Remote Principal AI Engineer – Generative Models

Placements24; Stellenbosch; Hybrid; ZAR 1,500,000 - 3,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Performance bonuses

Health & retirement benefits

Professional development budget

Distributed team

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Principal AI Engineer in SA to lead cutting-edge generative AI initiatives from a remote capacity. You will mentor researchers, shape architecture, and push innovations in GANs, diffusion models, and LLMs.

The role emphasizes collaboration, responsible deployment, and publishing research while enabling scalable, production-ready systems across distributed platforms. You will engage with cross-functional teams, drive MLOps practices, maintain high standards of ethics and

Qualifications

• PhD or Master's in CS/ML with focus on generative models.
• 7+ years AI/ML R&D experience focused on generative AI.
• Expert in GANs, VAEs, diffusion models, Transformers, and LLMs.
• Proficient in Python and DL frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, JAX).
• Strong theory in DL, probability, and statistics.
• Experience with large-scale data processing and distributed training.
• Proven track record leading technical projects and mentoring.
• Excellent communication; publications in AI conferences desirable.
• Experience with MLOps for production models.

Responsibilities

• Lead research, design, and implementation of advanced generative AI models.
• Develop novel algorithms for image synthesis, text/code generation, data augmentation.
• Architect scalable systems for training and deployment of generative models.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to apply generative AI across products.
• Stay at the forefront of generative AI research and evaluate new techniques.
• Mentor junior engineers and researchers.
• Publish research findings and contribute to open-source.
• Ensure responsible development and deployment, addressing ethics and biases.
• Evaluate and optimize model performance and production efficiency.

Skills

Generative AI

Transformers

MLOps

Distributed training

Python

Deep learning

Leadership

Education

PhD or MS in CS/ML

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

JAX

Job description

Placements24 is seeking a Principal AI Engineer in SA to lead cutting-edge generative AI initiatives from a remote capacity. You will mentor researchers, shape architecture, and push innovations in GANs, diffusion models, and LLMs.

The role emphasizes collaboration, responsible deployment, and publishing research while enabling scalable, production-ready systems across distributed platforms. You will engage with cross-functional teams, drive MLOps practices, maintain high standards of ethics and