Data Scientist | On-site | George, Western Cape at Badger Holdings (Pty) Ltd

Your day-to-day will include:

• Preparing and transforming data for machine learning (cleaning, feature engineering, optimisation)
• Conducting exploratory analysis to uncover trends and guide model design
• Building, testing, and deploying machine learning models aligned to business needs
• Collaborating with actuarial teams to align assumptions and modelling approaches
• Validating models and ensuring performance, accuracy, and reliability
• Monitoring live models for drift and performance degradation
• Maintaining, retraining, and improving models over time
• Creating clear documentation for models, pipelines, and processes
• Developing dashboards and reporting tools to track performance and KPIs
• Communicating insights and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Requirements:

• A degree (Honours preferred) in Data Science, Actuarial Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field
• 3+ years’ experience in data science or machine learning roles
• Strong Python and R skills, with proven experience building and deploying models
• Solid experience across the full ML lifecycle (data → model → deployment)
• Hands-on experience with statistical modelling, machine learning, and time series forecasting
• The ability to translate technical outputs into clear business value
• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills, particularly with actuarial teams
• A proactive, energetic mindset and a genuine passion for data and innovation

Nice to have:

• Experience in insurance (especially short-term insurance)
• Exposure to CLTV modelling, claims modelling, survival analysis, or actuarial-related work
• Experience with dbt, Snowflake, GCP, or similar cloud platforms
• Familiarity with MLOps practices and machine learning platforms
• Experience with BI tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker, Qlik, etc.)