Data Scientist - Fulltime

In 2017, over half the population in Sub-Saharan Africa had no bank account. Without access to financial institutions, people are forced to keep their savings under the mattress. Small business owners rely on lenders who charge extortionate rates. Parents spend hours waiting in line to pay school fees in cash.
Were solving this by building financial services that just work: no account fees, instantly available, and accepted everywhere. In places where electricity, water and roads dont always work, you can still send money with Wave. In 2017, we launched a mobile app in Senegal for cash deposit, withdrawal, and peer-to-peer and business payments. How youll help us achieve it
We’re looking for an experienced Data Scientist to join our team. You’ll work on projects across the business, from building credit scoring models and improving fraud detection to optimizing field visit schedules and designing A/B tests for targeted user promotions.
In this role, you’ll partner with product managers and business leaders to understand the problems they’re trying to solve and find practical ways to use data to improve outcomes. Our ideal candidate is product-minded, scrappy and thinks about data in terms of intuitive user behaviours rather than just inputs to a black box model.
Be embedded closely with our product and operations teams.
Generate insights using customer, merchant and internal data using statistical modelling, data visualization, and machine learning.

~ Design, implement and analyze optimizations for our internal operations, user promos, and agent network to help teams scale and reduce costs.

Build data-driven heuristics and machine-learning models to improve user and business outcomes.
Take ownership of the analytics process - from project scoping and design to communicating findings to stakeholders.
This is a fully remote role. Candidates must be based in one of our talent hub countries (US, UK, Spain, Kenya and Ghana) or in one of our operating markets in Africa including Senegal, Côte dIvoire, or Burkina Faso.
~ Remote team members are expected to travel to our operational markets (e.g. For this role, depending on your level and location, we offer a salary between $130,600 - $236,200 USD, plus a generous equity package.
~ Subsidized health insurance for you and your dependents and retirement contributions (both vary from country to country).
~Flexible vacation, with most folks taking between 30-40 days per year.
~$Minimum Bachelors degree in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Mathematics, Economics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline. A Masters or PhD is a plus.
~5+ years of experience in data science, machine learning or technical analytics roles.

Deep expertise with Python, SQL, and data visualization tools
Experience in one or more of the following: machine learning, causal inference, statistical modeling, or A/B testing. Experience applying these methods in operational settings with offline components (example: incentive structures for field staff) is a plus.
A track record of translating complex data into clear, actionable insights for both technical and business stakeholder

~ Fluency in English. French is a plus.

Have excellent focus, prioritizing your research and work using an iterative approach (you know when a project is good enough to stop, and you rarely get lost in details).
Are able to compellingly present your findings to technical and non-technical audiences and make proactive recommendations based on data.
We have a rapidly growing in-country team in Senegal, Côte dIvoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Uganda, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon plus remote team members spread across the world.
Were deeply passionate about our mission of bringing radically affordable financial services to the people who need them most.
Youll own your projects at every stage, from understanding the problem to monitoring your solution in production.
Our world-class investors, include Founders Fund, Sequoia Heritage, Stripe, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator, and Partech Africa.
Fill out the form below, and upload a resume in English and a cover letter describing your interest in Wave and the role.
We review applications frequently and recommend that you apply to the role that most closely aligns with your skills, experience and career goals.
We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.