Senior Artificial Intelligence Engineer

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is a leading scientific and technology research organisation that research, develops, localises and diffuses technologies to accelerate socio-economic prosperity in South Africa. The organisation's work contributes to industrial development and supports a capable state. The CSIR has a vacancy for a Senior Artificial Intelligence Engineer in the

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is a leading scientific and technology research organisation that researches, develops, localises and diffuses technologies to accelerate socio-economic prosperity in South Africa. The organisations work contributes to industrial development and supports a capable state.

Senior Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer

About The Job

The CSIR has a vacancy for Senior Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer in the Emerging Digital Technologies for fourth Industrial Revolution (EDT4IR) Research Centre within the Next Generation Enterprises and Institutions Cluster. This position is based in Pretoria and will report to the Research Group Leader.

For more information about the cluster, please visit https://www.csir.co.za/nextgen-enterprises-and-institutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop innovative solutions in AI and remain well-versed in new technologies in the evolving AI space;
• Design, develop and implement AI systems architecture and solutions;
• Supervise/mentor junior staff in the area(s) of expertise;
• Generate and contribute towards science engineering and technology (SET) activity outputs e.g., reports, guidelines, system requirements, peer-reviewed publications, and technology and software packages;
• Understand and interpret client requirements by contributing to user requirement analysis and/or well-articulated proposals;
• Remain current in field of expertise with respect to new approaches in tools, methods or technologies;
• Participate in external task teams or committees in relevant domains.
  
  

Qualifications, Skills And Experience

• A Bachelors degree in computer science/engineering, electrical/electronic engineering, information technology or related field with at least five years experience in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and software development in Artificial Intelligence Technologies;
• An Honours or Masters degree will be advantageous;
• Experience in the following:
• Applied machine-learning with regression, classification, etc. models for supervised learning;
• Natural language processing and understanding, Large language models;
• Building multimodal models;
• Unstructured data;
• Big-data unsupervised learning;
• Data platform engineering;
• Demonstrated experience in bringing theoretical machine-learning approaches illustrated in academia research papers to actual implementations, i.e. implemented and deployed into large-scale production system certain advanced ML and applied ML algorithms;
• Cloud-based platforms: AWS, IBM Cloud, Azure;
• Proficiency and experience building AI models with a deep learning framework such as TensorFlow, Keras or Theano;
• Ability to select hardware to run an ML model with the required latency;
• Exposure to Project Management;
• Understanding of transforming/implementing software/algorithms for use in real-life systems would be advantageous;
• Knowledge of programming in modern object orientated languages, with Open-Source development tools and platforms;
• Ability to demonstrate Object-orientated software engineering skills;
• Strong quantitative skills (mathematics/statistics/computer science);
• Demonstrated ability to supervise/mentor/develop junior staff;
• Demonstrated skills in: analytical thinking, flexibility and adaptability, investigative orientation, planning and organising, problem solving, verbal and written communication, teamwork, self-management (planning, prioritising and time management includes the ability to work independently), systems level thinking, multi-disciplinary knowledge;
  

Whats in it for you?

The CSIR Offers

• Flexible hybrid work arrangement;
• Learning and development opportunities.
• Competitive and market-related remuneration packages.
• Total guaranteed salary packages which encompass contributions to the pension fund, risk insurance and medical scheme.
• We openly acknowledge and reward our employees' contributions and accomplishments through our esteemed CSIR Excellence Awards.
  
  

PLEASE NOTE THAT FEEDBACK WILL BE GIVEN TO SHORTLISTED CANDIDATES ONLY.

For more info, please contact the CSIR Recruitment Centre on 012841 4774 or email us at [email protected]

The CSIR is an equal opportunity employer. As such, it is committed to the employment Equity Act and will through the filling of this vacancy, give preference to candidates from designated groups in terms of the Employment Equity Act. By applying for this position at the CSIR, the applicant understands, and agrees that the CSIR may solicit a credit and criminal report from registered credit bureau and/or South African Police Services (in relation to positions that requires trust and honesty and/or entail the handling of cash or finances), and may also verify the applicants educational qualification and employment history. The CSIR reserves the right to remove the advertisement at any time before the stated closing date and it further reserves the right not to appoint if a suitable candidate is not identified.