Lead Machine Learning Engineer - NLP Specialist

Placements24; George; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Bonuses & long-term incentives

Medical, dental & vision coverage

Retirement fund contribution

Learning & development opportunities

Paid time off & well-being support

Job summary

Placements24 seeks a Lead Machine Learning Engineer (NLP) to architect, develop and deploy advanced NLP models in George, Western Cape. You will lead engineers and data scientists through end-to-end ML projects from concept to production, shaping cutting-edge AI capabilities for business insights and product innovation.

The role demands deep NLP expertise, leadership, and the ability to translate complex data challenges into scalable solutions.

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in CS/Computational Linguistics or related NLP-focused field.
• 5+ years in ML engineering; 3+ years in NLP applications.
• Strong Python skills and NLP library expertise (NLTK, spaCy, Transformers).
• Experience with DL frameworks (PyTorch or TensorFlow) and LLMs.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and deployment of advanced NLP models (sentiment analysis, summarization, NER, MT).
• Build scalable ML pipelines for preprocessing, training, and deployment.
• Oversee production deployment ensuring performance and reliability.
• Mentor junior engineers and share best practices.
• Collaborate with product managers and data scientists.

Skills

Leadership

Python

NLP libraries

PyTorch

TensorFlow

LLMs

Big data

Cloud platforms

Communication

Text representations

Education

Master's or PhD in CS/Computational Linguistics or related field

Tools

Hugging Face Transformers

NLTK

spaCy

Spark

Hadoop

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

About the Role

Our client, a leader in advanced analytics and predictive modeling, is actively seeking an experienced Lead Machine Learning Engineer with a specialization in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to join their team in George, Western Cape . This pivotal role involves architecting, developing, and deploying sophisticated NLP models and pipelines that drive critical business insights and product innovation. You will lead a talented team of engineers and data scientists, guiding them through the full lifecycle of machine learning projects, from conception to production deployment. The ideal candidate thrives in a challenging environment, possesses deep expertise in NLP techniques, and has a proven ability to translate complex data challenges into scalable, efficient machine learning solutions. We are committed to fostering a culture of continuous learning and technological excellence.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and implementation of advanced NLP models for tasks such as sentiment analysis, text summarization, entity recognition, and machine translation.
• Architect and build robust, scalable machine learning pipelines for data preprocessing, feature engineering, model training, and deployment.
• Oversee the deployment of NLP models into production environments, ensuring high performance, reliability, and maintainability.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, data scientists, and other stakeholders to understand business requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
• Mentor and guide junior machine learning engineers, fostering their technical growth and ensuring adherence to best practices.
• Conduct rigorous testing and validation of models, employing appropriate evaluation metrics and statistical methods.
• Research and evaluate new NLP techniques, tools, and frameworks to enhance our capabilities.
• Contribute to the company's technical strategy and roadmap for AI and machine learning initiatives.

Requirements

• Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, or a related field with a focus on NLP.
• 5+ years of experience in machine learning engineering, with at least 3 years specifically focused on NLP applications.
• Strong programming skills in Python and extensive experience with NLP libraries (e.g., NLTK, spaCy, Hugging Face Transformers).
• Proven experience with deep learning frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Expertise in text representation techniques (e.g., word embeddings, TF-IDF) and classical ML algorithms.
• Experience with large language models (LLMs) and their application is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with big data technologies (e.g., Spark, Hadoop) and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Excellent leadership, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects and deliver results in a fast-paced environment.

Benefits

• Our client offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience, along with attractive bonuses and long-term incentives.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage is provided, alongside a generous retirement fund contribution.
• Opportunities for continuous learning and professional growth are abundant, including access to specialized training, industry conferences, and advanced research resources.
• This role is based in George, Western Cape , offering a stimulating work environment with a strong emphasis on innovation and teamwork.
• We also provide ample paid time off and support for employee well-being.