Remote Senior AI/ML Engineer - NLP Specialist

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

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote across SA

Professional development allowance

Performance bonuses

Flexible schedule

Job summary

Placements24 seeks a Remote Senior AI/ML Engineer specializing in NLP to drive advanced language models for its technology client in South Africa. The role is fully remote and nationwide within SA, focusing on language understanding, generation, and text analysis.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years in AI/ML with NLP, deep learning expertise (Transformers, LSTMs), and proficiency in Python and NLP libraries, with cloud/MLOps experience to deploy models at scale.

Qualifications

• Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, or related field with NLP focus.
• Minimum 5 years of professional AI/ML experience with emphasis on NLP.
• Strong background in deep learning models for NLP (LSTMs, GRUs, Transformers).

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy state-of-the-art NLP models for text classification, sentiment analysis, NER, and QA.
• Build and optimize NLU and NLG systems.
• Develop robust data pipelines for text data preprocessing and model training.
• Implement and manage MLOps for NLP models in production.

Skills

NLP development

Deep learning for NLP

Python

NLP libraries

MLOps

Education

Masters/PhD in CS/AI/Linguistics (NLP)

Tools

spaCy

NLTK

Hugging Face Transformers

Job description

About the Role

Our client, a dynamic technology firm focused on Scientific Research & Development , is seeking a highly skilled Remote Senior AI/ML Engineer with a specialization in Natural Language Processing (NLP). This is a fully remote position, open to candidates nationwide within South Africa . You will be instrumental in developing and deploying advanced NLP models and solutions that drive our core product offerings. This role requires deep expertise in NLP techniques, strong software engineering skills, and a passion for building intelligent systems that understand and process human language. You will collaborate with a talented, distributed team of engineers and researchers, tackling complex challenges in text analysis, language generation, and conversational AI. The ideal candidate is a proactive problem-solver, adept at translating complex linguistic challenges into scalable technical solutions, and comfortable working autonomously in a remote environment. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of AI and creating impactful language technologies.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy state-of-the-art NLP models for tasks such as text classification, sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, and question answering.
• Build and optimize natural language understanding (NLU) and natural language generation (NLG) systems.
• Develop and maintain robust data pipelines for text data preprocessing, feature extraction, and model training.
• Collaborate with product managers and other engineers to define NLP project requirements and integrate solutions into production systems.
• Implement and manage MLOps practices for NLP models, ensuring scalability, efficiency, and reliability.
• Write clean, well-documented, and maintainable code in Python, utilizing relevant NLP libraries (e.g., spaCy, NLTK, Hugging Face Transformers).
• Stay abreast of the latest research and advancements in NLP and machine learning.
• Conduct experiments to evaluate model performance and explore new techniques.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex technical issues in NLP pipelines and deployed models.
• Contribute to technical documentation and knowledge sharing within the engineering team.

Requirements

• Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, or a related field with a focus on NLP.
• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in AI/ML engineering, with a significant focus on NLP development.
• Strong theoretical understanding and practical experience with deep learning models for NLP (e.g., LSTMs, GRUs, Transformers).
• Proficiency in Python and common NLP libraries and frameworks.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and their ML/NLP services is a plus.
• Solid understanding of software engineering best practices, data structures, and algorithms.
• Experience with MLOps and deploying models into production environments.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a remote team setting.
• Must be legally authorized to work remotely within South Africa .

Benefits

• Our client offers a highly competitive salary, comprehensive health and retirement benefits, and the significant advantage of a fully remote work arrangement across South Africa .
• We provide a generous professional development allowance, covering conferences, workshops, and further education relevant to AI and NLP.
• Employees benefit from challenging, impactful projects, a collaborative online culture, and the flexibility to manage their work schedule.
• Additional perks include ample paid time off and opportunities for performance-based bonuses, making this an exceptional remote career opportunity.