Natural Language Processing Engineer

Business Unit: 

Discovery Bank

Function: 

Client Service

Date: 

20 Nov 2023

 

About Discovery 

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society. 

 

About Discovery Bank

We are a shared-value bank, designed with our clients in mind. We haven’t changed just one thing, we’ve changed everything. Our main goal is to improve the financial health of our clients by helping change how they work with their money. Through Vitality Money, our clients will learn more about what it means to be financially healthy and get rewarded for managing their money well. If you are a problem solver, always questioning the way things are done, passionate about doing what is right, have the ability to change direction quickly when needed and love to dazzle your clients, Discovery Bank has a job where you can be yourself and your best in an environment that is safe and nurturing.

 

Job Purpose

The Natural Language Processing Engineer (NLP Engineer) will be responsible for continuously improving and optimising the Bank’s Virtual Agent (VA) / WhatsApp BOT and Live Chat channels. The incumbent will ensure that all new products and product enhancements have relevant VA content loaded, maintained, and reported on, and will gather and interpret, complex data to develop actionable steps that will improve processes and optimise the chatbot and Live Chat platform. The NLP Engineer will use analytics to assess client needs and identify trends and areas for improvement and work with key stakeholders to drive implementation, access and interpret the reports produced by the VA platform to ensure that any gaps in the VA knowledge base are addressed timeously.

 

 

 

Ares of responsibility may include but not limited to

 

ANALYSIS  

• Maintain and update Virtual Agent content.
• Analyse data including low scores to understand patterns and trends to develop solutions and drive improvement.
• Use analytics to track triggers to live chat breakouts and volumes to help prioritise and develop new VA content.
• System and feature testing.
• Research and analyze the scope of intent within the linguistic and technical dimensions of the chatbot’s capabilities to drive continuous improvement.
• Drive continuous content refinement and improvement through content experiments using different content formats and styles, user feedback, and analysis of performance metrics to deliver optimal user experiences.
• Train the chatbot to understand the linguistic variations of diverse types of users.
• Research, design and develop natural language processing algorithms.
• Assist in building decision trees and with service integration updates.

 

 

REPORTING

• Generate and analyse daily reports to identify exceptions and trends and compile weekly and monthly summaries with recommendations. 
• Provide input to the design of new value-adding reports.

 

 

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND SKILLS 

• Understanding of and experience in chat AI systems.
• Analytical problem solver with deep experience in managing data.
• Research skills.
• Proficient in various analytical tools including MS Excel, statistical analysis and dataset analytics.
• Strong oral and written communication skills with a proven track record in report writing and presentations.
• Expert in English language (vocabulary & sentence formation).
• Team player able to work effectively with others and influence decision making.
• Able to manage upwards and give constructive feedback.
• Pro-active and flexible.

 

 

 

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE 

 

Education:  

• Completed Bachelor degree that demonstrates numerical and analytical capability (e.g. maths, data, statistics, computer science, engineering etc.)
• A Masters in Computer Applications or certification in Machine Learning or AI would be advantageous

 

Experience:  

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in Machine Learning OR Artificial intelligence related to Natural language processing and/or Computational linguistics.
• Track record of successful project delivery. 
• Experience in driving continuous improvement initiatives.
• Bank Product knowledge would be advantageous.

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY   
                             
The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.