Job Description:
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 TigerGraph solutions 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