Data Scientist, Gen AI at Safaricom Kenya

Job Description

The role holder will be responsible for building scalable AI systems and contribute to the democratization of AI across Safaricom. They will deliver the use-cases identified, while also building data science capacity within organization and business clusters they support. 

The ideal candidate will be well versed with building AI systems especially GenAI.

Responsibilities

Below are the key skills and competencies required to be successful in this role:

Automated AI Modelling:

• Ability to creatively solve business problems by building AI systems.
• Ability to Constructively disrupt current business practices using Generative AI (GenAI).
• Designing and developing scaled (Gen)AI solutions.
• Show a propensity to collaboratively work with the larger team in the AI tribe to productionize AI algorithms.
• Being able & willing to stretch yourself to work on other multiple data science projects.
• Ability to test hypotheses from raw data sets, draw meaningful conclusions, and effectively communicate results verbally, in writing, and through effective visualization 
• Quantify improvements in business areas resulting from the use of algorithms and modelling through A/B testing

Statistical & ML Modelling:

• Demonstrate competency in utilizing advanced statistical and machine learning methods and technologies to deliver best-in-class models to support risk decision making.
• Developing code and automated processes to manipulate high volume, high dimensional data sources, including alternative data, to extract informative patterns, perform exploratory analyses and engineer useful features.
• Ability to develop machine learning & deployment of models and algorithms from large volumes of structured and/or unstructured data in a commercial /consumer environment in order solve real business problems, taking account of user needs and technology and operational landscape
• Identifying new analytics trends and opportunities to drive the innovation agenda across business functions 

Programming Languages and Big Data Technologies: 

Along with a strong knowledge of Big Data Technologies, the candidate should have:

• Practical skills in GIT version control.
• Strong hands-on programming skills in Python. Knowledge of SQL, Hadoop/Hive, Spark, and/or Scala.
• Proficient in  AI libraries in Python (e.g. H2O, SciPy and NLTK, PyTorch etc.) 
• Familiar with leading visualisation tools (e.g. Tableau, Qliksense, QuickSight)
• Cloud computing, especially AWS 

Behavioural Competencies:

• Ability to work cross functional teams to translate business issues into potential analytics solutions
•  Excellent communication skills with the ability to document solutions effectively.
• An analytical mindset to identify patterns and insights from data and business processes.
• The ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams to assess business needs and develop AI solutions.
• A self-driven and creative mindset to apply AI methods to solve real issues
• A problem-solving aptitude.

Qualifications

Experience & Education you should possess:

• A degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, Computer Science, or a related field.
• An MSc in a data science related discipline like Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Scientist or Engineering will be an added advantage.
• 3+ years of experience relevant to this role 
• Proven work experience in advanced Gen (AI) techniques, including prompt engineering, LLM implementation, and agent development, with a fundamental knowledge of inner workings.
• Experience in cloud technologies, generative AI techniques, will be an added advantage.
• Significant experience in machine learning & deployment of models and algorithms from large volumes of structured and/or unstructured data in a commercial /consumer environment