MPUMELELO NOMZAZA
Senior Data Scientist | Product Owner
Sandton,GP
Summary
Versatile data scientist with end-to-end experience designing, building, and operationalising predictive analytics products in health insurance, healthcare operations, genomics and FMCG. Proven track record of translating complex ML solutions into business value – boosting retention, optimising operational workflows, and driving commercial execution. Passionate about leveraging cutting-edge AI to improve and inform strategic decision-making
Overview
4
4
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Data Scientist
AB InBev Africa
02.2025 - Current
- Personalisation at Scale: Collaborated with South Africa, Tanzania and Brazil teams to roll out BEES automation in Tanzania to drive digital transformation and scale personalisation
- Route-to-Market Optimisation: Conducted detailed analytics on sales reps’ productivity and performance by integrating BEES, weather, geospatial and load shedding datasets to improve efficiency and portfolio execution
- Market share analytics (Tanzania): Built a scalable end-to-end pipeline for district-level market share measurement and forecasting, using hierarchical Bayesian models to produce robust estimates in sparse-data regions for Commercial & Route-to-Market teams.
Data Scientist
Discovery Health
05.2022 - 01.2025
- Proactive Churn and Retention Models: Developed a predictive model using boosting algorithms and graphical models to identify at-risk customers, pivoting the conservation process from reactive to proactive and AI-driven.
- Hospitalisation Customer Journey Analytics: Conducted a hospitalisation journey analysis and advanced analytics in pre-authorisations to optimise clinical support decisions and address key customer pain points
Fintech Associate
Inoxico
02.2022 - 04.2022
- Collaborated on product development and B2B credit data science solutions, focusing on credit risk analysis for small business
- Built a linear regression model to predict suitable credit for SMMEs based on macroeconomic data, business indicators, and default probabilities, aiding the development of data-driven credit solution
Freelance Data Scientist
CapeBio
10.2022 - 02.2025
- Provided machine learning and data science consulting for genomics projects, including protein sequence analysis and enzyme annotation using deep learning models
Education
Master of Science - Data Science
University of Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa 04.2001 -
Master of Science - E-Science
University of The Witwatersrand
Johannesburg, South Africa 04.2001 -
BSc Honours - Mathematics
University of the Witwatersrand
01.2021
Bachelor of Science - Mathematics And Physics
University of Witwatersrand
Johannesburg, South Africa 04.2001 -
Skills
Programming & Data: Python (advanced), SQL (PostgreSQL), PySpark, Git, Databricks, MLFlow
Machine Learning: Predictive Modelling, Statistical Modelling, Advanced Feature Engineering, Deep Learning (PyTorch/ TensorFlow), GenAI
Analytics Tooling: scikit-learn, Pandas, SHAP, NumPy, Microsoft Excel
Cloud & MLOps: Azure (DevOps CI/CD, Databricks), Docker
Soft Skills: Design Thinking, Stakeholder Engagement, Product Strategy, Technical Leadership, Agile Delivery
Timeline
Senior Data Scientist
AB InBev Africa
02.2025 - Current
Freelance Data Scientist
CapeBio
10.2022 - 02.2025
Data Scientist
Discovery Health
05.2022 - 01.2025
Fintech Associate
Inoxico
02.2022 - 04.2022
Master of Science - Data Science
University of Johannesburg
04.2001 -
Master of Science - E-Science
University of The Witwatersrand
04.2001 -
Bachelor of Science - Mathematics And Physics
University of Witwatersrand
04.2001 -
BSc Honours - Mathematics
University of the Witwatersrand
ADDITIONAL EDUCATION
CHPC Coding Summary School JAN 2022 Topics: Linux, Bash Scripting, Python and R for Data Science, Applied Sciences