AI Innovation Lead & Data Science Mentor

Creative Leadership Solutions; South Africa; On-site; ZAR 1,500,000 - 2,100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Generous annual leave

Professional development budget

Advanced computing resources

Career progression

Retirement fund contributions

On-site amenities

Team-building activities

Company-sponsored events

Job summary

Creative Leadership Solutions in South Africa seeks a visionary Lead Data Scientist - AI Innovation to head analytics and AI initiatives in Tembisa, Gauteng. You will mentor a team of data scientists, design production ML models, and collaborate with engineering, product and business teams to turn data into strategic business value.

The role requires a PhD or Master's, 8+ years in data science with leadership, strong Python/R skills, experience in Spark/Hadoop, and cloud platforms.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Minimum 8 years of hands-on data science and ML experience, with 2+ years in leadership.
• Proven ability to deploy production‑level ML models and mentor teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development and deployment of advanced AI/ML models to solve business problems.
• Mentor data scientists and ensure high‑quality project delivery.
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to translate requirements into ML plans.
• Define methodologies and success metrics for AI initiatives.
• Stay current with AI/ML research and champion adoption.
• Communicate findings to technical and executive stakeholders.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Communication

Problem solving

Education

PhD or Master’s in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics or related quantitative field

Tools

Python

R

TensorFlow

PyTorch

scikit-learn

Pandas

NumPy

Spark

SQL

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Job description

Creative Leadership Solutions in South Africa seeks a visionary Lead Data Scientist - AI Innovation to head analytics and AI initiatives in Tembisa, Gauteng. You will mentor a team of data scientists, design production ML models, and collaborate with engineering, product and business teams to turn data into strategic business value.

The role requires a PhD or Master's, 8+ years in data science with leadership, strong Python/R skills, experience in Spark/Hadoop, and cloud platforms.