Mid-Level ML Engineer/ Researcher

Dakar, Nairobi or anywhere remote in Africa
 

 

 About YUX

YUX is a pan-African research and design company founded in 2016 in Senegal. We combine social sciences, design thinking, and technology to co-create services tailored to African communities and their diversity. Today, YUX is a team of 50 full-time behavioral researchers and designers based in Dakar, Accra, Abuja, Lagos, Kigali and Nairobi. We collaborate with global organizations such as the Gates Foundation, UNICEF, Google, Wikipedia, TikTok, Meta, Square/Block, m-Pesa and numerous local startups on projects in health, education, agriculture, and fintech. To inspire and make UX and Human-Centered Design more accessible in Africa, we have created the market research software LOOKA, the Academy, and the gaming studio Kayfo.

What are we looking for

We are seeking a driven and experienced Mid-Level ML Engineer/Researcher to spearhead the development and refinement of our LLM evaluation and localization initiatives. You will bridge the gap between research and implementation, contributing to both the strategic direction and practical execution of our projects..

Your missions

  • Design and implement robust data collection strategies, ensuring ethical and culturally sensitive practices. Oversee data annotation and quality control processes while providing coaching and support to junior team members.
  • Fine-tune, evaluate, and optimize LLMs using our curated datasets, with a focus on enhancing cultural relevance, reducing bias, and improving performance across diverse African contexts.
  • Develop and maintain scalable data processing pipelines for cleaning, annotating, and transforming data, optimizing for efficiency and performance.
  • Contribute significantly to the development and enhancement of our online platform for dataset access and LLM evaluation tools, ensuring a user-friendly and efficient experience.
  • Conduct in-depth research on culturally relevant AI development, identifying emerging trends and contributing to publications and presentations.
  • Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior team members, fostering a collaborative and knowledge-sharing environment.
  • Manage and optimize our cloud computing environment (ideally Google Cloud), ensuring efficient resource utilization and scalability.
  • Work closely with cross-functional teams, including behavioral researchers, software engineers, and product managers, to ensure seamless project execution and clear communication.

Qualifications 

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
  • 2-5 years of experience in AI/ML research or development, with a strong focus on natural language processing (NLP) and LLMs.
  • Deep understanding of LLM architectures, training methodologies, and evaluation metrics. 
  • Demonstrated experience with Speech to text and Translation models and / or unstructured data is a plus.
  • Strong programming skills in Python and experience with relevant machine learning libraries (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, Hugging Face Transformers).
  • Experience in building and deploying machine learning models in production environments.
  • An experience with cloud computing platforms, particularly the Google Cloud & Vertex environment is a plus.
  • Strong interest in responsible AI principles and ethical considerations in AI development.
  • Proficiency in English
  • Experience with leading small technical teams or projects is a plus.

Other stuff

  • Contract : Full-time / 40 hours per week
  • Women candidates are strongly encouraged to apply
  • Total work flexibility and autonomy - we don’t care where you are as long as you meet with your colleagues when needed, are super efficient and grow your leadership within the company.
  • We think we have one of the best work environments you can find. We offer competitive salaries plus great, non-material benefits (insurance, personal flight tickets, conference flight ticket, etc.) - read more about it here - however we’re still a self-funded African SME, so don’t apply if you're still somewhat attracted by big corporate or NGO money, cars and suits!.

Are you interested?

Please send your CV, a portfolio/links to your work and a few words of motivation (not a formal letter!) by clicking on the button below. Best of luck!"