Senior Data Scientist

The Focus Group; Sandton; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

The Focus Group is seeking a senior Data Scientist to design, develop and optimise machine learning, AI and decisioning solutions across Personal & Private Banking and Digital channels. You will leverage the Databricks platform to build scalable analytics assets and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities include feature engineering, model development, experimentation, governance, and mentoring junior data scientists while delivering measurable business value with

Qualifications

• Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Mathematical Statistics, Actuarial Science, Mathematics, Econometrics or a related quantitative field.
• Masters or Doctorate will be an added advantage.

Responsibilities

• Partner with PPB, Digital, Product and Risk teams to identify and prioritise high-value analytical opportunities.
• Design, develop, train and optimise machine learning models using Databricks, MLflow and distributed compute environments.
• Develop customer propensity, next best action, next best product, customer value, retention and engagement models.
• Develop risk, collections, fraud and operational models to improve business performance and decision quality.
• Build and maintain reusable feature pipelines using Databricks Feature Engineering and Delta tables.
• Define, create and govern reusable enterprise features for inclusion within the Databricks Enterprise Feature Store.
• Establish feature definitions, feature quality controls, lineage and monitoring standards across business domains.
• Perform feature engineering, feature selection and feature importance analysis to improve model performance and reuse.
• Develop optimisation and decisioning models that support customer engagement, product recommendation and operational decision strategies.
• Conduct exploratory data analysis, statistical analysis, hypothesis testing and model validation using Databricks notebooks and workflows.
• Perform model tuning, calibration, challenger model development and performance benchmarking.
• Monitor model performance, stability, drift and business outcomes and recommend improvements where required.
• Develop Generative AI use cases where appropriate, including customer support, document intelligence and knowledge-based assistants.
• Work closely with ML Engineers to productionise models and features into enterprise platforms and decisioning systems.
• Produce model documentation, validation reports and governance artefacts in line with model risk management requirements.
• Mentor junior Data Scientists and contribute to modelling standards, reusable frameworks and analytical best practices.

Skills

Databricks Notebooks

MLflow

Feature Store

Python

SQL

Machine Learning

Statistical Modelling

Predictive Analytics

Prescriptive Analytics

Customer Decisioning

Optimisation

Experimentation

Model Validation

Generative AI

LLMs

Data Visualisation

Stakeholder Management

Education

Masters or Doctorate

Computer Science / Data Science / Engineering / Quantitative Field

Tools

Databricks

Job description

Job Purpose

To design, develop and optimise machine learning, AI and decisioning solutions that drive customer, risk and operational outcomes across Personal and Private Banking (PPB) and Digital channels.

Purpose

Apply advanced analytics, machine learning and AI techniques to solve business problems, improve customer experiences and support intelligent decisioning. The role focuses on feature engineering, model development, experimentation and decision science while leveraging the Databricks platform to deliver scalable and reusable analytical assets.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with PPB, Digital, Product and Risk teams to identify and prioritise high-value analytical opportunities.

• Design, develop, train and optimise machine learning models using Databricks, MLflow and distributed compute environments.

• Develop customer propensity, next best action, next best product, customer value, retention and engagement models.

• Develop risk, collections, fraud and operational models to improve business performance and decision quality.

• Build and maintain reusable feature pipelines using Databricks Feature Engineering and Delta tables.

• Define, create and govern reusable enterprise features for inclusion within the Databricks Enterprise Feature Store.

• Establish feature definitions, feature quality controls, lineage and monitoring standards across business domains.

• Perform feature engineering, feature selection and feature importance analysis to improve model performance and reuse.

• Develop optimisation and decisioning models that support customer engagement, product recommendation and operational decision strategies.

• Conduct exploratory data analysis, statistical analysis, hypothesis testing and model validation using Databricks notebooks and workflows.

• Perform model tuning, calibration, challenger model development and performance benchmarking.

• Monitor model performance, stability, drift and business outcomes and recommend improvements where required.

• Develop Generative AI use cases where appropriate, including customer support, document intelligence and knowledge-based assistants.

• Work closely with ML Engineers to productionise models and features into enterprise platforms and decisioning systems.

• Produce model documentation, validation reports and governance artefacts in line with model risk management requirements.

• Mentor junior Data Scientists and contribute to modelling standards, reusable frameworks and analytical best practices.

Core Deliverables

• Production-ready machine learning models supporting PPB and Digital use cases.

• Reusable business features deployed within the Databricks Enterprise Feature Store.

• Customer decisioning models supporting acquisition, retention, engagement and cross-sell strategies.

• Risk and operational models supporting improved decision quality and business performance.

• Feature libraries, model documentation and governance artefacts.

• Analytical insights and recommendations delivered to business stakeholders.

• Measurable business value from deployed machine learning and AI solutions.

Key Skills

• Databricks Notebooks, Workflows and MLflow

• Databricks Feature Engineering and Feature Store

• Python and SQL

• Machine Learning and Statistical Modelling

• Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics

• Customer Decisioning and Optimisation

• Feature Engineering

• Experimentation and Model Validation

• Generative AI and LLMs

• Data Visualisation and Storytelling

• Stakeholder Management

Qualifications

Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Mathematical Statistics, Actuarial Science, Mathematics, Econometrics or a related quantitative field.

Masters or Doctorate will be an added advantage.

Preferred Certifications

• Databricks Machine Learning Engineer Certification

• Databricks Data Engineer Certification

• Microsoft Azure AI Certifications

• SAS Data Scientist Certifications

• AWS or Google Cloud AI/ML Certifications

• Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence or Data Science certifications from recognised providers such as Microsoft, Databricks, SAS, Coursera or DeepLearning.AI

Technical / Professional Knowledge

• Strong experience developing machine learning models on Databricks.

• Strong understanding of feature engineering, feature selection and feature optimisation techniques.

• Experience building and governing reusable enterprise features within Feature Stores.

• Experience using Databricks MLflow for model tracking, experimentation and model governance.

• Experience developing customer propensity, risk, fraud, retention and optimisation models.

• Strong knowledge of statistics, machine learning and decision science methodologies.

• Experience working with large-scale customer, behavioural, transactional and digital datasets.

• Experience designing model monitoring and performance measurement frameworks.

• Knowledge of Generative AI, prompt engineering and applied AI use cases.

• Ability to translate business problems into analytical solutions and measurable business outcomes.

• Strong stakeholder engagement, communication and business consulting skills.

• Experience delivering end-to-end data science use cases from concept through production deployment.

• Self-driven and able to operate effectively in a fast-paced, outcome-focused environment.