Data Science Lead (Cape Town)

Job description

Data Science Lead

ARC (a division of Badger SA) | George, Western Cape | Permanent | On-site

Lead AI that delivers real business impact.

At ARC, we're building the next generation of data, analytics and AI capabilities for Badger Holdings, including dotsure.co.za and Pacific International Insurance. Our mission is simple: use intelligent technology to create smarter decisions, better customer experiences and stronger businesses

We're looking for an experienced Data Science Lead to lead our Data Science team while remaining deeply involved in solving complex business problems through machine learning and AI.

This is a true player-coach opportunity. You'll guide a talented team, shape technical direction and personally deliver high-impact machine learning solutions from concept through to production.

What you'll do

As our data science lead, you'll lead a team of three data scientists and one machine learning engineer while driving strategic AI initiatives across the business.

You'll:

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of machine learning and AI projects from business discovery through deployment and monitoring.
• Build, validate and deploy predictive models across customer lifetime value (CLV), fraud detection, lapse prediction, pricing optimisation, claims prediction and customer segmentation.
• Work closely with stakeholders across underwriting, claims, finance and operations to identify high-value opportunities.
• Translate commercial challenges into scalable data science solutions.
• Ensure models are production-ready, explainable, governed and deliver measurable business value.
• Present insights and recommendations to senior leadership and executive stakeholders.
• Mentor, coach and develop the data science team while establishing technical best practices.
• Collaborate with data engineering, analytics engineering and ML engineering to deliver robust AI solutions.
• Contribute to ARC's evolving AI ecosystem across Azure, GCP and modern cloud data platforms.

What we're looking for

You'll thrive in this role if you combine technical excellence with strong leadership and commercial thinking.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in data science, computer science, statistics, mathematics, engineering or a related quantitative discipline.
• A postgraduate qualification in a relevant field is advantageous.
• Relevant cloud, AI or machine learning certifications (Azure, Google Cloud, AWS, Databricks or Snowflake) will be advantageous.

Essential experience

• 5+ years' experience in data science, machine learning or artificial intelligence.
• Previous experience leading or mentoring Data Science teams.
• Proven success delivering production machine learning models with measurable business impact.
• Strong Python and SQL skills.
• Experience across supervised, unsupervised and time-series modelling techniques.
• Experience owning the full machine learning lifecycle from problem definition to production deployment.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and business partnering skills.
• Experience presenting technical concepts to senior leadership and non-technical audiences.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Understanding of model governance, explainability and responsible AI.

Highly advantageous

• Insurance or financial services experience.
• Experience with fraud detection, customer propensity, churn or CLV modelling.
• MLOps and production deployment pipelines.
• Snowflake, dbt or modern cloud data platforms.
• Azure ML, Vertex AI, BigQuery ML or Databricks.
• Exposure to Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs) or AI Agent frameworks.
• Experience working within regulated environments (POPIA, FAIS, TCF).

The kind of leader we're looking for

• You're someone who enjoys building as much as leading.
• You lead by example, enjoy solving complex business problems, and are motivated by seeing your models deployed into production where they create measurable value.
• You communicate confidently with both technical teams and business stakeholders, develop those around you, and continuously look for better ways to apply AI to real-world challenges.

Why join ARC?

This is an opportunity to shape the future of AI within a growing organisation that is investing heavily in data and intelligent technologies.

You'll have the opportunity to:

• Lead meaningful AI initiatives with visible commercial impact.
• Stay hands-on with data science while growing your leadership career.
• Work with modern cloud technologies including Python, Azure, Snowflake, dbt and GCP.
• Influence AI strategy across multiple businesses.
• Build and mentor a high-performing data science team.
• See your work move beyond experimentation into production.

Location

This permanent role is based in George, Western Cape and is an on-site position. Relocation support may be considered for the right candidate.