Data Scientist – Investment & Short Term Insurance – Johannesburg – R550k to R750k per annum

E-Merge; Johannesburg; Hybrid; ZAR 550,000 - 750,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial services company is seeking a Data Scientist to transform financial datasets into insights. Responsibilities include designing ML models, building data pipelines, and mentoring junior analysts. The role is permanent and hybrid, offering a salary range of R550k to R750k per annum, negotiable based on experience.

Qualifications

• 5-7 years hands-on data science experience, preferably in finance.
• Strong expertise in Python and SQL.
• Proven track record deploying models to production.

Responsibilities

• Design ML/quant models for manager selection and risk attribution.
• Build scalable data pipelines using Python and SQL.
• Deliver real-time dashboards and APIs for risk exposure.

Skills

Python

SQL

Machine Learning

Data Science

Statistical Analysis

Predictive Modeling

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Data Science, Stats, CompSci, Math, or Financial Engineering

Tools

Azure

AWS

Spark

Databricks

Snowflake

Scikit learn

XGBoost

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Job description

Overview

Join a financial services company as a Data Scientist transforming vast financial and short‑term insurance datasets into actionable insights for portfolio managers, analysts, and risk teams. Youll build predictive models, automate due‑diligence workflows, and surface performance driversspanning traditional market data and insurer‑specific metrics such as claims frequency, loss ratios, and solvency capital requirements.

Responsibilities

• Design ML / quant models for manager selection, risk attribution, alpha forecasting, and factor analysisincorporating short‑term insurance KPIs (e.g., combined ratio, reserve adequacy).
• Build scalable pipelines (Python, SQL, Spark / Dask) that ingest, cleanse, and enrich multi‑manager and insurance data.
• Codify due‑diligence, performance‑benchmarking, and insurer‑health monitoring into reproducible frameworks.
• Deliver real‑time dashboards and APIs highlighting manager alpha and insurance‑portfolio risk exposure.
• Partner with PMs, analysts, risk, and actuarial teams to translate business problems into data‑driven solutions.
• Mentor junior analysts; promote best practices in ML‑Ops and model governance.
• Stay current on AI / ML trends across investments and InsurTech; pilot relevant techniques (e.g., telematics‑driven claims prediction, catastrophe risk modeling).
• Contribute to our cloud‑first stack (Azure / AWS, Databricks, Snowflake)

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelors or Masters in Data Science, Stats, CompSci, Math, or FinancialEngineering
• 57yrs hands on data science experience (finance preferred)
• Strong Python & SQL; expertise in ML libraries (Scikit learn, XGBoost, TensorFlow / PyTor
• Proven track record deploying models to production (CI / CD, monitoring, retraining)
• Cloud & big data know how (Azure / AWS, Spark, Databricks, Snowflake)

The Reference Number for this position is NG60433 which is a Permanent Hybrid role offering a salary of R550k up to R750k per annum salary negotiable based on experience. E-mail Nokuthula on