Data Science Lead (AI/ Software Development)

In brief

**Overview** Morton Moore is recruiting for its client, a well-established insurance and financial services group based in George. The client is seeking an experienced Data Science Lead to build and drive its AI and machine learning capability. This is a permanent, on-site role in George, offering a hands-on leadership opportunity within a young, ambitious data organization. The successful candidate will remain personally involved in modelling work while also mentoring a growing team. **What you will do** * Lead the design, development and production deployment of machine learning models that deliver measurable commercial value. * Own the full model lifecycle end to end, from initial business requirement and discovery through to production monitoring and retraining. * Run business discovery sessions with stakeholders to scope opportunities, define success measures and prioritise the AI delivery roadmap. * Build and maintain supervised, unsupervised and time-series models across use cases such as customer lifetime value, propensity, churn and fraud detection. * Partner with Data Engineering and Analytics Engineering teams to ensure robust, well-governed data pipelines supporting model development. * Set and enforce technical standards for model quality, validation, documentation and peer review. * Implement MLOps practices and production deployment pipelines on a modern cloud-native stack. * Ensure model governance, explainability and compliance with regulatory expectations, including POPIA, FAIS and Treating Customers Fairly principles. * Present model outputs, insights and recommendations to executive and non-technical business audiences in clear commercial language. * Mentor and develop data scientists through pairing, code review and structured coaching while remaining personally hands-on. * Shape the broader AI strategy in partnership with senior leadership and contribute to capability planning as the team scales. * Evaluate and introduce relevant innovations, including large language models, generative AI and agent frameworks, where they create practical business value. * Monitor deployed models in production and report on performance, drift and realised business impact. **Requirements (from the original advert)** * At least five years' experience in data science or machine learning, including a minimum of two years in a senior or lead capacity. * Proven track record of personally delivering production machine learning models with measurable business impact. * Strong Python and SQL skills, with familiarity in modern data warehousing. * Hands-on experience with supervised, unsupervised and time-series modelling techniques. * Experience owning the full model lifecycle from business requirement through to production. * Experience with cloud data platforms such as Azure, GCP or AWS. * Strong business engagement and stakeholder communication skills, including presenting to executive committees. * Experience leading or mentoring data science teams while remaining technically hands-on. * Working awareness of model governance, explainability and regulatory requirements in a South African financial services context. * **Advantageous:** insurance or financial services domain exposure, CLV, propensity, fraud or churn modelling, MLOps pipelines, Snowflake, dbt, Databricks, Azure ML, Vertex AI, BigQuery ML or generative AI frameworks. **Who should apply** An experienced and technically hands-on Data Science Lead with a proven track record of personally delivering production machine learning models with measurable business impact. The ideal candidate should possess at least five years of experience in data science or machine learning, with a minimum of two years in a senior or lead capacity. They must be proficient in Python and SQL, familiar with modern data warehousing, and experienced with supervised, unsupervised, and time-series modelling techniques, as well as cloud data platforms. This role suits someone who can own the full model lifecycle, engage effectively with business stakeholders (including executive committees), and lead or mentor data science teams while remaining personally involved in technical work. An awareness of model governance, explainability, and South African financial services regulatory requirements is also essential. **Deadline** Not specified **Reference** Original posting: https://www.jobmail.co.za/jobs/it-computer/other-it-computer/george/data-science-lead-ai-software-development-id-7599878 Source: jobmail

Summary drafted with AI assistance from the original advert. The advert itself is the authority — how we use AI.

At a glance

• Python
• SQL
• AWS
• Azure
• Google Cloud

Extracted automatically from the advert; confirm requirements on the original listing.

Job description

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