Senior NLP Engineer

Placements24; Benoni; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Health insurance

Leave & holidays

Professional development

Hybrid work model

Conferences

Job summary

Placements24 in Benoni, Gauteng, seeks a Senior NLP Engineer to develop and deploy cutting-edge NLP models. You will build pipelines for data processing, feature extraction, and model training, collaborating with data scientists and engineers in a hybrid setup.

The role requires 5+ years in NLP, strong Python and Transformers / spaCy experience, and a solid ML foundation. Cloud ML workloads and scalable production systems are a plus.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Linguistics, AI, or related field.
• 5+ years of professional NLP experience with production deployments.
• Strong Python proficiency and NLP library experience.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and implement advanced NLP models and algorithms.
• Build and maintain robust NLP pipelines for data processing and model training.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate requirements into NLP solutions.
• Integrate NLP models into existing applications and platforms.
• Evaluate and fine-tune models for accuracy and efficiency.
• Stay updated with NLP research and contribute to tools used company-wide.
• Review code and document models, architectures, and deployments.
• Troubleshoot deployment and performance issues.

Skills

NLP

Python

Transformers

spaCy

Gensim

NLTK

PyTorch

AWS

Problem solving

Teamwork

Education

Bachelor's/Master's in CS/AI

Tools

NLTK

spaCy

Transformers (Hugging Face)

Gensim

Job description

About the Role

Our client, a forward-thinking company in the AI & Emerging Technologies space, is looking for a talented Senior NLP Engineer to join their innovative team. This role is based in Benoni, Gauteng , and operates under a hybrid work model, offering a blend of in-office collaboration and remote flexibility. You will be at the forefront of developing and deploying cutting-edge Natural Language Processing models and applications. This includes working on tasks such as text analysis, sentiment analysis, chatbots, language generation, and information extraction. The ideal candidate possesses a strong foundation in machine learning, deep expertise in NLP techniques, and practical experience in building production-ready NLP systems. You will collaborate closely with data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to bring innovative language-based AI solutions to life. This is an exceptional opportunity to contribute to impactful projects and work with a team dedicated to advancing the field of artificial intelligence. Our client fosters a culture of continuous learning and encourages creative problem-solving.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and implement advanced NLP models and algorithms for various applications.
• Build and maintain robust NLP pipelines for data processing, feature extraction, and model training.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into NLP solutions.
• Integrate NLP models into existing applications and platforms.
• Evaluate and fine-tune NLP models for optimal performance, accuracy, and efficiency.
• Stay current with the latest advancements and research in NLP and machine learning.
• Contribute to the development of NLP tools and libraries used across the organization.
• Participate in code reviews, providing constructive feedback to peers.
• Document NLP models, algorithms, and system designs clearly.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues related to NLP model deployment and performance.

Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in Natural Language Processing.
• Proven experience building and deploying NLP models in production environments.
• Strong proficiency in Python and core NLP libraries such as NLTK, spaCy, Transformers (Hugging Face), Gensim.
• Solid understanding of machine learning principles and deep learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch).
• Experience with various NLP tasks such as text classification, named entity recognition (NER), sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and question answering.
• Familiarity with LLMs and their applications is a strong plus.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) for ML workloads is desirable.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team in a hybrid setup.

Benefits

• A competitive annual salary package, up to ZAR, based on skills and experience.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Generous annual leave and paid public holidays.
• Opportunities for professional development, including training, workshops, and conference attendance.
• A flexible hybrid work arrangement promoting work-life balance.
• Exposure to cutting-edge AI technologies and challenging projects.
• Retirement annuity contributions.
• Collaborative team environment with regular social events.