Senior Data Scientist, Digital Insurance

Sanlam; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 800 000 - 1 000 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading African fintech firm is seeking a Data Scientist to join their team in Cape Town. The role involves delivering analytics solutions that enhance client acquisition and improve underwriting efficiency. Applicants should have over 5 years of experience in data science with a strong focus on financial products and collaboration across teams. Experience with machine learning, SQL, and data visualization tools is essential for success in this position.

Benefits

Mentorship from seasoned professionals

Opportunities for career growth

Work with modern technologies

Qualifications

• 5+ years' experience as a data scientist, especially in financial products.
• Experience in insurance or financial services.
• Ability to lead analytics projects and drive insights.

Responsibilities

• Deliver end-to-end analytics solutions for insurance.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams for product improvements.
• Measure and influence customer experience and product metrics.

Skills

Data analytics

Predictive modeling

Machine learning

SQL

Python

Tableau/PowerBI

Behavior-based modeling

Tools

Snowflake

SageMaker

Job description

Who are we?

Sanlam Fintech is a newly established digital first business within the Sanlam Group on a mission to democratize financial advice and solutions for everyone across the African continent. We exist to pioneer inclusive financial confidence helping people build strong foundations to bridge the gap in generational wealth. Our culture us that of agility and constant deployment, we believe in learning fast, learning cheap and learning forward. Our aim is to provide a work environment where knowledge workers can accelerate the development of their ideas and bring innovation to market, at the same time provide compelling career and development proposition that will enable them to realize their dreams.

As a data scientist your work is a canvas for change, painted with the data you explore and the insights you uncover. You're not just joining a team; you're embarking on a mission to reshape the financial landscape for all Africans, making tomorrow not just different, but better. Turning data into pathways, obstacles into stepping stones, and potential into reality. Together, we can build lasting financial confidence across Africa, one insight at a time.

Position Overview

This is a data science role embedded in a cross‑functional team focused on transforming digital long‑term insurance through insights, predictive modelling, and experimentation. You will architect and deliver end‑to‑end analytics solutions that increase client acquisition, improve underwriting efficiency, reduce lapse and claim fraud, and enhance digital servicing and retention.

You will lead the data science function in the digital insurance team, collaborating with actuaries, software engineers, product managers, and business owners to drive personalization, efficiency, and optimisation in insurance product offering, servicing, and customer journeys. Your work will enhance access to financial protection and confidence for millions of people across Africa.

What you’ll achieve in the first 12 months

• We have leveraged historical Sanlam insurance data to establish learnings that we can apply to our new digital insurance products. You use your analytics skills to build insights and identify variables that are predictive of behaviours and outcomes of interest in long‑term insurance journeys. Your insight has contributed to the development of our new digital insurance products and user journeys.
• We have all the data we need to understand, measure and influence our new digital insurance journeys and customer experience across all platforms. We can understand points of friction and produce insight to alleviate them. You work in close collaboration with the product and development teams to track and measure all events in the insurance journey and lifecycle. Ensure that the necessary data is produced and structured to enable you to create valuable and relevant insights. Ensure data quality and interoperability is owned at source by working with engineers, architects, and product owners.
• We have successfully established a culture of experimentation in the digital insurance team with products being constantly tested, adjusted and improved upon for the best product‑market fit and customer experience and value. Working with the product and development team, you have laid the foundation of learning through experimentation. You have driven at least 2 controlled experiments to evaluate CVPs, product variations, service interventions, etc. You have tested their effect on customer behaviours and documented the learnings.
• We can leverage complex and non‑linear patterns in diverse data and variables that influence insurance outcomes. You have used your expertise in modern machine learning techniques to predict longevity and risk measures used in product offerings and pricing. You have worked in close collaboration with actuaries to produce models that are not only accurate but also aligned with financial requirements.
• We are fully client‑centric in our approach to creating products and digital experiences: Work with customer research teams to understand our clients, their behaviours, needs and preferences, always grounded in data and measurable outcomes and relentlessly client focused. Your scalable insights and ML models create ripples of extra value, enabling others to execute their jobs with more insight and focus on our clients’ behaviours and needs.
• We always know how well our products are performing and (roughly) why: Work with product team to determine key metrics indicating the health of each distinct product and its customer base. Create datasets, visualisations, metrics and dashboards that provide insightful stories about our products and customer experience. You work with product teams to effectively communicate these insights and collaboratively devise interventions to do even better.

What you'll have

• 5+ years' experience as a data scientist with at least 3 years working on financial or insurance products.
• Prior experience in financial services or insurance‑related products.
• Experience working with Tableau or PowerBI. Competent in python and SQL.
• Demonstrated ability to leading analytics projects and translating insights into product or commercial outcomes.
• Proven track record of high‑impact delivery in cross‑functional settings.
• Experience working with underwriting, pricing, risk, or next to actuarial teams.
• Experience with behaviour‑based modelling (lapse prediction, fraud detection).
• Experience designing product experiments (A/B testing).
• Experience with cloud technologies like Snowflake and SageMaker.

How you’ll think

You look for ways to do, instead of reasons not to. You are high agency, high ownership in everything you do. You know we own our future; only we can make it happen. If you find something that keeps us from our mission, you own it or work collaboratively with others until you find the right owner of it.

Where some see impossible, you see a way: You have the strong conviction in our ability to innovate and bring financial services, and financial confidence to everyone across the continent. You turn obstacles into opportunity, chance into change.

You move fast and fix things. You publish early and often; when you fail you learn and go again. You know that speed gives you the licence to fail, because you’re moving fast enough to correct course.

You love creating more with less. Knowing that the biggest impact is born of the smallest acts, scale is built into your thinking from day 1. This is not about meeting the needs of thousands; it’s about exceeding the needs of millions. And working through small and mighty teams is the way we’ll do it.

You seek out and value different perspectives. Believing that when we change how we look at things, how things look for us also changes. Making tomorrow not just different, but better.

What you’ll enjoy

Being in a high ownership, high ambiguity, high autonomy environment where the impact of your work matters. The ideal environment for your capability growth.

Learn from the best. Get guidance from some of the most seasoned professionals around. Our mentorship vibe is all about growing together, both professionally and personally.

• Diving into projects that touch the lives of millions. Making a real difference in how people manage their money and plan their lives.
• Working with modern technologies, from Snowflake to SageMaker and AI‑as‑a‑service AWS, leverage world class technologies to launch into your work.
• A chance to be the first data scientists in a newly formed domain team!

Build a successful career with us

We’re all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future – your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping our employees to realise their worth. Through its five business clusters – Sanlam Fintech, Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Allianz, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office – the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.

Turnaround time

The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.