Junior Data Scientist at Nedbank

Job Purpose

• Contribute to the design and prototyping of analytic engines and services with a foundational understanding of machine learning, data mining, and information retrieval concepts

Job Responsibilities

• Develop statistical models and algorithms through the use of libraries and abstractions
• Conducts explority data analysis
• Create value out of various datasets
• Provide insights to BI and BA to further exploit and present their models.
• Apply advanced analytical techniques such as machine learning and artificial intelligence in order to derive business value.
• Conduct data discovery for inclusion in models.
• Proficiency in a programming toolset (for e.g, Python, R) for data manipulation and basic data analysis tasks.
• Grow in knoweldge of latest tools and techniques with guidance from senior team members.
• Able to query and pre-process (wrangle/munge) data.
• Collaborates with senior data scientists/analysts/engineers to implement and deploy scalable solutions. 
• Implement and maintain ML models an d algorithms that drive innovation throughout the organization.
• Conduct self-development throughresearching best practices, conducting experiments, and collaborating with industry leaders.
• Monitor and maintain models in production and re-train if necessary.        
• Support the achievement of the business strategy, objectives and values.
• Stay abreast of developments in field of expertise.
• Ensure personal growth and enable effectiveness in performance of roles and responsibilities.
• Contribute to the Nedbank Culture building initiatives (e.g. staff surveys etc.).
• Participate and support positive team culture in achievement of business strategy.
• Seek opportunities to improve business processes, models and systems though agile thinking.
• Develop Data Science Use Cases with a small team in an agile fashion.
• Machine learning and Model training/retraining.
• Exploratory data analysis and visualisations using large data sets.
• Acquire and load relevant data and generate features from this data sets.
• Maintain production Models as required.

Essential Qualifications - NQF Level

• Matric / Grade 12 / National Senior Certificate
• Advanced Diplomas/National 1st Degrees

Preferred Qualification

• STEM Qualification
• Engineering Qualification,
• Computer Science,
• Econometrics,
• Mathematical Statistics,
• Actuary Science
• Masters or Doctorate will be an added advantage

Preferred Certifications

• Cloud (Azure, AWS), DEVOPS or Data engineering certification. Any Data Science certification will be an added advantage, Coursera, Udemy, SAS Data Scientist certification, Microsoft Data Scientist.

Minimum Experience Level

• MS/PhD in STEM or related technical discipline
• 1-3 years’ experience in a statistical and/or data science role
• Cursory knowledge of machine learning, statistics, optimization or related field
• Experience with R, Python, Matlab is required, programming in C, C++, Java
• Experience working with large data sets, simulation/ optimization and distributed computing tools (Map/Reduce, Hadoop, Hive, Spark, Gurobi, Arena, etc.)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills along with strong desire to work in cross functional teams
• Attitude to thrive in a fun, agile start-up like environment.

Technical / Professional Knowledge

• Data Mining
• Data analysis
• data/ data structures
• Presentation Skills
• Problem solving skills
• programming
• Supervised Learning
• Unsupervised Learning
• NLP
• Statistical Analysis
• Data Visualisation
• Feature Engineering/Selection
• HyperParameter Tuning
• Research and analytics
• Continous Learning
• AI Ethics and Fairness

Behavioural Competencies

• Planning and Organizing
• Collaborating
• Continuous Improvement
• Innovation
• Leveraging Feedback
• Applied Learning

Deadline:18th July,2025