and MLOps practices.

Qualifications

• Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science, AI, or NLP.
• 7+ years in AI/ML with a focus on NLP.
• Proven leadership and project management experience.
• Proficient in Python and NLP libraries (NLTK, spaCy, Transformers).

Responsibilities

• Lead a team designing and deploying NLP models.
• Define technical roadmaps aligned with business goals.
• Develop and implement advanced NLP techniques.
• Oversee data collection, preprocessing, and model evaluation.
• Collaborate with product managers and engineers to deliver AI solutions.
• Mentor engineers to foster innovation and excellence.

Skills

Team leadership

Project management

Strategic thinking

Communication

Mentoring

Stakeholder collaboration

Education

Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science/AI/NLP

Tools

Python

NLTK

spaCy

Hugging Face Transformers

TensorFlow

PyTorch

AWS

GCP

Azure

MLOps

Data pipelines

Job description

About the Role

Our client is seeking an accomplished Lead AI Engineer with a specialization in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to spearhead AI initiatives in Tembisa, Gauteng . This pivotal role demands a visionary leader capable of guiding a talented team of AI engineers and researchers in developing sophisticated NLP solutions. You will be responsible for the end-to-end development lifecycle, from conceptualization and prototyping to deployment and optimization of AI-driven products. This position offers the chance to make a significant impact on how users interact with technology through advanced language understanding and generation capabilities. The ideal candidate possesses a strong technical background in NLP, coupled with proven leadership and project management skills.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead a team of AI engineers and data scientists in the design, development, and deployment of NLP models and applications.
• Define the technical roadmap for NLP projects, ensuring alignment with business objectives and technological advancements.
• Develop and implement state-of-the-art NLP techniques, including sentiment analysis, text classification, named entity recognition, machine translation, and question answering systems.
• Oversee the entire model lifecycle, from data collection and preprocessing to model training, evaluation, and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with product managers, software engineers, and stakeholders to gather requirements and deliver impactful AI solutions.
• Establish best practices for code quality, testing, and deployment of NLP models.
• Mentor and guide team members, fostering a culture of innovation and technical excellence.

Requirements

• Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering, with a strong focus on NLP.
• Demonstrated experience leading technical teams and managing complex AI projects.
• Expertise in programming languages such as Python, and NLP libraries (e.g., NLTK, spaCy, Hugging Face Transformers).
• Proficiency with deep learning frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch.
• Experience with data pipelines, cloud computing platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), and MLOps practices.
• Strong understanding of linguistic principles and statistical methods in NLP.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills.
• Published research in NLP or related fields is a significant advantage.

Benefits

• This role offers a highly competitive salary package commensurate with experience, along with performance bonuses and stock options.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance are provided, as well as a generous retirement savings plan.
• We believe in continuous learning and offer significant opportunities for professional development, including attendance at key industry conferences and advanced training.
• The Tembisa location offers a vibrant work environment with state-of-the-art facilities.
• Flexible working arrangements are available to support work-life balance, making this a truly rewarding career opportunity.