Lead Bioinformatics Data Scientist — Drive Drug Discovery

Placements24; Durban; Hybrid; ZAR 1,800,000 - 3,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Executive-level bonus

Health & wellness benefits

Stock options / equity

Professional development

Innovative work environment

Job summary

Placements24 seeks a Lead Data Scientist with bioinformatics expertise in Durban to architect advanced analytics and guide a team of data scientists. You will build predictive models from genomic and proteomic data and collaborate with biology and chemistry groups to accelerate drug discovery.

You will design data pipelines, develop ML solutions, and communicate findings through visuals and reports for technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Bioinformatics, Data Science, CS or related field.
• 5+ years in data science with at least 2 years in leadership.
• Strong Python or R proficiency and related libraries (pandas, scikit-learn, TensorFlow).
• Experience handling large biological datasets, incl. NGS data.
• Solid ML, statistics, experimental design; strong communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and deployment of ML models and analyses for biological data.
• Design and manage data pipelines for genomic, proteomic, and clinical datasets.
• Mentor a team of data scientists and promote best practices in computational biology.
• Collaborate with biologists and chemists to translate questions into data solutions.
• Develop visualizations and reports to communicate findings to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Evaluate and implement new data science and bioinformatics technologies.

Skills

Leadership

Data science

Bioinformatics

Python

R

Pandas

Scikit-learn

TensorFlow

Communication

Education

Master's or PhD in Bioinformatics

Tools

TensorFlow

pandas

scikit-learn

Job description

Placements24 seeks a Lead Data Scientist with bioinformatics expertise in Durban to architect advanced analytics and guide a team of data scientists. You will build predictive models from genomic and proteomic data and collaborate with biology and chemistry groups to accelerate drug discovery.

You will design data pipelines, develop ML solutions, and communicate findings through visuals and reports for technical and non-technical stakeholders.