Senior AI/ML Engineer

About ALX Africa

ALX Africa, a non-profit organisation under the ALX Foundation, is dedicated to unlocking the potential of Africa's digital future. Formerly part of Sand Tech Holdings, we've embarked on an independent journey to provide world-class tech skills training and career acceleration programmes. Our mission is to bridge the digital divide, upskill and re-skill talent, and create a generation of innovative leaders. By 2030, we aim to empower 2 million Africans to secure sustainable tech careers.

With hubs in 8 cities across Africa and counting, we provide safe access to quality learning and a dedicated network of expert instructors. Our innovative programmes equip learners with the practical skills and knowledge needed to succeed in today's rapidly evolving tech industry. Through a combination of rigorous coursework, industry partnerships, and hands-on projects, we prepare our students for in-demand roles in software engineering, data science, and cybersecurity.

We achieve this by:

• Providing young professionals with access to the most in-demand tech skills that will power the future.
• Empowering the next generation of technology innovators, entrepreneurs, and business leaders through challenging, real-world coursework.
• Building a lifelong, impactful community of tech professionals that support them at all stages of their career journey. 

Our impact thus far:

• 347k+ graduates since 2020
• 257k youth in work
• 31k youth starting own ventures
• 60k youth in jobs created by entrepreneurs

 Visit our website www.alxafrica.com to learn more about our digital revolution.

Role Summary

Project A is ALX’s AI learning platform. Under it sits a competency model and the hard algorithmic question of the whole system: given what we know about a learner, what should they do next? The Senior AI/ML Engineer designs and builds that engine. It is a probabilistic path-recommendation problem in the family of Bayesian Knowledge Tracing and Knowledge Space Theory, and it has to work from a cold start: no behavioural data yet, so the model is the prior. You encode the prerequisite structure of the domain and let it update as learners come through. We deliberately want an engineer with real modelling depth rather than a pure data scientist on a team this small, the high-value work on day zero is building, not analysing data we don’t yet have.

Specific Responsibilities

Competency Navigation Algorithm

• Own the competency navigation algorithm behind the Learner-Competency-Mapper, its design, implementation, and update dynamics as real data arrives.
• Encode the prerequisite structure of the domain and its priors, so the model performs from a cold start and improves as learners flow through.

LLM Processing & ML Growth

• Build pipelines that turn unstructured platform data into signal -  first, a constrained LLM-as-judge answering whether Chidi is effective, with model selection, eval design, and awareness of judges’ own failure modes.
• As the platform accumulates a feedback stream, builds behavioural and at-risk profiling and the models that evaluate learners for the Grader-Competency-Pulser; the role grows into genuine ML/data-science work as the data asset does.

Skill Requirements - Essential

• Probabilistic / Bayesian modelling: real depth - you have designed models from domain structure, not just fit them to data.
• Python & shipping: strong Python and the ability to ship what you design, production pipelines, not notebooks.
• Evaluation: eval design experience, or the judgment to build it fast.
• Desirable (not required): BKT/KST or psychometrics exposure; MLflow or similar experiment tracking; knowledge graphs. No prior EdTech required but useful.
• Serious probabilistic modelling of structured domains (recommenders, knowledge graphs, causal inference) is great.

Essential Traits for Success

• You reason carefully about your assumptions - in a cold-start model, bad priors compound silently, and you find that problem interesting.
• You learn unfamiliar domains fast and enjoy it.
• You can talk about a model that was wrong and how you found out.

Person Specification/Attributes

• Courage: Willingness to speak up, challenge the status quo, and embrace new challenges.
• Humility: Openness to learning, seeking help when needed, and a focus on serving others.
• Adventure: A passion for setting ambitious goals, tackling difficult tasks, and finding joy in the journey.
• Initiative: Proactive problem-solving, a sense of ownership, and a willingness to go above and beyond.
• Resilience: The ability to bounce back from setbacks, persevere through challenges, and emerge stronger.

Employment Type

This role is a full-time position.

Preferred Time Zones

The preferred time zones are GMT+2.

Due to the considerable amount of virtual working and interaction with colleagues and customers in different physical locations internationally, it is essential that the successful applicant has the drive and ethic to succeed working in small teams physically but in larger efforts virtually. Self-drive to communicate constantly using web collaboration and video conferencing is essential. As an employee, you will be encouraged to continually develop your capability & attain certifications to reflect your growth as an individual.