Data Scientist (Python, Machine Learning, LLMs) – (In Office) CPT

ENVIRONMENT:

An Investment company is searching for a talented and driven Data Scientist to join their innovative and growing team based in Durbanville, Cape Town. This is an exciting opportunity to work with a market leader, leveraging data to drive strategic decision-making, enhance business performance, and contribute to the future of wealth creation in South Africa.

DUTIES:

Machine Learning & Predictive Modelling

•       Design, train, evaluate, and deploy supervised and unsupervised machine learning models in Python.

•       Build predictive and prescriptive models across classification, regression, clustering, and ranking tasks.

•       Own the full ML lifecycle: data preparation, feature engineering, model selection, validation, deployment, and monitoring.

•       Package and deploy models in Docker for reproducible, versioned, maintainable production use.

NLP & Generative AI

•       Develop and fine-tune NLP models for text classification, named entity recognition, sentiment analysis, and summarisation.

•       Leverage LLMs and generative AI (Claude, OpenAI API, Hugging Face) to build intelligent applications.

•       Design prompt engineering strategies and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines using PostgreSQL/pgvector for vector storage.

•       Evaluate and mitigate risks in generative AI outputs including hallucination, bias, and fairness.

Computer Vision

•       Build and adapt computer vision models for image classification, object detection, and segmentation.

•       Work with pre-trained architectures (e.g. CNNs, ViTs) and fine-tune on domain-specific datasets.

•       Collaborate with engineering teams to integrate vision models into production systems.

Analytics, Dashboards & Statistical Insights

•       Conduct rigorous exploratory data analysis (EDA) and statistical modelling to surface actionable insights.

•       Design and analyse A/B tests and experiments to measure the impact of product and business changes.

•       Translate complex analytical findings into clear, compelling narratives for non-technical stakeholders.

•       Build dashboards and internal tools using React, TypeScript, Tailwind, and Framer Motion to track model and business KPIs.

AI Automation & Workflow Integration

•       Use AI developer tools such as Claude Code and LLMs to accelerate experimentation and delivery.

•       Automate data and model workflows with n8n, Zapier, and Base44.

•       Integrate model outputs and insights into the group’s systems including Zoho CRM (via Deluge and APIs).

Collaboration & Research

•       Partner with data engineers to ensure high-quality data is available for modelling.

•       Work with product managers and stakeholders to define problems, success criteria, and evaluation metrics.

•       Stay current with research developments in ML, NLP, and AI; evaluate and apply relevant techniques.

•       Document methodologies, experiments, and model decisions to support reproducibility and knowledge sharing.

REQUIREMENTS:

•       3–5 years of hands-on experience in a data science or applied machine learning role.

•       Strong proficiency in Python for data science (NumPy, pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch or TensorFlow).

•       Solid understanding of ML fundamentals: model selection, cross-validation, regularisation, and evaluation metrics.

•       Practical experience with NLP and language models (transformers, BERT, GPT-family, etc.).

•       Proficiency in SQL and working with PostgreSQL for data extraction and manipulation.

•       Experience deploying models with Docker.

•       Strong statistical foundations: hypothesis testing, probability, regression, and experimental design.

•       Ability to communicate technical work clearly to non-technical audiences.

•       Experience with generative AI tooling (LangChain, LlamaIndex, OpenAI API, Claude, Hugging Face).

•       Experience building RAG patterns with vector stores (e.g. PostgreSQL/pgvector).

•       Exposure to computer vision frameworks (OpenCV, torchvision, YOLO, Detectron2).

•       Familiarity with AI automation tools (n8n, Zapier, Base44) and AI dev tools (Claude Code).

•       Front-end skills (React, TypeScript, Tailwind, Framer Motion) for building model-facing tools.

•       Experience integrating with Zoho CRM (Deluge, JavaScript)

•       Postgraduate degree (Honours, Masters, or PhD) in a quantitative field such as Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or Engineering.