Data Science Lead Jobs in George

A well-established insurance and financial services group in George is looking for an experienced Data Science Lead to build and drive its artificial intelligence and machine learning capability. This permanent, on-site role offers R75,000 to R85,000 per month and is a hands-on leadership opportunity in a young, ambitious data organisation, where the successful candidate stays close to the modelling work while mentoring a growing team.

About the company and the work

The role is advertised by Morton Moore Pty Ltd for a client in the insurance and financial services sector based in George. The team works with a modern, cloud-native data stack that includes Azure, Snowflake, Python, dbt and GCP. The Data Science Lead owns AI initiatives that directly influence how the business grows, prices products and retains customers, and shapes the AI strategy and delivery roadmap alongside senior leadership.

Role details and duties

• Lead the design, development and production deployment of machine learning models that deliver measurable commercial value.
• Own the full model lifecycle end to end, from initial business requirement and discovery through to production monitoring and retraining.
• Run business discovery sessions with stakeholders to scope opportunities, define success measures and prioritise the AI delivery roadmap.
• Build and maintain supervised, unsupervised and time-series models across use cases such as customer lifetime value, propensity, churn and fraud detection.
• Partner with Data Engineering and Analytics Engineering teams to ensure robust, well-governed data pipelines supporting model development.
• Set and enforce technical standards for model quality, validation, documentation and peer review.
• Implement MLOps practices and production deployment pipelines on a modern cloud-native stack.
• Ensure model governance, explainability and compliance with regulatory expectations, including POPIA, FAIS and Treating Customers Fairly principles.
• Present model outputs, insights and recommendations to executive and non-technical business audiences in clear commercial language.
• Mentor and develop data scientists through pairing, code review and structured coaching while remaining personally hands-on.
• Shape the broader AI strategy with senior leadership and contribute to capability planning as the team scales.
• Evaluate and introduce relevant innovations, including large language models, generative AI and agent frameworks, where they create practical business value.
• Monitor deployed models in production and report on performance, drift and realised business impact.

Requirements

• At least five years’ experience in data science or machine learning, including a minimum of two years in a senior or lead capacity.
• Proven track record of personally delivering production machine learning models with measurable business impact.
• Strong Python and SQL skills, with familiarity in modern data warehousing.
• Hands-on experience with supervised, unsupervised and time-series modelling techniques.
• Experience owning the full model lifecycle from business requirement through to production.
• Experience with cloud data platforms such as Azure, GCP or AWS.
• Strong business engagement and stakeholder communication skills, including presenting to executive committees.
• Experience leading or mentoring data science teams while remaining technically hands-on.
• Working awareness of model governance, explainability and regulatory requirements in a South African financial services context.

Advantageous: insurance or financial services domain exposure, customer lifetime value, propensity, fraud or churn modelling, MLOps pipelines, Snowflake, dbt, Databricks, Azure ML, Vertex AI, BigQuery ML or generative AI frameworks. Salary: R75,000 to R85,000 per month, depending on experience and qualifications.

Where to find and apply safely

This opportunity is advertised by Morton Moore Pty Ltd on PNet. Use the Apply button on this page to reach the original advert, and submit your application only through that original listing. Never pay anyone for a job offer or an interview.

Practical tips

• Show production machine learning models you delivered personally, with measurable business impact.
• Highlight your Python and SQL skills and your cloud platform experience.
• Give examples of mentoring data scientists while staying hands-on with modelling.
• Mention governance and explainability experience in a regulated financial services setting.

How the process works

After you apply through the original PNet advert, Morton Moore reviews applications against the requirements above. Shortlisted candidates are contacted for the next steps, which may include interviews and technical discussions about production modelling experience.

Important information

This post shares a job opportunity for information only. It is not a job offer, and the final decision rests with the employer. Always confirm the salary and working conditions on the original advert before applying.

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