Principal Data Scientist, Bioinformatics ML (Cape Town)

Placements24; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 3,000,000 - 4,500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary

Annual bonus

Stock options

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Retirement savings plan

Professional development opportunities

Wellness programs

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Principal Data Scientist in Cape Town to spearhead machine learning initiatives within the bioinformatics division. You will lead projects from conception to deployment, shape the data science strategy, and mentor a team of data scientists and bioinformaticians.

You will develop and deploy advanced ML models for drug discovery, collaborating with biologists, chemists, clinicians, and software engineers to integrate ML into research workflows and drive innovation across

Qualifications

• PhD in a quantitative field with a strong ML focus.
• 10+ years of data science experience in a research environment.
• Proven ability to develop and deploy ML models, including deep learning (CNNs, RNNs, Transformers).
• Strong Python proficiency and ML ecosystem (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn).
• Experience with large-scale biological datasets (genomics, proteomics, etc.).
• Statistical modeling, experimental design, and data mining techniques.
• Cloud computing (AWS/Azure/GCP) and distributed computing (Spark).
• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management; publication record.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, and deployment of ML models for predictive analytics in biological data.
• Develop algorithms for diverse datasets including genomic and proteomic data.
• Collaborate with biologists, chemists, clinicians, and software engineers to integrate ML into workflows.
• Architect and manage scalable ML infrastructure and pipelines.
• Translate research problems into defined data science projects.
• Evaluate new ML technologies relevant to the pharmaceutical industry.
• Present findings and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Mentor junior data scientists and bioinformaticians to foster innovation.

Skills

Leadership

Data storytelling

Mentoring

Communication

Education

PhD in CS/Bioinformatics

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

scikit-learn

Spark

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

Placements24 is seeking a Principal Data Scientist in Cape Town to spearhead machine learning initiatives within the bioinformatics division. You will lead projects from conception to deployment, shape the data science strategy, and mentor a team of data scientists and bioinformaticians.

You will develop and deploy advanced ML models for drug discovery, collaborating with biologists, chemists, clinicians, and software engineers to integrate ML into research workflows and drive innovation across