Principal RL Researcher - Lead AI Innovation (Hybrid)

Placements24; Sandton; Hybrid; ZAR 1,800,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Research funding

Performance bonuses

Hybrid work in Sandton

Job summary

Placements24 seeks a Principal AI Researcher with deep Reinforcement Learning expertise in Sandton, Gauteng. You will lead advanced RL research, design experiments, publish in top venues, and mentor researchers while shaping strategic AI directions in a hybrid work setting.

The role requires a PhD in CS/AI/ML with a distinguished RL publication record and proficiency in Python, TensorFlow/PyTorch, and RL libraries, contributing to autonomous control and intelligent systems.

Qualifications

• PhD in CS/AI/ML with strong RL focus.
• Extensive RL research track record and publications.

Responsibilities

• Lead RL research projects, develop novel algorithms and frameworks.
• Design experiments in simulated and real environments to validate RL approaches.
• Publish findings at top AI conferences/journals (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR).
• Mentor junior researchers and engineers working on RL.
• Collaborate across teams to translate research into practical AI solutions.
• Represent the organization at conferences and contribute to the AI community.
• Explore RL applications in robotics, gaming, and autonomous agents.
• Contribute to strategic direction of AI research and ethical RL.

Skills

Reinforcement Learning

Python

TensorFlow

PyTorch

RL theory

Experimentation

Mentorship

Communication

Education

PhD in Computer Science/AI/ML

Tools

OpenAI Gym

MuJoCo

Stable Baselines

Job description

Placements24 seeks a Principal AI Researcher with deep Reinforcement Learning expertise in Sandton, Gauteng. You will lead advanced RL research, design experiments, publish in top venues, and mentor researchers while shaping strategic AI directions in a hybrid work setting.

The role requires a PhD in CS/AI/ML with a distinguished RL publication record and proficiency in Python, TensorFlow/PyTorch, and RL libraries, contributing to autonomous control and intelligent systems.