Job Description

This is an excellent opportunity for a Senior Data Scientist to work in a data-driven organisation where machine learning is directly embedded into operational and strategic decision-making. You’ll design predictive and prescriptive models using large, complex datasets, and work with a well-established big data platform to deploy those models into production across healthcare and insurance use cases.

This Senior Data Scientist role is based in Cape Town and offers up to R1M – R1.1M per annum.

THE COMPANY:

One of South Africa’s leading health insurance companies, this business delivers large-scale healthcare solutions by combining clinical insight with data-driven innovation. With a strong focus on preventative care and measurable outcomes, their platform supports millions of users through personalised tools and services that make health management simpler, more accessible, and more effective.

Backed by a major financial services group, they bring together deep insurance expertise and clinical capability to build scalable solutions that reduce risk, improve care, and enable smarter decision-making across the healthcare ecosystem.

THE ROLE

You’ll lead the delivery of advanced analytics solutions that support critical decisions across underwriting, claims, customer engagement, and operational planning. Your focus will be on building machine learning models that generate clear, measurable business value, working end-to-end from business engagement through to deployment in a cloud-native (AWS) environment.

You’ll be working with structured and unstructured data from across the business, building robust pipelines, applying sound modelling practices, and translating findings into usable outputs for a range of stakeholders. This is a hands-on, delivery-focused role, with the support of a mature data team and infrastructure.

THE REQUIREMENTS

Postgraduate degree in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, or related quantitative field

4+ years in data science roles, with production-level modelling experience

Proficient in Python for data wrangling, modelling, and evaluation

Solid SQL experience and confidence working with large, complex datasets

Familiarity with big data platforms and cloud infrastructure (ideally AWS)

Ability to translate business questions into modelling approaches

Experience in healthcare, insurance, or other data-sensitive industries is a plus