Job Description

Data Scientist (6-Month Contract)

Shape the future of loyalty and rewards in financial services

Johannesburg or Cape Town | R600 per hour | 08:00am to 17:00pm

About Our Client

Our client is a bespoke AI consultancy and a trusted AI partner to leading organisations. They specialise in delivering advanced, practical, and scalable AI solutions that are strategically aligned to unlock measurable business value. With a focus on innovation, collaboration, and impact, they provide an environment where top talent can solve meaningful problems in forward-thinking industries.

The Role: Data Scientist (6-Month Contract)

This role will see you working on a greenfields proof-of-concept (POC) for a leading South African bank, reimagining their loyalty and rewards space. You will apply advanced machine learning and data science techniques to uncover opportunities for customer engagement and reward optimisation. This is a hands-on role where your work will directly shape the client's future strategy and potentially scale into a production environment.

Key Responsibilities

• 3 - 5 years of experience as a data scientist or applied machine learning practitioner to define and deliver AI-driven solutions.
• Partner with stakeholders to frame business problems and identify relevant use cases.
• Perform data exploration, wrangling, and feature engineering to prepare datasets for modelling.
• Develop, test, and evaluate statistical and machine learning models for segmentation, engagement, and optimisation.
• Communicate insights and results clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Support the transition from proof-of-concept to scalable solutions, embedding reproducibility and best practices.
• Collaborate with data engineers and ML engineers to align on technical delivery.

About You

• 3 - 5 years of experience in data science, machine learning, or applied analytics.
• Proficiency in Python, SQL, and core data science libraries (pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, TensorFlow, or PyTorch).
• Strong knowledge of statistical modelling, supervised and unsupervised learning, and validation techniques.
• Experience with large, complex datasets in cloud environments (Azure preferred).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset with business acumen.
• Confident communicator, able to bridge technical and business conversations.
• Bonus: Background in customer analytics, loyalty programmes, or financial services.
• Bonus: Experience deploying AI models into production.

Contract Details

• Duration: 6 months, with potential extension
• Location: Johannesburg or Cape Town (hybrid / remote-first flexibility)
• Rate: R600 per hour