Senior Data Scientist

Job description

**Yassir** is the leading super App in the Maghreb region set to changing the way daily services are provided. It currently operates in **45 cities across Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia with recent expansions into France, Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa**. It is backed (~**$200M in funding**) by VCs from Silicon Valley, Europe and other parts of the world. We offer on-demand services such as ride-hailing and last-mile delivery. Building on this infrastructure, we are now introducing financial services to help our users pay, save and borrow digitally. Helping usher the continent into a digital economy era. We’re not just about serving people - we’re about creating a marketplace to bring people what they need while infusing social values. Yassir is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Senior Data Scientist, to join our Artificial Intelligence (AI) team and contribute to some of our key projects, such as Dynamic Pricing and Trip Dispatching. As a Data Scientist, you will play a crucial role in analyzing and modelling data to optimize our Machine Learning (ML) systems. Your expertise in both predictive modelling and software development will be essential in driving our solutions and providing value to Yassir. This is a very exciting opportunity, tackling some of Yassir’s most critical problems. ### About the Team The AI team is part of Yassir’s central Data & AI domain, which is responsible for all data related activities in the organization - from Data Engineering, Data Platform management and Data Analytics all the way to AI solutions and MLOps infrastructure development. We are a global team of Data and AI / ML experts, encompassing diverse backgrounds and skills. We strive to build state-of-the-art Data and ML infrastructure and solutions, and ultimately a Data Culture supported by responsible and democratized data access, data-driven decision making and automation. We push the envelope of what’s feasible, we challenge each other, we support each other, and we take great pride in our work. Most of all we are value-driven to create impact from our data solutions. If you have an inherent curiosity about the fields Data and AI, a relevant background and an internal zeal and drive to contribute, please come join us! ### Responsibilities - Become an expert point of contact and thought leader on your scope by mastering the details and principles pertaining to it. - Some key areas we have to focus include: optimizing our Pricing capabilities, such as Dynamic / Surge Pricing, Discounts / Commissioning Optimization and Personalized Pricing, optimizing our Dispatching capabilities, optimizing our Fraud Detection / Revenue Leakage Prevention capabilities, optimizing our Recommendations / Personalization capabilities, amongst others. - Identify and propose ML opportunities related to your scope and beyond - Support with requirements definition and prioritization of ML projects - Collaborate with cross-functional Engineering and Product teams - Champion Data Quality as a critical input component to all ML solutions and Analytics - Conduct Exploratory Data Analysis and subsequent Feature Selection / Engineering - Utilize Statistical and ML techniques, as appropriate, for model training - Validate and tune ML models - Visualize analysis / modelling results focusing on meaningful, actionable metrics and insights - Deploy and test ML applications using our MLOps infrastructureMonitor ML models on their technical performance, business impact and underlying data / concept drift - Explain technical solutions in a business-friendly manner, supporting Product teams in their communications and reporting - Maintain and improve technical documentation of delivered solutions - Support the Data & AI domain in developing its technical capabilities, improving its ways of working and collaboration with other dependent teams - Champion Data Culture, proactively share knowledge across teams, and participate and drive team building activities ### Key Requirements - Essential - Solid Mathematical / Statistical / Machine Learning as well as Software Development technical skills - supported by a Masters degree or above in a relevant quantitative field such as Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science, Machine Learning, Operational Research, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Physics - Comfortable in efficient, production quality Python and SQL coding at a professional setting with at least 2 years of industry experience (more years of experience would be required for more Senior roles) - Comfortable with key software engineering concepts, such as code / memory profiling, code optimization, scalability, code / QA testing, cost optimization and associated best practices. - Comfortable with key Statistical concepts, such as statistical testing and causal analysis - Analytical thinking and problem solving skills - Engineering mindset focused towards delivering robust applied data science solutions - Visualization skills, including experience with common Python ecosystem libraries and/or Analytics / BI tooling - Familiarity and prior use of Cloud solutions and their data / ML services - at Yassir we use Google Cloud Platform (GCP), experience with which is highly preferred - Mastering of the end-to-end (ML) model development lifecycle - Excellent communication skills, including presentation and oral / written communication (clear articulation, concise documentation) in professional English - Positive attitude and resilience - Strong interpersonal skills focused on peer support, empathy, active listening, team building and stakeholder relationships building - Internal drive, self-motivation and ability to work independently including own effective project management ### Nice to have - Experience with Financial Services companies - Experience working on ML features for Digital Products (apps, websites) - Experience with one or more from: Pricing / Economics related projects and/or modelling techniques (we welcome Economics / Econometrics backgrounds and experience), Fraud Detection related projects, Dispatching related projects, Personalization related projects