Senior Data Scientist – Credit & Risk Analytics

Location: Johannesburg, South Africa (Hybrid)

Employment Type: Full-time

The Opportunity

A global data and analytics company is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to join its growing team in Africa. In this role, you’ll be part of a high-caliber group of professionals solving complex business challenges through advanced data science techniques. You will work on projects across financial services, telecom, and insurance, with a focus on credit risk, fraud, and customer behavior.

This is a unique chance to apply your analytical expertise and make a tangible impact on business outcomes, while engaging with teams and clients both locally and across international markets.

Your Impact

• Design and deliver advanced analytics solutions for high-profile client engagements in areas like credit scoring, risk modeling, and customer decisioning.
• Collaborate with internal teams and external partners to co-create data-driven products that drive business outcomes.
• Take the lead on project delivery, contribute subject matter expertise, and guide junior data scientists in technical execution.
• Translate complex analytical findings into actionable business recommendations, and present them to senior stakeholders and clients.
• Help shape a culture of excellence through mentorship and technical leadership within the team.

What You Bring

Education:

• A Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, Computer Science or related (Honors or postgraduate qualifications preferred).

Experience & Skills:

• 6-8 years in advanced analytics or data science roles, ideally with client-facing responsibilities.
• Proven experience building and delivering credit risk models and related analytical solutions (e.g., application or behavioral scorecards).
• Expertise in statistical tools such as R, SQL, and a strong command of data manipulation and modeling techniques.
• Solid understanding of the credit lifecycle, and ideally, experience working with credit bureau data.
• Strong communication skills – able to convey complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Comfortable leading multiple concurrent projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience mentoring or managing junior analysts/data scientists.
• Exposure to cloud-based analytics environments (e.g., Azure, AWS) is a plus.

Why Join Us?

• Be part of an innovative analytics team embedded within a global business.
• Work with best-in-class analytical tools and a modern hybrid-cloud data infrastructure.
• Gain international exposure while contributing to high-impact solutions across several industries.
• Enjoy a supportive culture that emphasizes continuous learning, career development, and technical mastery.

Salt is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.