Senior Data Scientist

Full-Time

Delhi, Kenya, Morocco, Philippines

Posted 2 years ago

Organization: IDinsight
Location: Dakar, Senegal; Nairobi, Kenya; Lusaka, Zambia; Rabat, Morocco; Manila, Philippines; or Delhi, India.

Job Description (Senior Data Scientist):

IDinsight is hiring full-time senior data scientists (4 to 10 years of experience) to grow our machine learning and broader data science capabilities. In this role the data scientist will work with project teams and clients to use advanced analytics to drive social impact. You may build models that help locate out of school children, optimize routing of community health workers, identify infants with high mortality risk, or make credit scoring possible for the unbanked for the first time.

We are a social-impact oriented organization, so can guarantee incredibly meaningful work tackling some of the world’s most complex international development challenges around the world.

Grow as a data scientist while doing meaningful work

We are working to build IDinsight into a global leader in the use of machine learning to solve some of the world’s most urgent problems.

You’ll be joining a growing data science team and working on highly impactful and innovative projects with our partners. You’ll be joining an entrepreneurial team where you have a strong voice in how the team functions and grows. You’ll get to work on the full spectrum of the data science solution – from design to deployment. To be effective, data science products need to be contextually relevant and build on subject-matter expertise. You will get to work closely with our partners, our team of economists, social-sector experts, and public health specialists to build and test solutions.

Learning is a key part of being a data scientist. 10% of your time would be dedicated to learning new skills and side projects of your choice. You’ll have strong mentorship to guide your data science career and you’ll make interesting and valuable connections.

About IDinsight

IDinsight helps leaders combat poverty worldwide by designing, deploying and promoting evidence-generating tools. We tailor the best methodologies to partner needs and constraints to fuse evidence with action. We serve governments, NGOs, foundations and social businesses across Africa and Asia in all major program areas including health, education, agriculture, livelihoods, finance, energy and governance. As a non-profit, we are laser-focused on enabling maximum social impact to improve millions of lives. Our approach rests on four pillars:

Rigorous: We develop and use a wide-range of cutting-edge data and evidence tools, including experimental evaluations, monitoring systems, data analytics and visualization, process evaluations, machine learning and more.
Cost-effective: Every dollar spent is justified by expected impact. If funds could be better used in another way, we say so.
Timely: Actionable information is delivered in time for client decision-making deadlines.
Demand-driven: We deploy solutions tailored to partner contexts and needs with no competing agendas.

Our diverse, growing team of outstanding colleagues operate in nearly two dozen countries around the world. Learn more about our mission and values at www.IDinsight.org.

About the role

We are seeking candidates with a strong data science skills and a passion for building solutions to difficult social problems. Most importantly, successful candidates should possess the ability to work independently to solve complex challenges related, both human and technological.

As a senior data scientist, you’ll also be across multiple projects and bring technical expertise to the team. In addition to the tasks above, you’ll be:

Working with clients to understand their needs: Understanding their current processes and pain points and identifying which of these can be framed as a tractable data science problem.
Providing technical oversight on multiple project.
Designing, testing, improving various algorithms: From OOTB scikit-learn algorithms to bespoke ones.
Writing articles and blog posts to share our work for technical and non-technical audiences.
Synthesising, visualizing, and communicating results: Dashboards, plots, interactive viz, presentations and reports
Writing test cases, setting up CI/CD, and deploying solutions using cloud resources.
Ensuring business problems are framed correctly: Not everything is a data science problem and a senior data scientist would have the expertise to make this judgement.
Ensuring appropriate methods are being used to tackle the problem: Having a broad knowledge of methods would allow a senior data scientist to pick the one best suited for the task.
Establishing standards and best practices: The senior data scientist will bring experience writing quality code and project management best practices.
Doing code reviews: Every piece of code we write should be reviewed. Senior data scientists would often be a reviewer and also establish best practices for reviews.
Provide mentorship to junior data scientists.
Provide expertise in one or more of the following:
- Deep-learning: image classification/segmentation, sequence models
- Optimization under constraints: linear programming, evolutionary algorithms
- NLP: sentiment analysis, text summarization
- Other: performance tracking, on-line learning, contextual bandits, survival analysis

Required Technical Qualifications

Intermediate to advanced Python skills. Please do not apply if you are not an expert in standard data science packages in Python (numpy, pandas, scikit learn, etc.).
Hands-on experience building and deploying supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms in production.Degree in Applied Math, Data Science, Computer Science, Physics, or Similar Technical Field.
Strong foundations in statistics and probability.
Minimum 4 years experience working as a data scientist in Python or R.
Experience with version control and code management in git.
Knowledge of good software engineering principles.

Other required qualifications:

Proven ability to work alone and with teams in a dynamic, multicultural environment.
Passion for improving lives through technology.
Strong oral and written communication skills in English. Fluency in languages spoken in countries where IDinsight works is a plus.
Strong values aligned with IDinsight’s stated values.
Ability and interest in sharing knowledge, mentoring others, presenting work and reviewing the work of others.
Deeply passionate about global development and improving lives in disadvantaged populations
Open-minded self-starter who will thrive while tackling new, unusual and unpredictable challenges

Preferred Qualifications

The most competitive applicants will also have experience in one or more of the following:

Advanced degree (Masters or Phd) in a technical field.
Experience living and working in developing country settings.
Experience working on optimization and unsupervised learning problems.
Experience working on natural language processing problems.
Experience working with SQL, custom APIs and AWS products like RDS, EC2, and Lambda.
Experience with other programming languages especially R or Java.
Experience working with GIS software such as QGIS.
Experience working with satellite imagery / remote sensing data.
Experience with Docker.

Nuts and Bolts

Location

This position is located in one of IDinsight’s existing offices, with possibility of extensive travel dependent on project needs. The most likely offices for this position are New Delhi, India; Dakar, Senegal; Nairobi, Kenya; or Lusaka, Zambia. Preference will be given to those with pre-existing work authorization in these countries; however, IDinsight will seek work permits where possible for exceptional candidates.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, we are currently “working from home” globally. As such, successful candidates would be expected to work from home until it is possible to safely and responsibly work from an IDinsight office.

Compensation

Compensation and benefits are commensurate with relevant experience and background, and competitive within the social sector. Please note, as a non-profit, we are unable to provide compensation similar to leading private sector organizations.

Start Date

The start date of this position is rolling, with preference for candidates that can start immediately. We expect a 2-year minimum commitment, with regular professional development conversations and potential for a longer-term career at IDinsight.

How to Apply

Please click the “Apply for this job online” button at the top right. The application asks various questions in order for us to get to know you, and requires a CV and cover letter. Applications are rolling and considered as they are submitted. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

Please ensure that your CV includes relevant professional and personal experience as well as details on academic qualifications. CVs can range from one to two pages. Please note, headshot photographs, parental details, birth dates, marital status and other personal information not relevant to the application do not need to be included in your CV. Additionally, we strongly encourage you to use your cover letter to highlight why you want to work for IDinsight specifically, and what has prepared you to succeed in the role you’re applying for. A customized cover letter is an important part of IDinsight’s recruiting process as it allows us to understand your motivations for the position, relevant skills, and clarity of writing.

More information, including details on IDinsight’s hiring process and frequently asked questions, can be found online at IDinsight Careers. Any questions should be directed to [email protected].

IDinsight’s commitment to reducing power asymmetries

IDinsight is committed to reducing power asymmetries in the social sector. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion reflects our understanding of the need for the sector to abandon unhealthy practices of the past. We wish to be part of a new generation of international NGOs who are honest about this history and transparent about our role in the present. Our commitment is also aligned with the impact of our work.

We seek a workforce that is inclusive of a variety of perspectives that will help us refine and improve our methods and relationships, and strengthen the services we provide our clients and their communities or constituencies. The following commitments represent our vision for the IDinsight team:

IDinsight will have greater representation from the populations with whom we work and clients we serve.
IDinsight will have greater representation from the countries in which we work.
Across all countries in which we recruit, we will seek greater representation from historically excluded communities.
IDinsight will foster an inclusive work culture that empowers a diverse team to do their best work.

IDinsight is an equal opportunity employer and strives to create a diverse and supportive workplace.

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Job Category

Computer Science, Data Science