Durban Principal AI Scientist & Strategy Lead — Equity

Placements24; Durban; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,900,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Equity/Profit-sharing

Health/dental/vision coverage

Generous leave

Learning opportunities

Collaborative culture

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a highly experienced Principal Data Scientist to lead advanced AI applications development in Durban. This senior role defines the strategy for utilizing AI/ML to unlock new insights and drive business value, collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver production-ready data solutions.

You will mentor junior data scientists, design rigorous experimental frameworks, deploy models in production, and communicate technical findings to stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD required in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Mathematics or CS.
• 8+ years in Data Science with strong AI/ML focus.
• Proven production ML deployment experience.
• Proficiency in Python or R and SQL.
• Experience with pandas, NumPy and scikit-learn.
• Strong statistical, experimental design and causal inference knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy advanced ML models for predictive analytics and optimization.
• Conduct in-depth exploratory data analysis to identify trends and insights.
• Design and implement A/B testing frameworks and evaluate models rigorously.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate business problems into data science solutions.
• Mentor and guide junior data scientists and analysts.
• Communicate complex findings clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.

Skills

Python

R

SQL

Pandas

NumPy

scikit-learn

Statistical modeling

A/B testing

Mentorship

Communication

Education

Master's or PhD in Statistics/Math/CS or related field

Tools

Big data technologies

Job description

Placements24 is seeking a highly experienced Principal Data Scientist to lead advanced AI applications development in Durban. This senior role defines the strategy for utilizing AI/ML to unlock new insights and drive business value, collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver production-ready data solutions.

You will mentor junior data scientists, design rigorous experimental frameworks, deploy models in production, and communicate technical findings to stakeholders.