Senior Data Scientist

We're Hiring: Senior Data Scientist (TigerGraph & AKS Kubernetes)

Location: Johannesburg

Employment Type: 12 months contract

Experience: Senior (7+ years) | Principal (10+ years)

Are you passionate about Graph AI, distributed systems, and cloud-native platforms? We're looking for an experienced Senior Data Scientist/AI Engineer to design and implement enterprise-scale graph platforms that power advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning solutions.

You'll play a key role in architecting and deploying TigerGraphsolutions on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), enabling high-performance, relationship-driven intelligence across enterprise data.

Key Responsibilities

Graph Engineering & AI

• Design and develop enterprise-scale graph data models and graph analytics solutions.
• Build advanced graph-based machine learning solutions, including:
• • Graph Neural Networks (GNNs)
    • Link Prediction
    • Community Detection
    • Path Analysis
• Develop enterprise Knowledge Graphs supporting AI, GenAI, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
• Create graph-derived features to improve machine learning models and intelligent decision-making.

TigerGraph Development

• Develop and optimise graph queries using GSQL.
• Design scalable graph architectures and optimise query performance.
• Implement secure, high-performance data ingestion pipelines from enterprise platforms such as Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) and Databricks.
• Deliver graph analytics solutions supporting:
• • Fraud Detection
    • Financial Crime
    • Customer Intelligence
    • Network Risk Management

Kubernetes & Cloud Engineering

• Architect, deploy, and manage TigerGraph clusters on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
• Design and manage containerised workloads using Kubernetes.
• Configure networking, storage, autoscaling, security, and monitoring for graph platforms.
• Develop CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure automation using Kubernetes-native DevOps practices.
• Continuously optimise platform performance, scalability, resilience, and cost efficiency.

Architecture & Leadership

• Design end-to-end graph solution architectures integrated with enterprise data platforms and APIs.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship on graph technologies, Kubernetes, and cloud-native engineering.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and contribute to the evolution of enterprise AI platforms.
• Collaborate with business and technical stakeholders to translate complex requirements into scalable solutions.

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related STEM discipline.

Advantage

• Master's Degree in a related field.

Preferred Certifications

• TigerGraph Certification
• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
• Microsoft Azure Certifications

Required Experience

Senior

• 7+ years' experience

Principal

• 10+ years' experience

Experience in:

• Enterprise Graph Engineering
• Distributed Systems
• Cloud-native Architecture
• Kubernetes Platform Engineering
• Financial Crime or Fraud Analytics
• Enterprise API Integration
• DevOps and Infrastructure Automation

Technical Skills

Graph Technologies

• TigerGraph
• GSQL
• Graph Theory
• Graph Algorithms
• Knowledge Graphs
• Graph Machine Learning

Programming

• Python (Essential)
• Java and/or Scala

Cloud & Data

• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Kubernetes
• Docker
• Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS)
• Databricks
• Apache Spark
• Streaming Frameworks

DevOps

• CI/CD
• Infrastructure as Code
• Kubernetes-native deployment
• Monitoring & Observability

What We're Looking For

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

Passion for AI, graph technologies, and innovation

Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills

Experience working in high-performance, enterprise environments

Ability to mentor technical teams and drive engineering excellence