Principal NLP Research Scientist

Placements24; Rustenburg; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote role

Professional development & conferences

Access to cutting-edge compute

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Principal NLP Research Scientist for a fully remote role to lead advanced NLP research, language modeling, and production-ready systems that push the boundaries of language understanding. You will design rigorous experiments, publish in top AI conferences and journals, and mentor junior researchers while collaborating with engineers to deploy research prototypes.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD with 10+ years in NLP, deep learning expertise (Transformers, LSTMs), and a

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field with a strong focus on NLP.
• 10+ years of NLP research and development with a track record of impactful contributions.
• Proven experience leading research projects and mentoring teams.
• Deep theoretical understanding and practical expertise in deep learning models for NLP (Transformers, LSTMs, RNNs).

Responsibilities

• Lead research initiatives in NLP areas such as text generation, sentiment analysis, QA, and MT.
• Develop and implement novel NLP algorithms and models pushing the state-of-the-art.
• Design and conduct rigorous experiments to evaluate model performance and validate hypotheses.
• Publish findings in top AI/NLP conferences and journals.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to deploy research prototypes into production systems.
• Mentor and guide junior researchers and engineers for scientific excellence.
• Stay abreast of latest NLP and deep learning advancements.
• Identify new research opportunities and contribute to long-term strategy.
• Present research findings to technical and non-technical audiences.

Skills

NLP research

Deep learning

Python

Hugging Face Transformers

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Publications

Mentoring

Education

Ph.D. in CS/Computational Linguistics/AI

Tools

Hugging Face Transformers

spaCy

NLTK

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

About the Role

Our client is at the forefront of natural language processing innovation and is seeking a distinguished Principal NLP Research Scientist for a fully remote position. This is a unique opportunity to lead groundbreaking research and development in advanced NLP techniques. You will be instrumental in pushing the boundaries of language understanding, generation, and interaction, contributing to state-of-the-art AI models. The ideal candidate will possess a deep theoretical understanding of NLP, coupled with extensive practical experience in building and deploying sophisticated language models. This role requires a strategic thinker capable of identifying novel research avenues, designing rigorous experiments, and translating complex findings into actionable insights and impactful products. You will collaborate with a team of world-class researchers and engineers, driving the scientific agenda and mentoring junior team members. This is a fully remote role, offering the ultimate flexibility and autonomy to conduct pioneering research from anywhere.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead research initiatives in areas such as text generation, sentiment analysis, question answering, and machine translation.
• Develop and implement novel NLP algorithms and models, pushing the state-of-the-art.
• Design and conduct rigorous experiments to evaluate model performance and validate research hypotheses.
• Publish findings in top-tier AI and NLP conferences and journals.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to integrate research prototypes into production systems.
• Mentor and guide junior researchers and engineers, fostering a culture of scientific excellence.
• Stay abreast of the latest advancements in NLP, deep learning, and related fields.
• Identify new research opportunities and contribute to the long-term research strategy.
• Present research findings to technical and non-technical audiences.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field with a strong focus on NLP.
• 10+ years of experience in NLP research and development, with a significant track record of impactful contributions.
• Proven experience in leading research projects and mentoring teams.
• Deep theoretical understanding and practical expertise in deep learning models for NLP (e.g., Transformers, LSTMs, RNNs).
• Proficiency in Python and relevant NLP libraries (e.g., Hugging Face Transformers, spaCy, NLTK).
• Experience with major deep learning frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Strong publication record in leading AI/NLP conferences (e.g., ACL, EMNLP, NeurIPS).
• Experience with large-scale data processing and distributed computing.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.
• Ability to work independently and drive research initiatives in a remote setting.

Benefits

Our client offers a highly competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package that includes extensive health coverage, retirement savings plans, and generous paid time off. As a fully remote Principal NLP Research Scientist, you will enjoy unparalleled flexibility and autonomy in your work. Professional development is a key focus, with opportunities for continuous learning, attending top conferences, and contributing to open-source projects. You will have access to cutting-edge computational resources and collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the field. We foster an environment of innovation, intellectual curiosity, and mutual respect. Join us to shape the future of how machines understand and interact with human language, making a profound impact on a global scale.