Senior Data Science Advisor (Contract)

Key Skills

Azure, Data science techniques, Machine learning techniques, Python Programming, R Programming, SQL

Job Description

Role Summary

This role will support Nithio while our Chief Data Scientist is on parental leave from April 22, 2024, through August 2024. This role will be on a contract basis for roughly 20-25 hours per week during this period.

 Nithio seeks a Senior Data Science Advisor to lead and oversee our product development, data acquisition, and AI modeling. You will build an infrastructure considering a wide variety of data and create an architecture to manage, process, and distribute that data. Your work will enable data scientists and analysts to work smarter and faster as we support scaling access to energy and consumer financing across Africa.

Primary Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Provide visionary leadership to the risk analytics team, aligning departmental efforts with Nithio OKRs and mission
• Develop Growth Plan: Working cross-functionally with other department leaders, develop a growth strategy & business plan for the data team’s expansion into new markets, sectors, and geographies.
• Product Development: Lead the development and implementation of advanced machine learning and statistical models to analyze financial data and optimize decision-making processes. Explore and integrate innovative techniques to solve complex challenges in our domain/sectors.

Key Deliverables

• Engage with Nithio and external stakeholders to develop new partnership/product opportunities
• Participation in regular calls with senior leadership, including Head of Partnerships and Head of Capital Formation, as well as external stakeholders, to collect feedback and brainstorm on strategy
• Collaboration with Nithio Analytics team to understand and map existing and potential future product capabilities, including possible data sources, modeling approaches, and analytical insights
• Proposal with 3-4 ideas on market gaps and who they impact, how our data fills the void, and what we need to develop to meet that. Proposal should include a summary of feedback, market assessment, technical requirements, and a development roadmap for each idea.
• Estimated relative LOE: 60%
• Provide guidance and technical expertise for ongoing product work stream(s), particularly on Machine Learning (ML) related components
• Participation in working group and project scoping calls
• Contribution to the product roadmap with technical guidance and strategy for ML-related components, including identifying requirements, evaluating solutions, estimating timelines, helping coordinate tasking, and guiding implementation where relevant
• Estimated relative LOE: 30%
• Provide mentorship for the data analytics team regarding workflows and learning & development
• Bi-monthly 1:1 sessions with team members to discuss goals and career development
• Facilitation of monthly team retrospectives and assist in identifying focus areas for team workflow improvements
• Estimated relative LOE: 10%

Who You Are

• A self-starter, passionate about creating lasting change in developing markets
• Have demonstrated experience working in Africa and/or emerging markets
• Have a track record of outstanding focus and drive to achieve outsized results
• Highly entrepreneurial and self-motivated; expert at managing your own time
• Possess superior problem-solving, judgment, and decision-making skills with the ability to articulate and present points of view and ideas effectively
• You have a track record of successfully prioritizing multiple competing priorities with strong attention to detail
• You can advance discrete projects both independently and as part of a team
• Possess strong interpersonal skills and work well on a distributed/global team
• Exemplify our values: Collaboration, Commitment, Growth, Marking a Difference, and Adaptability
• Experience mentoring, training, and developing staff to facilitate team growth

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in a quantitative field (Business, Finance, Mathematics, Economics, Engineering, or a related field)
• 15+ years of experience leading a team/department building data solutions as a primary part of their business.
• Prior experience in a high-growth startup environment is a strong plus.
• Expertise in SQL, Python, R, or other query and scripting languages to aggregate and transform data and connect platforms
• Expertise in cloud computing platforms such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure
• Experience in machine learning, predictive analytics, or other data science techniques
• Experiencelaunching new products/teams in new sectors and/or geographies

$77 - $86 an hour

The listed salary range applies only to U.S.-based candidates. For non-U.S. candidates, a geographic differential will be applied based on a candidate’s location