Remote Lead Machine Learning Engineer

Placements24; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 1,990,000 - 3,151,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote role

Stock options

Generous annual leave

Online learning opportunities

Distributed team culture

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Lead Machine Learning Engineer to drive innovation and deploy AI-driven solutions for fintech products. This fully remote role requires mentoring a team of ML engineers and collaborating with data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to translate business needs into scalable ML systems.

You will research and implement advanced ML techniques for fraud detection, credit scoring, and customer insights, while building robust pipelines and ensuring production

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in CS, ML, AI, statistics.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience deploying ML models.
• Experience leading ML projects or teams.
• Strong Python programming and ML libraries (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn).
• Experience with Spark, Hadoop and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Solid understanding of ML algorithms and their finance applications.
• Excellent software engineering fundamentals and problem-solving.
• Exceptional communication in distributed teams; collaboration is key.
• Experience with MLOps tools and CI/CD for ML models.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, and deployment of scalable ML models.
• Mentor a team of ML engineers in technical excellence.
• Collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and product managers to define requirements.
• Research state-of-the-art ML algorithms for finance problems.
• Develop robust ML pipelines: preprocessing, training, evaluation, monitoring.
• Ensure performance and reliability of ML systems in production.
• Contribute to the company’s AI/ML strategy and roadmap.
• Stay updated on ML advances and advocate adoption.
• Drive MLOps practices and model versioning/CI-CD.

Skills

Python

TensorFlow

PyTorch

scikit-learn

Spark

Hadoop

AWS

Azure

GCP

MLOps

Education

Master's or PhD in CS/ML/AI/Statistics

Tools

MLflow

Kubeflow

Job description

About the Role

Our client is a pioneering financial technology company seeking a talented Lead Machine Learning Engineer to drive innovation and spearhead the development of cutting‑edge AI-driven solutions. This is a fully remote position, offering the flexibility to work from anywhere. You will be instrumental in designing, implementing, and deploying advanced machine learning models that will transform our financial products and services. This role requires a deep technical background, a passion for problem‑solving, and the ability to lead and mentor a team of talented engineers. You'll work on challenging projects that have a direct impact on our business growth and customer experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of scalable machine learning models and systems.
• Mentor and guide a team of machine learning engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and innovation.
• Collaborate with data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to define project requirements and translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Research and implement state‑of‑the‑art ML algorithms and techniques to solve complex financial problems, such as fraud detection, credit scoring, algorithmic trading, and customer behaviour prediction.
• Develop and maintain robust ML pipelines, including data preprocessing, feature engineering, model training, evaluation, and monitoring.
• Ensure the performance, scalability, and reliability of ML systems in production environments.
• Contribute to the company's technical strategy and roadmap for AI and machine learning.
• Stay current with the latest advancements in ML research and technology, and advocate for their adoption where appropriate.
• Drive best practices in MLOps, model versioning, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) for ML models.

Requirements

• Master's or PhD degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, or a related quantitative field.
• 5+ years of hands‑on experience in developing and deploying machine learning models in production.
• Proven experience in leading ML projects or teams.
• Strong programming skills in Python and expertise with ML libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit‑learn, etc.
• Experience with big data technologies (e.g., Spark, Hadoop) and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Solid understanding of various ML algorithms (e.g., deep learning, reinforcement learning, NLP, time series analysis) and their applications in finance.
• Excellent understanding of software engineering principles, data structures, and algorithms.
• Strong problem‑solving abilities and a proactive approach to identifying and resolving technical challenges.
• Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a distributed team environment.
• Experience with MLOps tools and frameworks (e.g., MLflow, Kubeflow).

Benefits

As a fully remote role, this position offers unparalleled flexibility. Our client provides a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits package, stock options, and a generous annual leave policy. You will have the opportunity to work with a talented, globally distributed team on groundbreaking financial technology. Continuous learning and professional development are strongly encouraged, with access to online courses, conferences, and workshops. Enjoy a vibrant and collaborative remote culture where your contributions are highly valued.