Principal ML Scientist — Lead Data Innovation & Mentorship

Placements24; Polokwane; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 2,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Professional development budget

Access to cutting-edge tools

Career advancement opportunities

Job summary

Placements24 seeks a Principal Data Scientist with a Machine Learning specialization to join a cutting-edge R&D team in Polokwane, Limpopo. You will lead complex data science projects, design and deploy advanced models, and mentor junior data scientists.

The role requires a Master’s/PhD in a quantitative field, 7+ years of experience, and strong Python/R with ML frameworks and big data tech. You will translate insights into business impact and drive data-driven strategies.

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Physics, or a related quantitative field.
• Minimum of 7 years of professional experience in data science with a strong ML focus.
• Proven expertise in developing and deploying ML models (regression, classification, clustering, deep learning, reinforcement learning).

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of advanced ML models and algorithms.
• Explore, clean, and analyze large datasets to identify trends and insights.
• Develop feature engineering strategies to optimize model performance.
• Evaluate and select ML techniques and tools for projects.
• Collaborate with software engineers and product managers to integrate ML solutions.
• Mentor and guide junior data scientists; provide technical feedback.

Skills

Machine Learning

Mentoring

Statistical modeling

Problem solving

Communication

Education

Master's or PhD in a quantitative field

Tools

Python

R

scikit-learn

TensorFlow

PyTorch

SQL

Spark

Hadoop

Job description

Placements24 seeks a Principal Data Scientist with a Machine Learning specialization to join a cutting-edge R&D team in Polokwane, Limpopo. You will lead complex data science projects, design and deploy advanced models, and mentor junior data scientists.

The role requires a Master’s/PhD in a quantitative field, 7+ years of experience, and strong Python/R with ML frameworks and big data tech. You will translate insights into business impact and drive data-driven strategies.