Principal Machine Learning Engineer (NLP)

Placements24; Klerksdorp; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 2,300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Retirement contributions

Performance bonuses

Professional development

Conference attendance

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer (NLP) to join its R&D team in Klerksdorp, North West. You will design, build, and deploy cutting-edge NLP models for sentiment, translation, and text generation, leading architectural decisions and mentoring engineers.

You will collaborate with product managers and data scientists to define requirements, optimize performance, and drive responsible AI practices while exploring novel NLP approaches and publishing innovations.

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in CS/AI/ML or related quantitative field.
• 8+ years hands-on ML engineering with NLP specialization.
• Proven production NLP model development and deployment experience.
• Strong knowledge of text classification, NER, QA, summarization and language generation.
• Proficiency with TF, PyTorch or Keras; Python and NLP libs.
• Experience with cloud platforms and MLOps practices.
• Excellent communication and leadership abilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end development and deployment of advanced NLP models.
• Design scalable ML pipelines for training, evaluation, and inference.
• Research and apply state‑of‑the‑art NLP techniques.
• Collaborate with product managers and engineers to define requirements.
• Optimize model performance, latency, and reliability in production.
• Develop data processing and feature engineering for text data.
• Mentor junior engineers and promote best practices.
• Stay at the forefront of NLP research and publish innovations.
• Contribute to IP through publications and patents.
• Ensure ethical and responsible application of NLP technologies.

Skills

Leadership potential

Analytical thinking

Communication skills

Mentoring

NLP expertise

Deep learning

Python programming

Cloud ML/DevOps

Model deployment

Education

Master's or Ph.D. in CS/AI/ML

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Keras

spaCy

NLTK

Hugging Face Transformers

Python

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

About the Role

Our client, a rapidly growing technology innovator, is seeking a highly accomplished Principal Machine Learning Engineer specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to join their core research and development team in Klerksdorp, North West . This pivotal role requires an individual with deep expertise in designing, building, and deploying sophisticated NLP models for complex real-world applications. You will be instrumental in shaping the future of our intelligent systems, driving innovation in areas such as sentiment analysis, machine translation, and text generation. This is a premier opportunity to lead challenging projects and influence the technological direction of a forward-thinking company.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end development and deployment of advanced NLP models, including deep learning architectures (e.g., Transformers, LSTMs, RNNs).
• Design and implement scalable and robust ML pipelines for training, evaluation, and inference.
• Research and experiment with state-of-the-art NLP techniques and algorithms to solve challenging business problems.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, data scientists, and other engineers to define project requirements and deliver high-quality solutions.
• Optimize model performance, efficiency, and latency for production environments.
• Develop and maintain robust data processing and feature engineering strategies for textual data.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to the team's technical growth and best practices.
• Stay at the forefront of NLP research, identifying and integrating novel approaches.
• Contribute to the company's intellectual property through publications and patent applications.
• Ensure the ethical and responsible application of NLP technologies.

Requirements

• Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related quantitative field.
• Minimum of 8 years of hands-on experience in machine learning engineering, with a strong specialization in Natural Language Processing.
• Proven track record of successfully developing and deploying production-level NLP models.
• Deep understanding of NLP concepts such as text classification, named entity recognition, question answering, summarization, and language generation.
• Expertise in deep learning frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Keras.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, and experience with relevant libraries (e.g., spaCy, NLTK, Hugging Face Transformers).
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and MLOps practices.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and collaboration abilities, with the capacity to articulate complex technical concepts clearly.
• Demonstrated leadership potential and experience mentoring team members.

Benefits

Our client offers a highly competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package, including excellent health coverage, retirement contributions, and performance bonuses. Employees have access to cutting-edge technology and a dynamic work environment that fosters innovation. Generous professional development opportunities, including conference attendance and specialized training, are provided. The role is based in Klerksdorp, North West , and offers a stimulating work environment with ample room for career growth. Join a team that is pushing the boundaries of AI and making a significant impact in the field of natural language processing.