Principal Data Scientist: ML Leader & Mentor (Benoni)

Placements24; Benoni; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,400,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Comprehensive health, dental, andeye

Retirement fund contribution

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

Placements24 in Benoni is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to lead advanced analytics initiatives, develop sophisticated machine learning models, and mine data for strategic business insights.

You will mentor junior data scientists, define the technical roadmap, and collaborate with engineering, product, and business stakeholders to deliver actionable results. A PhD or Master\'s in a quantitative field with 8+ years of experience is required, along with strong Python/R and cloud experience.

Qualifications

• PhD or Master\'s in CS, Statistics, Math, Physics, or related field.
• Minimum of 8 years as a Data Scientist with leadership experience.
• Proficiency in Python or R and ML libraries (scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch).
• Experience handling large-scale datasets and cloud environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and deployment of advanced ML models and statistical analyses.
• Design and implement robust data science pipelines for extraction, transformation, and analysis.
• Explore large, complex datasets to identify trends and actionable insights.
• Develop predictive models, segmentation strategies, and optimization algorithms.
• Mentor junior data scientists and provide technical leadership.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate business needs into data solutions.
• Evaluate new technologies and methodologies for the data science team.
• Communicate findings clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Stay updated on data science advances and contribute to the data strategy.

Skills

Statistical modeling

Machine learning

Experimental design

Leadership / mentoring

Communication skills

Big data mindset

Education

PhD or Master\'s in a quantitative field

Tools

scikit-learn

TensorFlow

PyTorch

SQL

Spark

Hadoop

Python

R

Job description

Placements24 in Benoni is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to lead advanced analytics initiatives, develop sophisticated machine learning models, and mine data for strategic business insights.

You will mentor junior data scientists, define the technical roadmap, and collaborate with engineering, product, and business stakeholders to deliver actionable results. A PhD or Master\'s in a quantitative field with 8+ years of experience is required, along with strong Python/R and cloud experience.