Head Of Data Science Analytics at Yoco

Yoco is on a mission to help the businesses of tomorrow get started, and get paid – be a part of the team that changes financial services in Africa. Curious. Data-driven. Purposeful. Sound like you? It sounds a lot like us too.
We are a fast-growing African technology company made up of over 350 team members globally. All with a bias for boldness, and a passion for simple, progressive solutions.
Founded in 2015, Yoco is now the payments provider for over 200 000 business owners and processes over $2bn annually.
Your home team at Yoco:
Over the past year, Yoco has invested in growing its Data team (+300% since 2020) and is looking for an experienced Data Science & Analytics (DS&A) leader to continue developing a world-class team which drives business impact. At Yoco, DS&A forms the tip of the data spear and leads business impact by building data products and surfacing actionable insights, enabled by strong technical collaboration with Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering and the Data Ops teams.
DS&A is organised in a hybrid manner, combining cross-functional decentralised teams that live close to the problem space and centralised teams focused on delivering innovative solutions across multiple business areas. You’ll have the opportunity to partner with senior leaders from across the business to drive critical decisions based on insights from data. You’ll also be able to build innovative data products that create value for our customers through delightful experiences. You’ll create a data culture, filled with hypotheses, experimentation and learning.
Responsibilities
This role is responsible for leadership in DS&A across the entire company. Alongside peers in Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering and Data Ops, this role will report into the Director of Data. There are two key responsibilities:
Develop and deliver the DS&A strategy
Identify opportunities for DS&A to contribute towards achieving the company strategy
Assess and prioritise projects and develop a roadmap to accomplish goals
Lead the implementation and roll-out of key projects and data products
Strategic insight delivery, narratives development and impactful communication
Be a thought leader within the business and set the bar for data quality
DS&A team capability development
Manage and support DS&A leads embedded across all areas of the business (including Commercial, Product, Operations, People and Finance)
Develop ways of working effectively for the DS&A practice area, both within embedded and centralised teams
Mentor, grow and develop the team
Recruit and onboard top performers and setting them up for success
Continuously improve the way that the team works
Ideal Candidate:
Background:
An experienced Data Leader with a proven track record of:
* Leading an area of 20+ Data Scientists, Analysts and Managers
* Developing and implementing data products at scale
* Deep experience within a particular domain, e.g. credit modelling, operations research, product analytics, risk modelling, or others.
* Broad experience across many domains, you are comfortable enough to give technical and strategic feedback to data teams on any business problem
Experience in working in either a growth-focused or technology organisation, ideally working together and collaborating with an engineering team, as well as other business stakeholders
Working knowledge of a modern data stack - including tools like Fivetran, Airflow, dbt, Redshift, BigQuery and Looker
General experience:
5+ years experience leading and developing technical team(s)
10+ years experience in a technical role as an analyst or data scientist
Strong communication and team-building skills
Demonstrated ability to create and drive technical and impactful roadmaps for the business, and lead seamless execution
You have built strong relationships with business leaders, e.g. COO, CTO, CFO, CPO, etc.
A technical background, bachelors degree in mathematics, computer science, statistics or similar field
Bonus points:
Experience in Fintech
Experience in emerging markets
Experience in technology scale-ups
What makes working at Yoco great:
Yoco is a business built on an agile foundation, and an evolving base of core lessons and principles. We like to refer to these as the Yoco Formula.
The Yoco Formula - how we create value.
The Yoco formula is a validated approach to work, and a set of behaviours that create maximum value for our customers and help us grow.
Core Values - Our way of working to create value & grow.
Stay Connected
Make Space to Explore
Keep it Simple
Master your Craft
Leadership Principles - How we show up, engage & treat each other
Get to know each other personally
Say what you think and challenge me directly
Be courageous and focus forward
Don’t let ego get in the way
To support this, we have built a role-based organisation where every individual is given the space to focus and develop their innate strengths. Everyone at Yoco has the opportunity to lead a project and become a specialist, enabling flexibility, collaboration and accountability at all levels. You will be working with a diverse, motivated and skilled team that will continuously stretch you as an individual. To learn more about our culture, go to our#YocoLife page or subscribe to our Exposure Gallery.
Join us on a meaningful journey at Yoco, and help enable our merchants to thrive through Open Commerce!