The Punch is a Nigerian daily newspaper founded on August 8, 1970. Punch Nigeria Limited is registered under the Companies Act of 1968 to publish newspapers, magazines and other periodicals. The newspaper's aim is said to be to inform, educate and entertain Nigerians and the world at large.
Job Summary
- We’re now seeking a Founding Engineer (AI/ML) to architect, build, and scale the core technology powering this platform.
- This is a cofounder-level role for a builder who thrives at the intersection of data, product, and AI innovation.
Responsibilities
What You Will Do:
- Design and build core systems: Develop the backend and AI pipelines that extract, process, and analyze document data at scale.
- Lead AI/ML development: Implement and fine-tune NLP, LLM, and embedding models for document understanding, summarization, and knowledge retrieval.
- Architect scalable infrastructure: Design APIs, microservices, and data pipelines that enable real-time document processing and integration.
- Collaborate on product direction: Work closely with founders on technical strategy, product roadmap, and user experience decisions.
- Experiment and innovate: Prototype new AI-driven features, run model performance experiments, and drive the technical vision for the product.
- Establish engineering culture: Set development standards, implement CI/CD practices, and mentor future hires as the engineering team grows.
Who You Are
- A hands-on builder passionate about AI, data, and product-led problem-solving.
- Skilled in Python, FastAPI (or similar frameworks), and ML/NLP libraries such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or Hugging Face.
- Experienced with vector databases, embedding models, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems.
- Understands the end-to-end lifecycle of data products from preprocessing to model deployment.
- Entrepreneurial mindset: you care about both the code and the company.
- Bonus: Experience in frontend or full-stack development (React, Next.js) and DevOps is a plus.
Why Join Us
- Build and own core technology in a high-upside early-stage startup.
- Equity-first compensation with significant post-funding salary potential.
- Work alongside a visionary team driven by product excellence and long-term impact.
- Freedom to shape architecture, tools, and technical roadmap from day one.
- Opportunity to define the AI document intelligence category with cutting-edge innovation.
Method of Application
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