Data Scientist (AI)

Location: Midrand, Vodacom Campus, Johannesburg, South Africa

Company

Vodacom is an African telecommunications company providing mobile communication, data, financial, and converged services to more than 200 million customers.

What you will do

• Design, develop, and evaluate machine learning models using structured and unstructured data.
• Build predictive, forecasting, propensity, and optimization models.
• Develop Generative AI applications using LLMs, RAG, prompt engineering, and multimodal AI patterns.
• Design Agentic AI workflows with planning, tool usage, orchestration, memory, and human-in-the-loop approaches.
• Collaborate with technology, data engineering, AI engineering, and MLOps teams to support production deployment and lifecycle management.
• Present analytical findings, document models, define evaluation and monitoring metrics, and support responsible AI governance.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related field.
• 2–5 years of experience in Data Science, Machine Learning, or Artificial Intelligence.
• Strong Python and SQL skills, with experience developing machine learning solutions and data products.
• Hands-on experience with Generative AI, Agentic AI applications, and prompt engineering.
• Experience transitioning analytical solutions into production with technology and engineering teams.
• Strong communication, presentation, analytical, and problem-solving skills.

Nice to have

• Experience with OpenAI Agents SDK, Microsoft AutoGen, CrewAI, Semantic Kernel Agents, or LangGraph.
• Experience with vector databases and search platforms such as Azure AI Search, Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS, Chroma, or Milvus.
• Knowledge of MLflow, Azure ML, Databricks, MLOps, AI guardrails, and observability.
• Experience creating visualizations with Power BI, Plotly, or Grafana Dashboards.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive benefits and incentive programs.
• Retirement funds, risk benefits, and medical aid benefits.
• Cell phone and data benefits, fibre connection discounts, and partner staff discounts.
• Equal opportunities and a workplace committed to diversity and inclusion.