Senior Data Scientist M-Pesa Africa

Vodafone; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 60 000 - 100 000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player in fintech seeks a Data Scientist to innovate within the M-Pesa platform. This role involves leveraging machine learning and big data analytics to create personalized services for millions of users. You will develop predictive models, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and contribute to a culture of data-driven decision-making. If you are passionate about using data to drive financial inclusion and have a strong background in data science, this opportunity offers a dynamic environment where your expertise will have a significant impact on the digital economy.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in Data Science with strong machine learning expertise.
• Experience managing junior data scientists and analyzing complex datasets.
• Proficient in Python and SQL, with a solid foundation in statistics.

Responsibilities

• Create ML and AI products for actionable insights and user personalization.
• Develop predictive models using diverse datasets across business areas.
• Collaborate with data engineering to automate and deploy models.

Skills

Machine Learning

Big Data Analytics

Data Visualization

Statistical Analysis

Python

SQL

Team Management

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Mathematics

Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science

Bachelor's or Master's in Artificial Intelligence

Tools

Tableau

Qlik

D3

Hadoop

Spark

NoSQL

H2O

scikit-learn

PyTorch

Job description

Role Purpose :

• M-Pesa is a pioneering fintech business and a global market leader in mobile money. Since 2007, starting as a means for the unbanked and underbanked to make digital payments, M-Pesa has grown to serve over 50 million active customers with financial services, enterprise, merchant, and retail solutions. We are proud of our role in enabling the digital economy and driving financial inclusion.

The Commercial Team works with M-Pesa leadership across our 7 OpCos to co-create product strategy, drive thought leadership, forge new strategic partnerships, design new products and features, set commercial priorities with engineering teams, and support the product development lifecycle.

Your responsibilities will include championing big data, analytics, and machine learning to build the next generation of M-Pesa services that are personalized, contextualized, and intelligent. This includes work across the M-Pesa Africa product suite, such as consumer and merchant app experiences, financial services, international remittances, and the business portal.

Your responsibilities will include :

• Create Machine Learning and AI products that provide actionable business insights and drive personalization for M-Pesa users.
• Develop predictive models using large and diverse datasets in collaboration with colleagues across analytics, technology, data, and customer functions.
• Develop machine learning models on the Big Data Platform for various business areas.
• Develop prototype code in PySpark for automated training and scoring of models.
• Track and report on machine learning model performance.
• Utilize data visualization to engage audiences and enable effective storytelling.
• Collaborate with the lead data scientist to deliver key work packages meeting business needs.
• Partner with Big Data Engineering for data ingestion to support use cases.
• Work with production data engineering teams to automate and deploy models.
• Contribute to the global Vodafone community to enhance Machine Learning and AI capabilities.

The ideal candidate for this role will have :

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or related fields (essential).
• Professional or academic experience in Big Data analytics and deploying models/algorithms to solve real-world problems, with strong statistical and machine learning expertise.
• Familiarity with visualization tools (Tableau, Qlik, D3).
• Experience manipulating structured data using SQL, and platforms like Hadoop, Spark, NoSQL.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language such as Python or R.
• Experience with machine learning libraries (H2O, scikit-learn, PyTorch) and techniques (random forest, gradient boosting, k-means, regression, factor analysis, time-series forecasting).

Core competencies, knowledge, and experience :

• Minimum of 5 years relevant experience in Data Science.
• Experience managing a team of junior data scientists.
• Interest or exposure to machine learning.
• Experience analyzing large, complex datasets.
• Experience in data visualization, creating static and interactive data displays (preferred).
• Strong interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Analytical, innovative thinking with a strong drive to deliver and develop.

Closing date for applications: 25 February 2025.

The base location for this role is Vodacom Midrand Campus.

The company's Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered during recruitment. We encourage applications from people with disabilities and value diversity and inclusion.