Data Scientist
Mukuru|Posted 19 days ago
Skills and experience
Location and salary
Role description
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!
About the role:
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.
Perform duties listed above using, but not limited to, the skills and experience outlined in the key requirements section below.
Key Requirements:
- Education: Grade 12 or equivalent; quantitative field qualification (e.g., Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science) or relevant
experience.
- Experience: 4+ years in analytical role; proficiency in reliable predictive model development and deployment (scalability, security, maintainability).
- Skills:
o Strong communication and presentation skills (technical and non-technical audiences).
o Building Machine learning models (clustering, classification, regression and prediction).
o Advanced Analytics techniques (Time series decomposition, Marketing/Media Mix Modelling, Behavioural
segmentation).
o Statistics & Research Methods (causal inference, experiment design, sample design, statistical modelling).
o Programming languages (Python, R or similar); SQL development and optimization.
o Report/dashboard development and data visualization (Power BI, Tableau, Qlik).
- Personal Attributes:
o Team player
o Commercial curiosity
o Strong organizational skills (prioritise and juggle tasks, stay focused under pressure)
o Adaptable and growth-oriented mindset
o High Agency / Execution-focused
o Attention to detail
Additional Skills/Experience:
- 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
Hiring Process:
Unless otherwise mutually agreed and arranged, all screening calls/interviews will take place virtually.
- CV review
- HR/Recruiter Screening call (15min to 30min)
- Hiring Team Screening call (30min to 1hr)
- Technical assessment (done on own time; deadline is specified in the assessment materials)
- Technical interview with hiring team (1hr; scheduled upon submission of technical assessment)
- Online Psychometric assessment
- Background checks (Credit, Criminal, References)
- Offer stage
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, to deliver your best in terms of performance, productivity, and service to
our customers.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. If you do not receive any response after two weeks of the closing date, please consider your application unsuccessful.
About Mukuru
What we do
Mukuru helps you move money around Africa. Whether you are sending cash for instant collection or topping up a bank account or mobile wallet it has never been easier. We use the latest mobile and web-based technologies to give you the best experience possible. But that’s just half the story. To really understand us, you need to know the “why” behind all we do.
We know that every one of our customers has a story. Just like we do. So whether they are sending money for school fees, hospital bills, rent or groceries, we are passionate about making that story end well.
It is this, the opportunity to enrich the lives of Africa's people by helping family, friends and loved ones stay connected, that motivates us to improve, to do more and to reach further. To us a remittance is more than money. It represents the love, care and hard work of the sender and can be a lifeline, an opportunity or even a celebration to the recipient.
Our Values
- World Class Service - It sets us apart from the competition.
- Innovation and Creativity - If we don't have it, we'll build it.
- Growth Through Learning - It's about progress.
- A Sense of Family - We are all in it together.
- Integrity - We're just down-to-earth, honest people.
- Passion in Work and Play - It's about giving everything.
Our Hiring Process
We a close-knit bunch so we place a lot of emphasis in the hiring process as we grow our family.
- You will firstly have an interview with the Team Lead, Development Manager or HR - we are down-to-earth, honest, all-in-it-together kind of people so have the first meeting is about getting to know each other seeing if we are a good fit for you and you for us
- We will give a short technical assignment to do in your own time - we are not the push a deadline kind of company but it is about giving it your everything in what you do. We tend to be able to move quite quickly in our process so completing the technical assessment as quickly as you can help to make the process even less of time hassle and we actually give you feedback on how you did - we take our world-class service seriously even our promises to each other as a team
- Our system works with people's livelihoods and trust, background checks (credit and criminal records) are part of our process
- Learning and growth is a big part of the Mukuru and an online psychometric test helps assist in identifying how we can work together to grow you career in the team
- We have a discussion about our offer to you.
For us, it's just as much about you choosing to make us a part of your story as much as it is about us choosing you to be a part of ours
Perks at Mukuru
Tech Stack
application and data




















utilities




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business tool






