Remote Lead AI Engineer - Natural Language Processing

Placements24; LegKraal Gate; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 2,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental and vision insurance

Retirement plan

Remote-first with home office support

Conference attendance & advanced NLP训练

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Lead AI Engineer (NLP) to drive the architecture and execution of advanced conversational AI and language understanding systems. You will lead a global, remote team of engineers and researchers, shaping technical direction and delivering scalable NLP solutions.

The role requires 6+ years in AI/ML with NLP specialization, strong leadership, and deep experience with Python and major NLP libraries.

Qualifications

• Master’s or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• Minimum of 6 years of experience in AI/ML engineering, with a strong specialization in Natural Language Processing.
• Proven experience leading technical teams and managing complex NLP projects.
• Expertise in Python and NLP libraries (e.g., NLTK, spaCy, Transformers, TensorFlow, PyTorch).
• Deep understanding of ML algorithms, DL architectures (RNNs, LSTMs, Transformers), and statistical language modeling.
• Experience with large-scale data processing and deployment of models in cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills, with a proven ability to work effectively in a remote setting.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of NLP models and applications.
• Oversee end-to-end NLP project lifecycle from data to production.
• Mentor and manage a team of AI engineers and researchers.
• Collaborate with product managers to define requirements and translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Stay abreast of NLP research and advancements in DL and related fields.
• Develop and maintain scalable NLP pipelines and infrastructure.
• Contribute to the company’s technical strategy and roadmap for AI and NLP.
• Present findings and project progress to internal teams and external partners.

Skills

NLP leadership

Team management

Communication

Education

Master’s or Ph.D. in CS/AI/Computational Linguistics

Tools

Python

NLTK

spaCy

Transformers

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Job description

About the Role

Our client, a groundbreaking technology firm at the forefront of AI innovation, is seeking a Lead AI Engineer specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to join their fully remote global team. This role is crucial for driving the development of advanced conversational AI, text analytics, and language understanding systems. You will lead a team of talented engineers and researchers, guiding the architecture and implementation of cutting‑edge NLP solutions. The ideal candidate has a profound understanding of NLP techniques, extensive experience in developing and deploying AI models at scale, and a passion for creating intelligent systems that interact naturally with humans. This position offers the unique advantage of working entirely remotely, providing ultimate flexibility and access to a diverse, international talent pool. We are looking for a visionary leader to set the technical direction.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of sophisticated NLP models and applications.
• Oversee the end‑to‑end lifecycle of NLP projects, from data acquisition and preprocessing to model training, evaluation, and productionization.
• Mentor and manage a team of AI engineers and researchers focused on NLP tasks.
• Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to define requirements and translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Stay abreast of the latest research and advancements in NLP, deep learning, and related fields.
• Develop and maintain robust, scalable, and efficient NLP pipelines and infrastructure.
• Contribute to the company’s technical strategy and roadmap for AI and NLP development.
• Present findings and project progress to internal teams and external partners.

Requirements

• Master’s or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• Minimum of 6 years of experience in AI/ML engineering, with a strong specialization in Natural Language Processing.
• Proven experience leading technical teams and managing complex NLP projects.
• Expertise in Python and common NLP libraries (e.g., NLTK, spaCy, Hugging Face Transformers, TensorFlow, PyTorch).
• Deep understanding of machine learning algorithms, deep learning architectures (e.g., RNNs, LSTMs, Transformers), and statistical language modeling.
• Experience with large‑scale data processing and deployment of models in cloud environments (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Excellent problem‑solving, analytical, and communication skills, with a proven ability to work effectively in a remote setting.
• Strong understanding of linguistic principles and computational linguistics.
• Experience with model optimization and efficiency for production environments is a plus.

Benefits

• Our client offers a highly competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package, including health, dental, and vision insurance, a generous retirement plan, and significant opportunities for professional growth.
• As this is a fully remote position, we provide support for home office setup and professional development, including conference attendance and advanced training. This role based in **Mahikeng, North West**, operates in a flexible, remote‑first environment, allowing you to work from anywhere.