NLP Research Scientist

Placements24; Bloemfontein; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work flexibility

Medical benefits

Conference attendance

Research facilities

Paid time off

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking an NLP Research Scientist in Bloemfontein for a hybrid role focused on advancing NLP research and development. You will design, implement, and evaluate cutting-edge NLP models for language understanding, generation, and translation, collaborating across researchers and engineers.

The role requires a PhD or Master’s degree in a related field, strong NLP publication record, and expertise in Python and modern NLP libraries.

Qualifications

• PhD or Master’s in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, or related field with NLP specialization.
• Proven NLP research record with publications in reputable venues.
• Strong ML/DL and statistical modeling skills applied to NLP.

Responsibilities

• Conduct NLP research in text classification, sentiment analysis, machine translation, QA.
• Develop and implement novel NLP algorithms and deep learning models.
• Process and analyze large textual data sets.
• Evaluate NLP model performance and system outcomes.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to integrate NLP into products.
• Publish research findings in top conferences/journals.
• Design experiments to validate models and hypotheses.
• Mentor junior researchers and interns.

Skills

NLP Research

Deep Learning

Python

Transformers

Text Classification

Education

PhD in CS/Computational Linguistics

Tools

NLTK

spaCy

Hugging Face

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Job description

About the Role Our client is looking for a talented NLP Research Scientist to join their innovative team in Bloemfontein . This hybrid role focuses on advancing the frontiers of Natural Language Processing (NLP) research and development. You will be involved in designing, implementing, and evaluating cutting-edge NLP models and applications, contributing to groundbreaking projects in areas such as language understanding, generation, and translation. The ideal candidate possesses a strong academic background and practical experience in applying NLP techniques to real-world problems. You will collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of researchers and engineers, fostering an environment of intellectual curiosity and scientific rigor. The hybrid model offers a balance of focused remote work and valuable in-person collaboration within our Bloemfontein office.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct research in Natural Language Processing, focusing on areas like text classification, sentiment analysis, machine translation, and question answering.
• Develop and implement novel NLP algorithms and deep learning models.
• Process and analyze large volumes of textual data.
• Evaluate the performance of NLP models and systems.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to integrate NLP solutions into products and services.
• Stay current with the latest advancements in NLP research and methodologies.
• Publish research findings in top-tier conferences and journals.
• Design and conduct experiments to test hypotheses and validate models.
• Contribute to the development of NLP tools and libraries.
• Mentor junior researchers and interns.

Requirements

• Ph.D. or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, or a related field with a specialization in NLP.
• Proven research experience in NLP, demonstrated by publications in reputable venues.
• Strong understanding of machine learning, deep learning, and statistical modeling techniques as applied to NLP.
• Proficiency in Python and relevant NLP libraries (e.g., NLTK, spaCy, Hugging Face Transformers).
• Experience with deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch.
• Familiarity with handling large text datasets and language corpora.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a hybrid work environment.
• Experience with multilingual NLP is a plus.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and performance-based bonuses.
• Comprehensive medical and retirement benefits.
• Generous paid time off and holidays.
• Opportunities for professional development, including conference attendance.
• Access to state-of-the‑art research facilities and computing resources in Bloemfontein .
• A stimulating and collaborative research environment.
• Hybrid work flexibility.