Principal RL Research Scientist — Lead Breakthrough AI

Placements24; Sandton; Hybrid; ZAR 3,500,000 - 5,500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity options

Health, dental & vision insurance

Conference travel & sabbaticals

Flexible work environment

Job summary

Placements24 in Sandton, Gauteng, seeks a Principal AI Research Scientist specializing in Reinforcement Learning. You will lead high-impact RL research, mentor a team of researchers, and drive innovations from labs to production, shaping the company’s AI roadmap.

You will publish in top venues, collaborate with interdisciplinary teams, and contribute to IP through patents. A strong track record in RL and leadership is essential for advancing complex, real-world challenges.

Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, AI, ML or related quantitative field with RL focus

Responsibilities

• Lead advanced RL research including deep RL, multi-agent RL, and inverse RL
• Develop novel RL algorithms and frameworks for complex decision tasks
• Design and run experiments to validate theoretical advances
• Collaborate with engineering to deploy research prototypes
• Publish findings at top AI conferences and journals (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR)
• Mentor junior researchers and engineers
• Stay updated on RL trends and breakthroughs
• Shape strategic direction of the AI research group
• Represent the company at scientific conferences and events

Skills

Reinforcement Learning

Leadership

Mentoring

Python

ML Frameworks

Education

PhD in Computer Science / AI / ML

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Stable Baselines

Job description

Placements24 in Sandton, Gauteng, seeks a Principal AI Research Scientist specializing in Reinforcement Learning. You will lead high-impact RL research, mentor a team of researchers, and drive innovations from labs to production, shaping the company’s AI roadmap.

You will publish in top venues, collaborate with interdisciplinary teams, and contribute to IP through patents. A strong track record in RL and leadership is essential for advancing complex, real-world challenges.