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#SST-TOR7Grade C

Lead Data Scientist | Credit Risk & Alternative Credit Scoring Specialist (Anonymised)

AI Engineer

Mombasa, KenyaOpen to remoteMLOps Engineer

About

Accomplished Lead Data Scientist with over 9 years of experience engineering production-ready machine learning solutions, alternative credit scorecards, and fintech risk analytics architectures. Backed by a strong academic foundation including a Master of Science in Data Science from the University of Nairobi and a BSc in Statistics & Computer Science from Kenyatta University, they specialize in driving financial inclusion through data-driven credit risk models. Throughout their career across pioneering fintech and enterprise banking ecosystems, they have established a track record of building predictive underwriting tools from the ground up. Their expertise spans developing ensemble machine learning models that leverage mobile money, behavioral, and transactional data to dramatically lower risk, including a proven achievement of boosting default prediction accuracy by 27% for digital lending portfolios. They are highly proficient in designing automated data engineering pipelines and MLOps workflows using Python, Apache Spark, Airflow, and BigQuery. As an AWS Certified Machine Learning Specialist, they possess deep expertise in deploying cloud-native predictive applications and establishing strict model governance frameworks using core validation metrics (AUC, KS, PSI, Gini). Combining technical execution with strategic leadership, they excel at translating massive telecom and transactional datasets into business-critical insights, collaborating with risk and compliance stakeholders, and managing cross-functional technical teams to protect and optimize high-volume asset portfolios.

Skills

0 of 15 verified by assessment

AirflowApache SparkBigQueryData AnalysisData EngineeringData VisualizationData WarehousingETL Pipeline DevelopmentExperiment DesignForecastingModel Fine-TuningPower BIPySparkStatistical ModelingBig Data

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Experience

  1. Lead Data Scientist – Credit Risk & AI Solutions

    Jan 2022 to Present

    M-KOPA / Fintech Consulting Projects

    Led the development of alternative credit scoring models leveraging mobile money, behavioral, and transactional data. Improved loan default prediction accuracy by 27% through advanced ensemble machine learning techniques and feature engineering. Built automated production-grade machine learning pipelines utilizing Python, Airflow, and cloud infrastructure. Developed robust fraud detection and early-warning risk mitigation systems for digital lending portfolios.

  2. Senior Data Scientist – Risk Analytics

    Jan 2019 to Dec 2022

    NCBA Bank Kenya

    Built application and behavioral credit scorecards for retail and SME lending portfolios. Conducted rigorous model validation, monitoring, and governance using AUC, KS, PSI, and Gini metrics. Designed interactive analytical dashboards and executive reports for senior leadership using Tableau and Power BI. Optimized underwriting decision systems, resulting in accelerated customer approvals and minimized credit losses.

  3. Data Scientist

    Jan 2017 to Dec 2019

    Safaricom PLC

    Analyzed large-scale telecom and mobile money datasets to extract actionable insights and drive customer analytics initiatives. Developed predictive customer churn and segmentation models utilizing machine learning algorithms. Engineered scalable big data workflows utilizing Hadoop and Spark to support enterprise-wide analytics.

Education

  1. Master of Science (MSc) in Data Science

    University of Nairobi

    Jan 2019 to Dec 2021

  2. Bachelor of Science in Statistics & Computer Science

    Kenyatta University

    Sept 2013 to Jun 2017

Certifications

  • AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty

    Amazon Web Services

    Recognised

  • Google Professional Data Engineer

    Google

  • IBM Data Science Professional Certificate

    IBM

  • Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals

    Microsoft

Lead Data Scientist | Credit Risk & Alternative Credit Scoring Specialist (Anonymised) | Silicon Savannah Talent