Remote Lead Data Scientist — ML Strategy & Team Leader

Placements24; Benoni; Hybrid; ZAR 1,500,000 - 2,100,000; Full time

Job summary

Placements24, a forward-thinking analytics company, seeks a Remote Lead Data Scientist to spearhead advanced analytics initiatives in South Africa. You will mentor a team, develop ML models, and guide data-driven decision-making while shaping the company’s strategic direction.

Ideal candidates have 7+ years in data science, strong leadership, and deep expertise in statistical modeling, ML techniques, and scalable deployment; excellent communicator across technical and business stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in a quantitative field (MS/PhD) required.
• 7+ years of data science experience with ML model deployment.
• 2+ years of people leadership or team management.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of data scientists, fostering a collaborative and innovative environment.
• Design, develop, and implement advanced statistical models and machine learning algorithms to solve complex business problems.
• Analyze large, complex datasets to identify trends, patterns, and insights.
• Translate business requirements into data science solutions and communicate findings effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Develop and deploy machine learning models into production environments.
• Define data science strategy and roadmap, aligning with business objectives.
• Oversee the end-to-end data science project lifecycle, from data collection and cleaning to model deployment and monitoring.
• Stay abreast of the latest research and advancements in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to integrate data science capabilities into products and services.
• Ensure the ethical and responsible use of data and AI technologies.

Skills

Statistical modeling

Machine learning techniques

Experimental design

Python

R

SQL

Spark

Hadoop

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Education

Master's or Ph.D. in Statistics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, or a related quantitative field

Tools

Python

R

SQL

Spark

Hadoop

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Job description

Placements24, a forward-thinking analytics company, seeks a Remote Lead Data Scientist to spearhead advanced analytics initiatives in South Africa. You will mentor a team, develop ML models, and guide data-driven decision-making while shaping the company’s strategic direction.

Ideal candidates have 7+ years in data science, strong leadership, and deep expertise in statistical modeling, ML techniques, and scalable deployment; excellent communicator across technical and business stakeholders.