Senior Data & Insights Consultant: Geospatial & Transport

BigTalent; Cape Town; Remote; ZAR 900,000 - 1,250,000; Full time

Job summary

BigTalent is seeking a Senior Data & Insights Consultant — Geospatial & Transport. Remote (South Africa) role to lead data-driven investigations into how people and vehicles move through spaces.

You will turn evidence into client-ready analyses and visualisations, owning projects from brief to final delivery. Responsibilities include translating briefs, examining spatial and movement data, developing findings, and delivering complete outputs with high quality.

Qualifications

• Strong SQL skills with practical coding in Python.
• Experience with spatial data and GIS tools.
• Statistical judgement including sampling, uncertainty, and confounding.
• Evidence of investigating ambiguous results and tracing discrepancies.
• Clear written communication and ability to produce professional reports for non-specialists.
• Disciplined reproducibility, documentation and version control.
• Familiarity with AI tools and validation of outputs.

Responsibilities

• Translate client briefs into answerable analytical questions and gather required evidence.
• Investigate spatial, temporal and movement data to identify patterns and discrepancies.
• Develop findings and interpretations without overstating evidence.
• Produce client deliverables: reports, maps, interactive explorers and charts using templates.
• Own the quality of submitted work: checks, dates, units and sources.
• Improve analytical methods through documentation, assumptions and sensitivity analyses.
• Make work repeatable by creating reusable analyses and templates.

Skills

SQL

Python

GIS

Statistics

Data analysis

Reproducibility

AI tools

Project management

Communication

Tools

GIS software

Python

Job description

Senior Data & Insights Consultant — Geospatial & Transport

Location: Remote (South Africa)

Our global client helps infrastructure organisations understand how people and vehicles move through spaces. They combine sensor-derived movement data with spatial and contextual information to investigate questions about roads, crossings, schools, construction access and other environments.

We are looking for a senior analytical professional who can take responsibility for turning that evidence into accurate, useful client deliverables. The role combines detailed investigation, methodological development and clear communication, with substantial ownership of the work from the original brief through to a checked submission for approval.

Responsibilities

• Translate client briefs into answerable analytical questions. Establish what the client needs to understand, identify the evidence required and make gaps or limitations visible before they become delivery problems.
• Investigate spatial, temporal and movement data. Examine patterns, test alternative explanations, inspect underlying records and work with engineering colleagues to resolve anomalies involving coverage, classification, geometry or processing.
• Develop useful findings and interpretations. Distinguish observation from explanation, assess whether comparisons are valid and explain the significance of results without overstating what the evidence establishes.
• Produce complete client deliverables. Create interactive data explorers, reports, presentations, maps and charts using established templates and modern analytical and AI tools. Ensure that the outputs answer the brief and remain consistent with their supporting evidence.
• Own the quality of submitted work. Check calculations, dates, units, denominators, labels, sources and interpretations; test interactive outputs; resolve issues across affected materials; and provide a clear record of checks for final approval.
• Improve analytical methods. Help develop and validate the organisation's movement and safety-interaction indicators through documented assumptions, reference examples, sensitivity analysis and investigation of false positives and missed events.
• Make successful work repeatable. Convert useful investigations into reusable analysis, templates, checks and clear requirements for the product and engineering teams.

Essential capabilities include:

• Strong SQL skills and practical analytical coding ability, preferably in Python.
• Experience working with spatial data and GIS tools
• Sound statistical judgement, including sampling, uncertainty, exposure, confounding and the limitations of comparisons.
• Evidence of independently investigating ambiguous results and tracing discrepancies through data and processing.
• Clear written communication and the ability to produce professional reports, charts and presentations for non-specialist audiences.
• A disciplined approach to reproducibility, documentation, checking and version control.
• Confidence using AI tools while verifying their calculations, interpretations and generated outputs.
• The ability to manage delivery, raise blockers early and recommend a practical way forward.

Transport knowledge, trajectory or sensor-data experience, before-and-after evaluation, and experience creating interactive analytical outputs would be advantageous.