At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the development of Africa-first language models and ensure high-quality delivery.
- Company: Join a pioneering tech initiative focused on African languages and AI.
- Benefits: Competitive pay, generous holidays, and professional development opportunities.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with a focus on innovation and community engagement.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on AI representation for African languages.
- Qualifications: Experience in NLP and developing language models for diverse linguistic structures.
The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 € per year.
Department: Technology
Team: AI Foundry
Location: London (Hybrid or Remote) / Nairobi
Position type: Contractor (umbrella – inside IR35) until 24th December 2026; Full Time
About The Team
The Africa AI Language Initiative brings together mobile operators, African researchers, startups, academia, and GSMA to build and deploy open, representative language models for Africa. The team is multidisciplinary — spanning AI research, data governance, telco engagement, technical programme delivery, and community development.
About The Role
You will guide the development of 3–5 Africa-first open language models end-to-end, acting as the technical anchor and coordinator across multiple model‑building tracks. You will ensure alignment between researchers, operators, and partners, while driving high-quality technical outcomes, documentation, and model readiness.
About You
You will bring demonstrable experience in developing and evaluating language models, with a strong grounding in NLP techniques relevant to African languages. You’ll be able to work across diverse linguistic structures—such as tonal variation, agglutination, rich morphology, and non-standardised orthographies—to ensure that models reflect real-world language use across the continent. Your ability to analyse datasets, identify representational gaps, and guide the creation of high-quality corpora will directly shape the performance and inclusiveness of our Africa first models.
You’ll be comfortable working end-to-end across the research workflow: from tokenisation strategies suitable for low resource languages, to training and finetuning multilingual models, to designing evaluation methods that capture linguistic nuance. You will apply your technical depth to help partners understand model behaviour, tradeoffs, and opportunities for improvement. You’ll communicate these insights clearly, helping a broad ecosystem—including operators, researchers, community groups, and developers—collaborate effectively around open model development.
You’ll be curious and adaptable, able to test new methods quickly while maintaining scientific rigour. Through structured documentation, reproducible experimentation, and responsible data practices, you’ll help ensure these open models meet the highest standards for transparency and reliability.
Core Skills
- Data Analysis: apply analytical rigour to evaluate datasets and model outputs, identifying linguistic patterns, bias risks, and areas for improving representation across African languages.
- AI Research: explore and adapt advanced NLP techniques—including tokenisation, alignment, and evaluation methods—to address the challenges of low-resource and morphologically rich languages.
- Communication: translate complex technical concepts into clear, accessible explanations for partners across Africa, enabling shared understanding of modelling decisions and outcomes.
- Delivery: drive research workstreams with structure and consistency, ensuring training runs, evaluations, documentation, and model releases are delivered to a high technical standard.
- Stakeholder Management: collaborate confidently with researchers, operators, universities, and data communities, ensuring alignment on linguistic priorities, data quality, and model behaviour.
Contract type
Short term Contractor
What We Offer
In addition to architect-designed offices and competitive compensation, our benefits include fantastic learning & development opportunities, generous holiday allowances, four additional days off for professional development and many others.
AI Research Lead - African First Language Models in London employer: GSMA
As an AI Research Lead at our company, you will be part of a pioneering initiative that focuses on developing Africa-first language models, contributing to meaningful advancements in AI technology. Our hybrid and remote work options promote a flexible work culture, while our commitment to employee growth is reflected in our generous learning and development opportunities, including additional days off for professional development. Join us in a collaborative environment where your expertise will directly impact the representation of African languages in AI.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land AI Research Lead - African First Language Models in London
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to people in the AI and language model space, especially those connected to the Africa AI Language Initiative. Attend events, webinars, or even local meetups to make connections that could lead to job opportunities.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! Create a portfolio showcasing your work on language models, especially if you've tackled African languages. This will give potential employers a clear view of what you can bring to the table.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for interviews by brushing up on your knowledge of NLP techniques relevant to African languages. Be ready to discuss your experience with data analysis and model evaluation, as these are key areas for the role.
✨Tip Number 4
Don't forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, it shows you're genuinely interested in joining our mission to build Africa-first language models.
We think you need these skills to ace AI Research Lead - African First Language Models in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Your Passion for AI and African Languages:When writing your application, let your enthusiasm for AI and African languages shine through. We want to see how your experience aligns with our mission to build Africa-first language models, so don’t hold back on sharing your journey in this field!
Be Clear and Concise:Keep your application straightforward and to the point. We appreciate clarity, so make sure you highlight your relevant skills and experiences without unnecessary fluff. This helps us quickly see how you fit into our team.
Tailor Your Application:Make sure to customise your application for the AI Research Lead role. Use keywords from the job description and demonstrate how your background in NLP techniques and data analysis can contribute to our Africa AI Language Initiative.
Apply Through Our Website:We encourage you to apply directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your application and ensures you’re considered for this exciting opportunity. Plus, it’s super easy to do!
How to prepare for a job interview at GSMA
✨Know Your NLP Inside Out
Make sure you brush up on your knowledge of NLP techniques, especially those relevant to African languages. Be ready to discuss specific methods you've used in the past, like tokenisation strategies or evaluation methods, and how they can be applied to low-resource languages.
✨Showcase Your Data Analysis Skills
Prepare to talk about your experience with data analysis. Think of examples where you've identified linguistic patterns or bias risks in datasets. Being able to demonstrate your analytical rigour will show that you can contribute to improving representation across African languages.
✨Communicate Clearly and Effectively
Practice explaining complex technical concepts in simple terms. You’ll need to communicate with a diverse range of stakeholders, so being able to translate your insights into accessible language is key. Consider role-playing with a friend to refine your explanations.
✨Demonstrate Your Collaborative Spirit
Be prepared to discuss how you've worked with various stakeholders in the past. Highlight any experiences where you’ve ensured alignment on linguistic priorities or collaborated with researchers and operators. This will show that you can thrive in a multidisciplinary team environment.
