Senior Data Scientist

Discovery Health

Senior Data Scientist

 

About Discovery

 

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating not only to achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.

 

About (Health Intelligence – Operations Intelligence)

 

The position available is in the Discovery Health Operations Intelligence unit. We apply predictive analytics, big data and analytic skills to provide unique data-driven answers to exciting problems in servicing, operations and other areas of the business. The team has access to structured and unstructured data and makes use of the latest international innovative big data architecture.

 

Key Purpose

 

• Lead the technical development, testing, and implementation of advanced Large Language Model (LLM) based projects and related technologies to deliver end-to-end data science and AI products within the organization.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams and business partners to design, build, and deploy scalable solutions that will directly impact staff and customers.

• Create opportunities that delight our customers by leveraging Discovery’s vast clinical, demographic and operational data. Using this data with predictive modelling and machine learning techniques you will have a direct impact on strategic initiatives to support Discovery’s world-class operations.

 

Areas of responsibility may include but not limited to

 

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of LLM - and generative AI-based solutions that address large-scale and complex problems and materially drive the company’s global product offerings and strategy forward.
• Collaborate with product owners, project managers, and executive stakeholders to identify and prioritize business problems that can be solved with LLMs.
• Conduct desktop research into the state-of-the-art in LLMs and Generative AI and apply findings to real-world applications (either requested by business or suggested by yourself).
• Conduct research and development of speech-to-text and audio-based language models, integrating with LLM pipelines where applicable.
• Conduct experimental research on the use of LLMs in real-world company applications to ensure that design and development decisions are made scientifically and optimize for and balance all business requirements. These include accuracy, scalability, efficiency, reliability, safety, and cost-effectiveness.
• Translate strategic direction into technical product definitions and roadmaps.
• Participate actively in internal and external communities discussing and designing policies for the ethical use of AI and ensure your team’s work meets ethical AI standards.
• Contribute substantially to a culture of innovation, leading the prototyping and development of novel methodologies and approaches. Provide strong thought leadership in this regard.
• Communicate complex technical concepts to executives and non-technical stakeholders effectively.
• Demonstrate strong emotional intelligence by understanding and uplifting team members and skillfully managing challenging situations with composure.
• Advise other teams in the business on best practice based on your experience.

• Mining large structured and unstructured datasets to find new insights to inform operational efficiency and ‘member- delight’ interaction strategies
• Research and application of the most up to date machine learning algorithms and AI techniques
• Present data and model findings in a way that provides actionable insights to business users
• Monitoring model performance

 

Personal Attributes and Skills

 

• Expert in data science programming languages such as R, Python, Scala
• Expert in data manipulation skills including SQL to extract, transform and load data
• Experience in interactive data exploration and data-driven story telling
• Understanding and application of Big Data and distributed computing principles
• Hands on experience with Big Data systems will be preferred
• Strong analytical and statistical knowledge with an understanding of the latest machine learning algorithms for both structured and unstructured data
• Ability to adapt to emerging technologies and tools
• Proficiency in version control systems such as Git for collaborative coding and maintaining code integrity
• Ability to formulate problem statements and develop a plan for tackling the problem
• Strong ability to communicate findings and recommendations from data (visual, verbal and written)
• Integration and implementation experience
• A passion for data exploration and analytics
• Self-starter
• Willingness to learn and grow exponentially
• A restless curiosity towards data and uncovering unknown correlations
• Ability to work cohesively in a team environment and balance multiple priorities
• A team player who can work alone when required and without supervision
• High level of attention to detail, resilience, enthusiasm, energy and drive

 

Education and Experience

 

• Honours or Master’s degree in Computer Science with solid experience in statistical modelling, data mining and machine learning, OR
• Honours or Master’s degree in either Data Science, Statistics, or Applied Mathematics with some experience in software engineering, computer science or working with big disparate sets of data
• Other analytical qualifications will also be considered if accompanied by the relevant experience
• A minimum of 3 - 5 years’ work experience in a data science position

 

Technical skills additional (advantageous)

 

• Experience with cloud platforms such as GCP, Azure, or AWS
• Experience with tools such as Whisper, DeepSpeech, OpenAI or HuggingFace
• Experience in sourcing and combining data from both structured and unstructured sources
• Experience with Google Tensor flow
• Familiarity with MLops practices and tools
• Proven tack record of Data Science or AI project delivery
• Deep understanding of LLMs and experience with models like GPTs, LLaMa, Gemini etc

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY   
                             
The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.