Senior Machine Learning Engineer

takealot.com; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,700,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote or hybrid working

Mentorship programme

Staff discount

Birthday leave

Job summary

Mr D, a division of the Takealot Group, seeks a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to develop robust ML models for e‑commerce, with a strong emphasis on applied ML and production readiness.

You will work with customer data, build and evaluate models, and help deploy scalable data pipelines. The role demands Python, Linux, and hands‑on ML experience in a fast‑growing team.

Qualifications

• Degree in CS or Engineering or related field with software experience.
• 5–10+ years applying ML to real-world problems or 5–10+ years in commercial software.
• Strong stats, modeling and ML technique knowledge.
• Experience in agile, hands-on teams; Python and Linux proficient.
• Experience with BigQuery, TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, PyTorch, Pandas.

Responsibilities

• Analyze, build, evaluate, and productionise ML models from large customer data.
• Improve existing models and contribute to new development roadmaps.
• Collaborate across teams on design reviews and deployment pipelines.
• Stay current with ML advances and translate to practical solutions.
• Contribute to scalable data processing pipelines for ML workflows.

Skills

Python

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Scikit-learn

Pandas

BigQuery

Linux

AWS

Kafka

Kubernetes

Data Mining

Education

Degree in Computer Science or Engineering

MSc or PhD (bonus)

Tools

Docker

Google Cloud Platform

Job description

Mr D, a division of the Takealot Group, is looking for a highly talented Senior Machine Learning Engineer to join our team. We are a young, dynamic, hyper-growth company looking for smart, creative, hard-working people with integrity to join us!

• Scale: Millions of happy shoppers use Mr D. Show them what you can do.
• Learn: We work with the best of the best, and then some. Work alongside industry leaders and up-skill in record time.
• Grow: Expand your career in the fast-growing Takealot Group: takealot.com, Mr D & Takealot Fulfilment Solutions. We like to promote from within: Here\'s your chance.

This position reports to the Machine Learning Engineering Manager.

As a Machine Learning Engineer, your expertise directly translates into the development of robust machine learning models in the e-commerce domain. You come from a development background with an emphasis on applied machine learning. You will have the opportunity to implement best practices to improve the existing machine learning models and participate in the development of new ones.

This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a growing and dynamic team of machine learning engineers working on Mr D\'s ambitious development roadmap.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Work with a firehose of customer data.
• Analyze, build, evaluate, and productionise machine learning models.
• Touch all aspects of the business in your domain.
• Brainstorm new ideas and concepts to solve specific use cases.
• Work with teammates on design and code reviews.
• Keep abreast of developments in the machine learning domain.

The skills and attributes we need:

• Be creative
• Be flexible
• Be a team player
• Be data-oriented
• Take pride in your work
• Be a good communicator

Qualifications & Preferred Experience:

• Degree in Computer Science or Engineering (alternatively, a degree in a related field with work experience as a software engineer).
• 5 to 10+ years of experience applying machine learning to real-world problems OR
• 5 to 10+ years of commercial software development experience
• Strong understanding of statistical analysis, modeling, and machine learning techniques.
• Experience working within an agile team that is operationally hands-on and an advocate of that culture.
• Experience with Python
• Experience with Linux
• Experience with BigQuery.
• Experience with TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, PyTorch, and Pandas.
• Experience building scalable data processing pipelines for machine learning workflows.
• Experience with deploying machine learning to production environments.
• Data Mining and Big Data experience.

Bonus Skills and Experience:

• MSc (master of science) or PhD (doctorate).
• Experience with cloud-based platforms such as Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• Experience with end-to-end machine learning frameworks such as Kubeflow, TensorFlow Extended, MLflow, Sagemaker Pipelines or GCP VertexAI/Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform Pipelines.
• Experience with serving machine learning models, such as TensorFlow Serving, KServe, or managed serving solutions such as AWS Sagemaker Endpoints and GCP VertexAI/ Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform Endpoints.
• Experience designing and executing large-scale LLM prompt pipelines for automated tasks such as classification and data extraction.

Let\'s talk about life @ Takealot Group

• Free takealotMORE subscription
• No doors: We aren\'t fans of stuffy offices or siloed work environments. See someone you like? High five, collab, and make something great.
• Remote working: Love water cooler chats and working from home? Takealot.com offers a remote or hybrid working model for the best of both worlds.
• Mentorship programme: We aren\'t kidding when we say the people with the best people win. Now\'s your chance to be one of the best by learning from the best.
• Naspers Tech Community & Online Learning: Share ideas and grow with global industry leaders who are all just a Slack message away. Love to learn? Upskill with free access to courses on MyAcademy, Udacity, Coursera, and more.
• Good times: Get to know the other extraordinary minds at takealot.com during regular social events and out-of-office activities (think hikes, think mini golf, think good times).
• Staff discount. Millions of products across 28 departments. What more could you ask for?
• Birthday leave: Cake Day all the way. Enjoy your day off - you deserve it.
• Right tools, right job: You\'ll work on the latest tech
• Help when you need it most: Confidential counselling, legal support, and financial guidance, for free, anytime, anywhere.
• Tech stack (for days): Python, AWS, Kafka, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes, IOT/MQTT and all things machine learning. If you build it, they will come.
• Free parking: No more 5km fun runs to your desk (unless you want to).

Like what you see?

If you meet the above, you are an Extraordinary Mind.

Mr D is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants from previously disadvantaged groups and people with disabilities will be given preference.