Contract Roles at IQbusiness

Job Description

• iqbusiness is seeking to employ a Data Scientist on a 12-month contract to collaborate with an international partner from our offices in Welgemoed, Cape Town, Northern Suburbs. This is a hybrid role (3 days on-site; 2 days WFH).
• As a Data Scientist, you will support research projects with a focus on text analytics, statistical analysis, and data preparation. You will collaborate with researchers and stakeholders to develop data‑driven insights and contribute to analytical prototypes and reports. This position is ideal for someone early in their career who is eager to learn, curious, and comfortable working independently on well‑defined tasks with a great sense of ownership.

Key Responsibilities:

• Conduct text analysis using established NLP methods (e.g., preprocessing, tokenisation, topic modelling, entity extraction).
• Perform statistical analyses, exploratory data analysis, and data cleaning to support research objectives.
• Structure, clean, and organise datasets to ensure reproducibility and data quality.
• Build small analytical prototypes and scripts, leveraging modern AI coding assistants to iterate quickly.
• Contribute to internal dashboards (e.g., using Plotly Dash).
• Document analytical workflows and communicate results clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Collaborate with team members using Git for version control.
• Participate in scoping discussions to translate research needs into analytical tasks.
• Demonstrate ownership over assigned tasks and reliability in delivery.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Data Science, Econometrics, Statistics, or a related field
• A minimum of 2 years of experience as a Data Scientist or in a similar data-focused role
• Working knowledge of Python and common data science libraries (Pandas, NumPy, scikit‑learn, spaCy/NLTK)
• Familiarity with NLP workflows and hands on experience applying them in academic or practical settings
• Knowledge of basic statistics and experience with data exploration
• Experience using Git for basic version control
• Strong interest in the frontier of AI and AI agents – actively tracks new developments, experiments with emerging tools and models, and is eager to apply them to research problems
• Ability to write clear documentation and communicate findings effectively

Advantageous Skills:

• Experience with Plotly Dash or other visualisation tools
• Hands-on experience with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic) or agent frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, LangGraph)
• Basic exposure to web development concepts (HTML/CSS/JavaScript)
• Experience working with financial datasets such as stock time series
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure), containerization (Docker), or Linux environments
• Experience with additional programming languages (R, Julia, TypeScript)

Closing Date 30 June 2026

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Job Description

• iqx the Technology Division of iqbusiness is seeking a highly Azure AI Engineer who will be a core technical contributor within Digital AI Centre of Excellence (AI CoE), responsible for designing, building, deploying, and operating enterprise-grade AI solutions on Microsoft Azure.
• The role focuses on Generative AI, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AI Agents, and intelligent automation while ensuring strong alignment with Santam’s AI governance, security, and compliance standards.
• The successful candidate will collaborate closely with Digital product teams, architecture, security, and business stakeholders to enable safe, scalable, and reusable AI capabilities across the business.

Required Skills and Experience

Strong hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure services, including:

• Azure OpenAI
• Azure AI Search (including vector search)
• Azure Document Intelligence
• Azure Blob Storage
• Azure Cosmos DB (NoSQL)
• Azure App Services
• Azure Functions
• Azure Container Apps
• Azure Agentic AI Framework

Proven experience building:

• RAG-based AI solutions
• Conversational AI systems
• Enterprise AI integrations

Advantageous Skills

• Experience with enterprise AI governance and responsible AI frameworks.
• Knowledge of MLOps and AI operationalization practices.
• Exposure to containerization technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience working within financial services or insurance environments.
• Familiarity with AI observability and evaluation frameworks.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Information Technology, or equivalent practical experience. Microsoft Azure certifications (Azure AI Engineer, Azure Solutions Architect) are advantageous.