Agricultural Data Scientist: Yield Forecast Analytics

Placements24; Bloemfontein; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and benefits

Relocation assistance may be available

Continuous learning and development

Flexible work schedule

Job summary

Placements24 in Bloemfontein seeks an Agricultural Data Scientist to drive farm optimization through advanced data analytics. You will collect, process, and analyze data from sensors, weather stations, satellites, and management software to inform crop planning and resource decisions.

The role requires a strong background in data science, ML, and statistics, plus collaboration with agronomists and engineers to translate insights into actionable strategies for sustainable farming.

Qualifications

• Masters or PhD in a quantitative field relevant to data science.
• Strong background applying analytics to agricultural challenges.
• Experience with Python or R and common data libraries.

Responsibilities

• Develop data-driven models to predict crop yields and forecast risks.
• Analyze data from IoT sensors, drones, and satellite imagery to monitor crop health.
• Design experiments to validate models and collect new data.
• Apply ML algorithms for anomaly detection, clustering, and predictive maintenance.
• Create dashboards to communicate insights to non-technical stakeholders.
• Collaborate with software engineers to integrate models into farm platforms.
• Identify opportunities to improve resource efficiency (water, fertilizer, energy).
• Stay updated on agricultural tech and ML advancements relevant to farming.
• Provide data-driven recommendations to farm managers and agronomists.
• Ensure data quality, integrity, and security across analyses.

Skills

Data science

Machine learning

Experimental design

Statistical thinking

Communication

Education

Master's degree or Ph.D. in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Agricultural Engineering, or related quantitative field

Tools

Python

R

Pandas

NumPy

Scikit-learn

TensorFlow

SQL

NoSQL

Hadoop

Spark

GIS software

Job description

Placements24 in Bloemfontein seeks an Agricultural Data Scientist to drive farm optimization through advanced data analytics. You will collect, process, and analyze data from sensors, weather stations, satellites, and management software to inform crop planning and resource decisions.

The role requires a strong background in data science, ML, and statistics, plus collaboration with agronomists and engineers to translate insights into actionable strategies for sustainable farming.