Senior NLP Engineer - Language Technologies

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

Benefits offered by this job

Salary incentives

Health benefits

Growth opportunities

Cutting-edge tools

Collaborative culture

Hybrid work Pretoria

Training programs

Employee assistance

Job summary

Placements24 in Pretoria, South Africa, seeks a Senior NLP Engineer to advance language understanding models powering cutting-edge AI applications.

You will design and deploy NLP models, fine-tune transformers, process large text datasets, and collaborate with product teams to ship production-ready solutions.

The role offers a hybrid work arrangement in Pretoria with opportunities for growth, research access, and a strong focus on responsible AI.

Qualifications

• Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, or a related field.
• 5+ years hands-on NLP experience.
• Proficiency in Python with NLP libraries such as spaCy, NLTK, Transformers.
• Strong understanding of TensorFlow and PyTorch for NLP.
• Experience with transformer-based models (BERT, GPT) and fine-tuning.
• Familiarity with data preprocessing techniques for text data.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) for training and deployment.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and strong communication.
• Ability to thrive in a hybrid work environment in Pretoria.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy advanced NLP models and algorithms.
• Fine-tune state-of-the-art deep learning models for NLP tasks (text generation, summarization, translation).
• Process and analyze large volumes of text data to improve model performance.
• Collaborate with product managers and software engineers to integrate NLP capabilities into client-facing products.
• Develop and maintain NLP pipelines including tokenization, parsing, and feature extraction.
• Evaluate and benchmark NLP models, identify improvements and optimizations.
• Stay current with latest NLP research and advancements.
• Contribute to reusable NLP libraries and tools.
• Mentor junior engineers and share knowledge within the team.

Job description

About the Role

Our client, a pioneer in natural language processing and conversational AI, is seeking a Senior NLP Engineer to join their innovative team in Pretoria, Gauteng . This role is central to developing and refining sophisticated language understanding models that power cutting-edge applications. You will work on challenging problems such as text classification, sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, machine translation, and question answering systems. The ideal candidate is passionate about pushing the boundaries of NLP, with a strong theoretical foundation and practical experience in building production-ready systems. Join a collaborative environment dedicated to advancing AI's impact on human communication and information access, located in Pretoria, Gauteng .

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) models and algorithms.
• Implement and fine-tune state-of-the-art deep learning models for various NLP tasks (e.g., text generation, summarization, translation).
• Process and analyze large volumes of text data to extract insights and improve model performance.
• Collaborate with product managers and software engineers to integrate NLP capabilities into client-facing products.
• Develop and maintain NLP pipelines, including tokenization, parsing, and feature extraction.
• Evaluate and benchmark NLP models, identifying areas for improvement and optimization.
• Stay current with the latest research and advancements in the NLP field.
• Contribute to the development of reusable NLP libraries and tools.
• Mentor junior engineers and share knowledge within the team.

Requirements

• Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, or a related field.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in Natural Language Processing.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, with extensive experience using NLP libraries (e.g., spaCy, NLTK, Transformers).
• Strong understanding of deep learning frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) and their application to NLP.
• Experience with transformer-based models (e.g., BERT, GPT) and their fine-tuning.
• Familiarity with data preprocessing techniques for text data.
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) for model training and deployment is a plus.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to work with complex datasets.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts clearly.
• Ability to thrive in a hybrid work environment in Pretoria, Gauteng .

Benefits

• Competitive salary and performance incentives.
• Comprehensive health and retirement benefits.
• Opportunities for professional growth and skill development.
• Access to cutting-edge NLP research and tools.
• Collaborative and intellectually stimulating work environment.
• Flexible hybrid work arrangements in Pretoria, Gauteng .
• Regular company-sponsored training and workshops.
• Employee assistance program.