Remote Principal Data Scientist - Bioinformatics & Genomics

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

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Stock options

Generous paid time off

Job summary

Placements24 seeks a highly experienced Principal Data Scientist to lead data science initiatives in biomedicine from its Centurion hub. You will guide ML models, data pipelines, and research collaborations across genomics, proteomics, and drug discovery while mentoring junior scientists and setting strategic direction.

You will work in a remote-capable context across time zones, leveraging cloud platforms and distributed computing to push bioinformatics and data-driven healthcare forward.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. or Master's degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, or a related quantitative field.
• 10+ years of experience in data science, with a significant focus on ML in biology/healthcare.
• Expertise in Python or R with relevant libraries (scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Bioconductor).
• Strong statistical modelling, experimental design and validation knowledge.
• Experience with large, complex datasets and distributed computing (Spark).
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and databases (SQL/NoSQL).
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving and communication skills.
• Proven ability to lead projects and mentor teams.
• Comfortable working in a remote environment across time zones.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement advanced ML algorithms and statistical models for large-scale biological datasets.
• Design data-driven projects to identify biomarkers, predict disease progression, and optimize treatments.
• Build robust data pipelines for ingestion, cleaning, transformation and feature engineering.
• Collaborate with biologists and bioinformaticians to translate research questions into data science problems.
• Lead the technical direction of ML projects from concept to production.
• Evaluate and integrate new data science technologies and methodologies.
• Communicate complex findings to technical and non-technical audiences via presentations and reports.
• Mentor junior data scientists and research staff to foster scientific rigor and innovation.

Skills

Leadership

Mentoring

Communication

Distributed computing

Education

PhD or Master's in CS/Statistics/Bioinformatics/Computational Biology

Tools

Python

R

scikit-learn

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Bioconductor

Spark

AWS/GCP/Azure

Job description

Placements24 seeks a highly experienced Principal Data Scientist to lead data science initiatives in biomedicine from its Centurion hub. You will guide ML models, data pipelines, and research collaborations across genomics, proteomics, and drug discovery while mentoring junior scientists and setting strategic direction.

You will work in a remote-capable context across time zones, leveraging cloud platforms and distributed computing to push bioinformatics and data-driven healthcare forward.