Senior Data Scientist; Azure Data Engineering & MLOps

DVT is a leading technology consulting and software engineering company delivering innovative solutions across Africa and internationally. We partner with clients to solve complex business challenges through software engineering, cloud platforms, data, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation. Our teams combine deep technical expertise with a strong consulting mindset to create measurable business value.

We are seeking a Senior Data Scientist with strong Azure Data Engineering and MLOps expertise to join a client engagement on an initial 12 month contract. This is not a traditional data science role focused solely on model development. The ideal candidate will be a well‑rounded practitioner capable of operating across the full data and machine learning lifecycle, from data ingestion and engineering through to model deployment, monitoring, and optimisation.

This role is a critical addition to the client's team. While the existing team possesses strong data science capabilities, there is a significant need for someone who can strengthen the data engineering foundations while still contributing to advanced analytics and machine learning initiatives.

The successful candidate will be able to design and build scalable data platforms, develop machine learning solutions, implement MLOps practices, and work closely with stakeholders to translate business challenges into production‑ready data solutions.

• Design, develop and maintain scalable Azure‑based data platforms and pipelines
• Build and optimise batch and real‑time data ingestion processes
• Develop robust ETL and ELT solutions using Azure services
• Create and manage data models that support analytics, machine learning and reporting requirements
• Ensure data quality, reliability, governance and performance across the data ecosystem
• Collaborate with data consumers and business stakeholders to understand and meet data requirements

• Develop predictive and prescriptive models to address complex business challenges
• Perform exploratory data analysis and feature engineering on large and complex datasets
• Design, evaluate and improve machine learning models and algorithms
• Conduct experiments and validation exercises to measure solution effectiveness
• Translate analytical findings into actionable business recommendations
• Communicate technical results and insights to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders

• Design and implement machine learning deployment frameworks and CI/CD processes
• Automate model training, testing, deployment and monitoring workflows
• Establish model governance, versioning, observability and performance monitoring practices
• Implement reproducible machine learning environments and experimentation frameworks
• Support the transition of machine learning models from proof of concept to production
• Drive best practices for scalable and maintainable AI solutions

Strong experience with:

• Python and SQL
• Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Databricks, Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Functions, Event Hub and related Azure data integration services
• Spark and distributed data processing frameworks
• Machine learning frameworks such as Scikit‑learn, Tensor Flow or Py Torch
• Data modelling, warehousing and large‑scale data architecture
• Dev Ops and CI/CD tools supporting machine learning and data engineering workloads
• Git and collaborative development practices

Good understanding of:

• Supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques
• Feature engineering and model optimisation
• Statistical analysis and experimentation
• Data governance, security and compliance principles
• Cloud‑native architecture patterns
• Modern software engineering practices

• Strong problem‑solving and analytical thinking skills
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of complex technical solutions
• Consulting mindset with strong stakeholder engagement skills
• Excellent communication and presentation abilities. Comfortable operating across multiple disciplines including data engineering, data science and MLOps
• Ability to…