Lead Data Scientist - IB

Role Purpose

This role offers an opportunity to lead in the areas of Big Data and AI for Vodacom Group focussed on DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania. This involves providing Big Data & AI leadership, establishing execution methodologies, and enhancing the capabilities of our team of data scientists.

Big Data & AI is an integral part of our companys strategy and is focused on improving our customer experience, provide hyper-personalized recommendations and unlock efficiencies.

In South Africa, Vodacom has developed a mature Big Data operation which is fully integrated into multiple business areas and the success of this initiative is being replicated into DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania.

For the candidate to be successful, they will need to have the ability to build relationships with key stakeholders, develop a roadmap with each market based on market priorities and deliver business value in partnership with group and in-market colleagues.

The incumbent will lead a team of data scientists in Vodacom Group, located in South Africa and dedicated to each market, delivering the use-cases identified in each market, while also building data science capacity within each market.

The ideal candidate should be well versed with Customer Value Management principles, Real-Time Recommender systems and ML Ops practices.

Your Responsibilities Will Include

Acts as the principal technical expert, identifying opportunities to make a commercial difference and leads the development of machine learning initiatives to meet business requirements

Translates complex datasets into strategic insights for the business and communicates simply to non-technical audiences, visualising results, to create understanding and solution buy-in

Develops machine learning products to solve real business problems, taking account of user needs and technology and operational landscape

Identifies new analytics trends and opportunities to drive the innovation agenda across business functions

Supports the prioritization of both internal and external data assets and works with technology in setting key requirements for data sourcing

Recognized as an expert in the community, mentoring and advising colleagues on statistical techniques, algorithms and data

Drive the delivery quarterly cycle in the PI process and help Market Priorities value producing projects.

Build and Develop Big Data and ML standards for the IB Markets and Team across the IB.

Work closely with International Business CVM lead and Mpesa Big Data Manager to deliver against commercial targets

Works closely with the Vodacom South Africa Lead Data Scientist to co-create and establish machine learning and recommender capabilities and assets

The Ideal Candidate For This Role Will Have

Masters or Bachelors (or equivalent) in quantitative fields like Mathematics, Statistics , Economics, Computer Science or Engineering

10+ years of experience relevant to this role

Proficient in statistical packages and ML libraries in Python (e.g. H2O, SciPy and NLTK, PyTorch etc.)

Well versed in Customer Value Management principles, Real-Time Recommender systems and ML Ops practices

Familiar with leading visualisation tools (e.g. Tableau, Qliksense)

Familiar with implementing data transformations and algorithms in common programming languages

Strong communication skills with prior experience communicating analytics results to senior management

Experience working in a group role across multiple geographies would be an advantage.

Your Key Competencies

Significant experience in machine learning & deployment of models and algorithms from large volumes of structured and/or unstructured data in a commercial /consumer environment

Ability to test hypotheses from raw data sets, draw meaningful conclusions, and effectively communicate results verbally, in writing, and through effective visualization

Strong knowledge of Big Data technology

Cloud experience, especially AWS would be advantageous

Deep and broad statistical modelling expertise in various domains

Ability to work cross functional teams to translate business issues into potential analytics solutions

Ability to work and coordinate across teams in multiple geographies to realize business value through machine learning and recommender engines

Experience leading a team of data scientists

4-8 direct reports

Closing date for Applications: 03 July 2023.

The base location for this role is Vodacom, Midrand Campus.

The Companys approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.

Vodacom is committed to an organisational culture that recognises, appreciates and values diversity & inclusion.