About Us
Founders Factory Africa is Africa’s most hands-on Early Stage VC. We believe that early stage startups in Africa need more than just a cheque. Through our platform services, our team of experts provide startups with the support they need to get to PMF, cultivate the right team and culture, build a viable business model, secure their next raise, and more. We have offices in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, and London, and invest across Africa.
Founders Factory is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where people can authentically be themselves and are free to challenge, take risks and think creatively. The requirements shared in our job descriptions are guidelines. If your skills are transferable and you are in the ballpark with the number of years of experience we are looking for, please apply and we will consider you for the role.
About The Role
We’re looking for a Data Science Lead to support our portfolio startups, with a mix of strategy work and hands-on execution. You’ll be working across a varied portfolio of ambitious AI startups (and startups that need to implement AI), with an opportunity to work across different domains, technologies, products and infrastructure. You will work closely with portfolio company founders and CTOs to understand their business needs and identify opportunities for using data and analytics to drive growth and innovation. You will report to our Head Of Product, and work closely with them to craft, and adapt our theory of support for AI businesses.
Responsibilities
You will:
Engage with our portfolio companies to support their data science ambitionsLead the development of machine learning models and other data-driven solutions for portfolio companies.
Spot opportunities to use data and algorithms in novel ways to deliver value and improve processes.
Work with startups across the Founders Factory portfolio to identify their data science capability gaps.
Collaborate with engineering teams to enhance the use of data science/ML and have a strategic impact on their overall businesses
Requirements
You should:
Have good knowledge of data science, statistical analysis and data engineering.
In particular statistical learning methods, and the ability to work with large, complex and uncleansed datasets.
Have good coding skills in a language suitable for data science, preferably Python.
Be able to switch between hands-on execution and strategic advice, as needed.
Be comfortable with deploying data services and infrastructure to production systems.
Have high emotional intelligence and empathy for our founders and their teams as well as for your fellow colleagues in the Founders Factory operations team.
Be organised with a strong attention to detail and an ability to balance detail with the big picture.
Have a deep passion for defining and solving loosely defined problems.
Have good communication and collaboration skills.
Have 5+ years experience, especially deploying commercial data science/ML projects and working collaboratively with team members
This full-time role will be based in Nairobi, Johannesburg or Lagos.