Product Research Scientist, Lelapa AI

About Us

Lelapa AI is building a localised African AI lab and pioneering language technologies designed for Africans, by Africans—pushing the boundaries of AI research, product development, and technological innovation. As a fast-growing, high-impact AI startup, our distributed team across Africa, Europe, and North America is shaping the future of AI on the continent. The coming wave of African AI talent needs a home to continue their work: to do their best research, and to convert the results into products that improve African lives. Lelapa AI will be that home.

About The Role

The challenge is big! Low-resourced languages do not have enough data to train traditional models. Low-resourced languages need to be deployed on low- resourced hardware. How do we create models that are both data-efficient and resource-efficient? How can we match user needs quickly? How good are the models really? We are looking for a brave Product Research Scientist to research, build and improve multilingual African language models for various African NLP tasks (with a focus on transcription and translation)

Responsibilities

• Model Development: Design, develop, and optimise NLP models tailored to African languages, dialects, and linguistic characteristics for real-world applications. This includes tasks such as language modelling, speech recognition, sentiment analysis, machine translation, and more.
• Model Diagnostics:
• Dig deep into Model Success & Failures:
• Perform error analysis (with the help of language experts) to understand where the models might be failing
• Develop processes, frameworks for understanding model failures in detail.
• Discover insights for researchers to improve their modes.
• Incorporate model explainability and interpretability metrics into the evaluations.
• Evaluation and Testing: Design and implement rigorous testing and evaluation frameworks to assess the performance and effectiveness of NLP models and products across various African languages. Contribute to continuous monitoring and analysis of models in production.
• Data Acquisition and Annotation: Collaborate with data team and linguists to curate and preprocess linguistic data specific to African languages. Develop strategies for data collection, cleaning, and annotation.
• Product Design: Work closely with the product team to translate research findings into practical, user-friendly NLP applications and tools that address real-world problems faced by Africans. Work with the product team to integrate updates and feedback into models to improve models. Iterate quickly on base models to supply product demos with finetuned models according to client domains.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including engineers, designers, and product managers, to integrate NLP solutions into our products and ensure seamless user experiences.
• Documentation and Communication: Document research findings, methodologies, and algorithms. Present research findings and progress updates to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Keep published model’s datasheets and model cards up to date.
• Continuous Learning: Stay current with advancements in NLP, machine learning, and related fields. Attend conferences, workshops, and seminars to enhance practice.
  
  

Skills

Required:

• Degree in Data Science Computer Science, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, or a related field is preferred (Masters level preferred)
• 2-3 years experience working in Data Science and/or on real-world AI products.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python and experience with deep learning frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch and NLP libraries such as HuggingFace.
• Experience or excitement for working in fast-paced startup environments and ability to manage competing priorities
• Passion for leveraging technology to address linguistic and cultural challenges to drive positive impact in Africa
• Comfortability with detailed error analysis for real-world use cases
• High attention to detail
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to work independently.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to think critically, be self-driven and break down hard problems
• Knowledge on Responsible AI and the limitations of machine learning
• Familiarity with Agile processes.
  
  

Plus

• Knowledge of African languages.
• Experience in working on NLP projects in African contexts.
• Experience with utilising MLOps tools and models in production
• Strong background in NLP research and development, with a focus on language modeling, speech recognition, sentiment analysis, machine ranslation, or similar areas.
• A strong understanding of techniques for working with low-resourced languages (e.g. transfer learning, few shot learning, active learning)
• Publications in NLP
  
  

Benefits

• Flexible work arrangements with remote-friendly policies
• Opportunity to drive research innovation in a high-growth AI startup
• Medical aid contribution
• Substantial parental leave.
• Work with cutting-edge AI technologies focused on African languages and use cases
• 25 days of vacation leave
• Direct impact on product roadmap and technology decisions
  
  

Remuneration

R 50 000 - R 80 000 per month (depending on seniority)