Lead AI Researcher - Natural Language Processing

Placements24; Centurion; Hybrid; ZAR 1,500,000 - 2,100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Conference travel funding

Cutting-edge resources

Industry-leading salary

R&D investment

Job summary

Placements24 in Centurion seeks a visionary Lead AI Researcher specializing in NLP to push the boundaries of understanding and generating human language. You will lead a team of researchers and engineers, guiding groundbreaking NLP projects and collaborating with product teams.

The role focuses on developing next-generation NLP models and applications, publishing results, and driving innovation with access to top-tier computational resources. Remote work options are available.

Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or closely related field.
• 8+ years of NLP research experience with a strong publication record.
• Proven expertise in deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow) and NLP libraries (Hugging Face Transformers, spaCy).
• Demonstrated ability to lead research teams and manage complex projects from inception to completion.

Responsibilities

• Lead research initiatives and development of state-of-the-art NLP models, including LLMs, sentiment analysis, and translation.
• Mentor and guide a team of AI researchers and engineers.
• Design and conduct experiments to validate research hypotheses and benchmark model performance.
• Publish research findings in top AI conferences/journals and present internally and externally.
• Collaborate with product teams to translate breakthroughs into features and products.

Skills

NLP research

Deep learning

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Hugging Face

spaCy

Team leadership

Model deployment

Education

PhD in CS/AI/Computational Linguistics

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

HuggingFace Transformers

spaCy

Job description

About the Role

Our client is seeking a visionary Lead AI Researcher specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to drive innovation in Centurion . This role is at the forefront of AI & Emerging Technologies , focused on pushing the boundaries of what's possible in understanding and generating human language. You will lead a team of talented researchers and engineers, guiding groundbreaking projects that aim to develop next-generation NLP models and applications. This is an exceptional opportunity for an experienced researcher who is passionate about making significant contributions to the field and shaping the future of AI-driven communication.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead research initiatives and development of state-of-the‑art NLP models, including large language models (LLMs), sentiment analysis, and machine translation.
• Mentor and guide a team of AI researchers and engineers, fostering a collaborative and innovative research environment.
• Design and conduct experiments to validate research hypotheses and benchmark model performance.
• Publish research findings in top‑tier AI conferences and journals, and present work internally and externally.
• Collaborate with product teams to translate research breakthroughs into tangible AI features and products.

Requirements

• PhD in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or a closely related field.
• 8+ years of research experience in NLP, with a strong publication record.
• Demonstrated expertise in deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow) and NLP libraries (e.g., Hugging Face Transformers, spaCy).
• Proven ability to lead research teams and manage complex research projects from inception to completion.
• Experience with distributed training and large‑scale model development is highly desirable.

Benefits

• An industry‑leading salary and comprehensive benefits package.
• The opportunity to work remotely and lead a world‑class AI research team.
• Significant investment in research and development, with access to cutting‑edge computational resources.
• Support for conference travel and publication fees to promote scientific dissemination.
• A culture that values intellectual curiosity, collaboration, and breakthrough innovation.