Data Scientist

Join Mukuru's Business Intelligence team as a Data Scientist and play a pivotal role in informing strategic decisions with data-driven insights. We're seeking talented individuals from Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Pretoria (with remote work options) to collaborate with business stakeholders and drive outcomes in Sales, Customer Experience, and Marketing Effectiveness.

Mukuru is a Fintech business offering the emerging consumer access to affordable and reliable financial services. Our foundation is built on international money transfers -- helping customers to move money into, out of, and around Africa. From this base we've grown to provide a broad range of services to answer a greater array of financial needs of our customers. If being part of one of Africa's largest money transfer companies, enabling millions of people to remit vital support to their loved ones across the region appeals to you, then we want to hear from you!

The Data Scientist role reports to the Analysis Team Lead within the Business Intelligence department. As a Data Scientist, you will design, develop, and maintain advanced analytical models that yield actionable insights. Your expertise will facilitate informed decision-making across departments, and you will communicate complex findings to stakeholders. This role involves internal collaboration with various departments and may include external interactions with third-party partners.

Duties and Responsibilities (include but not limited to):

• Collaborate with stakeholders across all levels and business/technical areas to develop data-driven solutions, aligning business strategies with analytical insights.
• Elicit business requirements, translating them into the appropriate data modeling, analysis and machine learning specifications.
• Ensure high-quality data through profiling, validation, and verification (business relevance, accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness) for data intended for analytics and predictive modelling.
• Design, build, deploy, and maintain advanced analytical models that are optimized for high performance, scale, reusability, ease of maintainability and auditability.
• Analyze data to extract key insights, communicating findings through intuitive visualizations and recommendations to guide business decision making.
• Train and support users in interpreting model outcomes and analysis results.
• Take ownership of all tasks allocated to you proactively communicating progress, status, blockers, risks, and issues.
• Incorporate MLOps best practices in all model development (includes but not limited to version control, automated monitoring, data validation, automated integration and deployment).
• Continuously upskill and stay abreast of new developments in the Data Analytics, Modelling, Machine learning and AI space (tooling, methodologies, applications).
• Engage with Source System custodians (Product Owners/Architects) to gain an understanding of the data collected, the architecture in which the data are stored and the process that produced it. In addition, provide corrective feedback to ensure that the availability, quality, and structure of the source system data can satisfy downstream analytics requirements.

Key Requirements

• Grade 12 or equivalent
• Quantitative field qualification (e.g., Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science) or relevant experience.
• 4+ years in analytical role.
• Proficiency in reliable predictive model development and deployment (scalability, security, maintainability).
• Strong communication and presentation skills (technical and non-technical audiences).
• Building Machine learning models (clustering, classification, regression and prediction).
• Advanced Analytics techniques (Time series decomposition, Marketing/Media Mix Modelling, Behavioural segmentation).
• Statistics & Research Methods (causal inference, experiment design, sample design, statistical modelling).
• Programming languages (Python, R or similar); SQL development and optimization.
• Report/dashboard development and data visualization (Power BI, Tableau, Qlik).
• Experience working in the Financial Services, Retail, Technology industries or high growth businesses.
• Experience working with cloud-based data analytics platforms, such as Snowflake, Azure, BigQuery or Redshift

Additional Skills

• Team player
• Commercial curiosity
• Strong organizational skills (prioritise and juggle tasks, stay focused under pressure)
• Adaptable and growth-oriented mindset
• High Agency / Execution-focused
• Attention to detail

I am sure you are reading this job description and meet majority of the criteria BUT you may also still not be 100% comfortable in applying. We believe that there is a place for everyone under the Mukuru sun and we want YOU to contribute to our diverse tapestry of talent. So come on, take a leap of faith, and send your application if you meet majority of our requirements. Remember to include a snippet of how you will bring value and help us build a future of success that will help us determine where and how you may best be suited. Maybe you are just the future Mukurian we need!!

Should you be appointed in a remote/work from home role at Mukuru, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have uninterrupted internet connectivity and a 'work-like' environment at your home location, in order to deliver your best in terms of performance, productivity and service to our customers.

If you do not receive any response after two weeks, please consider your application unsuccessful.

NB: ALL STAFF APPOINTMENTS WILL BE MADE WITH DUE CONSIDERATION OF THE COMPANY'S DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION PLANS