Principal Data Scientist: Predictive Analytics Leader

Placements24; Richards Bay; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Bonus structure

Medical and retirement benefits

Annual leave and development budgets

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Principal Data Scientist in Richards Bay to lead complex predictive modeling initiatives. You will drive end-to-end model development, feature engineering, and validation while mentoring a team of data scientists and collaborating with business stakeholders to translate insights into strategic actions.

The role demands a PhD or Master’s in a quantitative field, 7+ years of hands-on experience, and strong skills in Python/R, ML, and cloud-enabled analytics.

Qualifications

• PhD or Master’s in a quantitative field.
• 7+ years building and deploying predictive models.
• Strong communication and leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end development and deployment of complex predictive models.
• Identify opportunities to leverage data to solve critical business problems.
• Design data exploration, feature engineering, and model validation strategies.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate model results into actionable recommendations.
• Mentor junior data scientists and contribute to their growth.
• Stay updated on research in data science and analytics.

Skills

Statistical modeling

Machine learning

Deep learning

Python

R

SQL

Data visualization

Leadership

Mentoring

Education

PhD or Master’s in Statistics/Data Science/CS/Math

Tools

scikit-learn

TensorFlow

PyTorch

statsmodels

Job description

Placements24 is seeking a Principal Data Scientist in Richards Bay to lead complex predictive modeling initiatives. You will drive end-to-end model development, feature engineering, and validation while mentoring a team of data scientists and collaborating with business stakeholders to translate insights into strategic actions.

The role demands a PhD or Master’s in a quantitative field, 7+ years of hands-on experience, and strong skills in Python/R, ML, and cloud-enabled analytics.