Lead Machine Learning Engineer - NLP Specialist

Placements24; Bellville; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Competitive compensation

Health benefits

Career growth opportunities

R&D resources

Job summary

Placements24 in South Africa seeks a visionary Lead Machine Learning Engineer (NLP) to spearhead AI initiatives in our client’s Centurion-based team, now fully remote. You will lead a talented group of ML engineers and data scientists, guiding end-to-end lifecycle from conception to production.

We require 7+ years in ML with NLP expertise, strong leadership, and hands-on Python & ML libraries. Expect impactful, high-scale projects, collaboration with product, and growth opportunities within a

Qualifications

• Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, AI, or related field.
• 7+ years hands-on ML engineering with NLP specialization.
• Proven experience leading ML projects and teams.
• Expertise in Python and ML/NLP libraries (spaCy, NLTK, transformers, PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, and deployment of advanced NLP models and applications.
• Manage and mentor ML engineers and data scientists.
• Oversee ML lifecycle: data, preprocessing, training, evaluation, deployment.
• Drive NLP research and techniques (transformers, LLMs, sentiment, text gen).
• Collaborate with product managers to define NLP roadmaps and requirements.
• Ensure production NLP systems are scalable, reliable, and well-documented.
• Develop best practices for ML engineering and MLOps.
• Stay current with NLP/AI advancements and contribute to IP.

Skills

NLP

Machine learning

Leadership

Python

Cloud platforms

MLOps

Education

Master's or PhD in CS/AI

Tools

spaCy

NLTK

Hugging Face Transformers

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

About the Role

Our client is looking for a visionary Lead Machine Learning Engineer with a specialization in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to spearhead new initiatives in their AI & Emerging Technologies department, based in **Centurion, Gauteng**. This senior position requires a blend of deep technical expertise in ML and NLP, strong leadership capabilities, and a passion for building and deploying state-of-the-art AI systems. You will lead a talented team of engineers and data scientists, guiding the development lifecycle from conception to production. The role involves extensive research, experimentation, and hands‑on engineering to create intelligent solutions that understand and generate human language. This is an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact on a global scale, working on complex challenges in a highly collaborative and innovative environment. We are committed to fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth for our team members.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of advanced NLP models and applications.
• Manage and mentor a team of machine learning engineers and data scientists.
• Oversee the entire ML lifecycle, including data collection, preprocessing, model training, evaluation, and deployment.
• Drive research and implementation of cutting‑edge NLP techniques (e.g., transformers, LLMs, sentiment analysis, text generation).
• Collaborate with product managers and other stakeholders to define NLP project roadmaps and requirements.
• Ensure the performance, scalability, and reliability of NLP systems in production.
• Develop and maintain best practices for ML engineering and MLOps.
• Stay current with the latest advancements in NLP, AI, and machine learning.
• Contribute to the company's intellectual property through patents and publications.

Requirements

• Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, AI, or a related field.
• 7+ years of hands‑on experience in machine learning engineering, with a strong specialization in NLP.
• Proven experience leading ML projects and teams.
• Expertise in Python and common ML/NLP libraries (e.g., spaCy, NLTK, Hugging Face Transformers, PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Deep understanding of NLP concepts like text representation, sequence modeling, language generation, and attention mechanisms.
• Experience with deploying ML models to production environments.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills.
• Demonstrated ability to drive projects from inception to completion.

Benefits

• Highly competitive salary and bonus structure.
• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits.
• Generous annual leave and company holidays.
• Significant opportunities for professional growth and career advancement.
• Access to cutting‑edge research and development resources.
• Fully remote work arrangement, allowing for flexibility and work‑life balance.
• Be a key player in shaping the future of NLP at our client in **Centurion, Gauteng**.