SENIOR QUANTITATIVE ANALYST ICT & RESEARCH - RESEARCH

Coega Development Corporation Pty; Gqeberha; On-site; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Coega Development Corporation (CDC) is seeking a Senior Quantitative Analyst to lead quantitative modelling and analytics initiatives. The role involves driving data-driven strategies, building ML models on Databricks, and collaborating with stakeholders to inform engagement, product recommendations, and operational decisions.

The successful candidate will oversee a team of analysts, apply advanced statistical methods, and contribute to external programmes and investor attraction initiatives.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate degree in Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Financial Economics or Econometrics.
• Minimum 10 years of quantitative analysis experience.
• Certifications in Databricks ML Engineer/Data Engineer and cloud AI platforms are highly advantageous.
• Strong Python and SQL expertise.
• Experience with ML deployment and governance on Databricks; feature engineering expertise.
• Advanced Excel and familiarity with statistical tools (R-studio, SPSS) is a plus.
• Knowledge of Generative AI and practical AI use cases; strong communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Drive data analytics and uncover data-driven insights to influence business outcomes.
• Design, train, and optimize ML models using Databricks and distributed compute.
• Lead a team of analysts in exploratory data analysis, statistics, and model validation.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to build optimisation and decisioning models for engagement and operations.
• Provide technical guidance and project management for business cases and funder presentations.

Skills

Python

SQL

Machine Learning

Data Visualization

Education

Postgraduate Data Science / Statistics

Tools

Databricks

MLflow

Git

Airflow

Tableau

Power BI

Excel

Job description

ACCOUNTABILITY

The Senior Quantitative Analyst is accountable to the Chief Knowledge & Digital Officer - ICT, Research and Strategy of the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) through the Unit Head: Research Unit.

MANDATE

The Senior Quantitative Analyst is mandated by the Head of Research Unit to take responsibility for all Quantitative and technical aspects of complex modelling projects within the CDC and External stakeholders.

DESCRIPTION

Duties & Responsibility

• Support the organisation by driving business innovation through the effective use of data and analytics;
• Uncover data-driven insights that directly influence major business outcomes;
• Have a strong Programming background such as Python, R, SQL, JAVA and VBA and quantitative research analysis;
• Design, train, and optimise ML models using Databricks, ML flow, and distributed compute;
• Be able to conduct Machine Learning assignments: AI frameworks, predictive modelling, Large Language Models (LLMs), and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI);
• Have knowledge in Data Visualisation such as Tableau and Power BI;
• Be exposed to Cloud and Bid Data such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Spark and cloud-based technologies;
• Collaborate with stakeholders to develop optimisation and decisioning models that support customer engagement, product recommendation and operational decision strategies;
• Lead a team of analysts to conduct exploratory data analysis, statistical analysis, hypothesis testing, and model validation;
• Assist and facilitate analytical(Primary and Secondary Research) and quantitative economic research projects supporting external programmes and Investor attraction initiatives;
• Provide technical advice /Project Management on business case creation to be presented to the potential funders;
• Supervise all feasibility studies for the Unit, and assist with presentations to the potential funders;
• Work with internal and external stakeholders in the identification of benefits and other requirements for the development of the Cost-Benefit models;
• Assist a team to conduct project evaluation which includes socio-economic impact assessment and Quantitative models;
• Identify, analyse, and interpret trends or patterns in complex data sets for decision-making purposes;
• Work with management to prioritise business and information needs;
• Be Familiar with business processes analysis to determine problems, risks, and opportunities for improvement or high-level impact of strategic requirements;
• Provide input to strategic committees as required by the organisation.
• Be able to work with more than one project/responsibility simultaneously;
• Attend meetings as and when required by the manager;
• Attend to ad hoc duties as and when required by the manager; and
• Undertake other duties as required commensurate with the level of this post

Furthermore, you are to ensure that:

• You are aware of and have access to the CDC’s SHEMS;
• You are aware of your responsibilities and duties as laid out in the CDC’s SHEMS;
• You are aware that you work in a safe and environmentally friendly manner;
• You ensure that the company’s housekeeping standards are maintained throughout your area of responsibility;
• You report any unsafe conditions or acts which you cannot rectify yourself to your SHE representative or to the Senior SHE Project Manager as soon as possible;
• You report all SHE incidents which occur within your area of responsibility promptly and in the correct format;
• You are totally familiar with your responsibilities in terms of the CDC’s emergency plan;
• You communicate to the Senior SHE Project Manager any required changes to the SHEMS prior to implementing these changes;
• You timeously complete and correctly record any corrective action which needs to be taken in order to rectify a SHE matter;
• You give full co-operation to, and participate in (as required), the CDC’s internal and external SHEMS audits.

You have the authority to:

• Immediately stop any person(s) on CDC property from committing an unsafe or destructive act or omission;

Take whatever immediate steps you deem necessary to prevent injury or environmental

Additionally ensure that:

• During your period of employment and subsequent thereto, you shall keep confidential and shall not make use of, directly or indirectly, and shall not disclose any of the CDC’s trade secrets or confidential information or those of its subsidiary or associate companies or those of other persons who have made disclosures to the CDC under conditions of confidentiality, other than to persons authorised by the CDC or those employed by the CDC who are required to know such secrets or to have such information for the purpose of their employment with the CDC.
• You shall not, without the written permission of the CEO, be directly or indirectly employed for gain in any business or pursuit other than that of the CDC. Such permission will be granted only if the CEO is satisfied that the activity is not in conflict with the CDC’s interests, and that the Employee’s ability to fulfil his/her duties to the CEO satisfaction will not be impaired.
• It is conditional that you and/or no immediate relative or member of my household be employed by an organisation in direct competition with the CDC, without the CDC’s written approval. The CDC reserves the right to enquire as to the place of employment of my spouse or any member of my household.
• You will abide by the CDC Code of Conduct and Ethics Policy which seeks to codify the expected ethical behavior from me, to meet the ideal of good corporate governance.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Post Graduate Degree in Data Science, Mathematical Statistics, Mathematics, Financial economics, Econometrics, any related or equivalent.
• Minimum of 10 years with Post Graduate Degree or Master’s Degree of experience within the quantitative analysis space or similar.
• Certifications in Databricks ML Engineer, Databricks Data Engineer, Azure AI, AWS/GCP AI/ML, SAS, Coursera/DeepLearning.AI; or a Master’s degree in the field will be an exceptional advantage.
• Deep experience with the core tools of Python and SQL.
• Experience with data science open source tools (e.g. ML flow, scikit-learn, Git, Airflow, Postgres, etc.)
• Strong experience developing machine learning models on Databricks for model tracking, experimentation and model governance.
• Strong understanding of feature engineering, feature selection and feature optimisation techniques.
• Ability to translate business problems into analytical solutions and measurable business outcomes.
• Experience delivering end-to-end data science use cases from concept through production deployment.
• Advance knowledge in Microsoft Excel and knowledge of statistical modelling software (R-studio, SPSS,) is a plus.
• Knowledge of Generative AI, prompt engineering and applied AI use cases.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and synthesising skills.
• Self-driven and able to operate effectively in a fast-paced, outcome-focused environment.
• Team-oriented but able to complete tasks independently to a high standard.
• Strong stakeholder engagement, communication and business consulting skills.
• A strong communicator, able to explain technical topics clearly and confidently to a non-technical audience.
• Proactive, structured, organized, and detail-oriented.
• Fluent in English, with strong writing skills.

KEY COMPETENCIES & ATTRIBUTES

The Senior Quantitative Analyst will also have the following attributes:

• Attention to detail
• Intellectually curious
• Proactive
• Sense of urgency
• Ability to build relationship

KEY COMPETENCIES & ATTRIBUTES

Performance is monitored regularly by reference to Key Performance Indicators and Balanced Scorecard.

Closing date: 06 November 2026

CDC is an employment equity employer and placement will be in accordancewith our Employment Equity Plan.

The appointment of candidates is subject to the verification of all their credentials (employment history, educational, financial, criminal and any other checks as may be necessary). Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted, and if you have not heard from us within one month of submitting your application, please consider it unsuccessful.

CDC reserves therightnottomakeanappointmenttoany advertisedposition. No late applications will be considered.