Senior Data Scientist (NLP / RAG / Applied AI)

Senior Data Scientist (NLP/ RAG/ Applied AI)

Location: Remote (trial period) then on-site in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Company: Box Africa Group – Fast-growing IT services company (+100 employees) pivoting 100% to AI

Contract: Full-time – Permanent

About Us

Box Africa is a rapidly growing IT services company operating across West Africa. We are launching a dedicated AI division to deliver high-impact, applied AI solutions in fintech, telecom, banking, health, agriculture, and the public sector.

Our ambition is to build the leading AI practice in West Africa, combining cutting-edge research, applied machine learning, and local talent development.

Main Responsibilities

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will play a key role in advancing Box Africa’s AI practice. You will design, prototype, and deploy state-of-the-art AI models with a focus on Natural Language Processing (NLP), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and Applied AI use cases relevant to Africa.

1. Research & Development

• Lead the research and prototyping of models in NLP, LLM fine-tuning, multilingual and multimodal AI.
• Develop and optimize RAG pipelines for African languages and domain-specific contexts (banking, telco, fintech, health).
• Drive applied research in Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), automating information extraction and classification.
• Explore AI for risk scoring, credit scoring, and credit exposure loss prediction (IFRS9 ECL models).
• Investigate and apply agentic architectures and agents-as-a-service to real-world enterprise problems.
• Stay ahead of emerging trends (explainable AI, bias mitigation, reinforcement learning, multimodal AI).

2. Model Development & Production

• Design and build end-to-end AI models, from proof-of-concept (POC) to production deployment.
• Collaborate with AI engineers to ensure robust MLOps integration (training, versioning, deployment, monitoring).
• Apply XAI techniques to ensure explainability, fairness, and regulatory compliance.
• Deliver scalable, production-ready solutions addressing financial services (fraud detection, risk scoring), telecom, and public services.

3. Collaboration & Mentorship

• Work closely with the Head of AI & Strategy and the AI Engineering Manager to shape Box Africa’s AI practice.
• Mentor junior data scientists and foster a culture of applied research and innovation.
• Collaborate with client teams to translate business challenges into AI-driven solutions.

4. Impact & Ecosystem Building

• Contribute to the design of AI services tailored to West Africa (IDP for banks, credit scoring models, multilingual assistants).
• Publish findings, represent Box Africa at conferences, and grow our presence in the African AI ecosystem.
• Position Box Africa as a pioneer in applied AI & agentic systems across UEMOA and West Africa.

Candidate Profile

Technical Skills

• Deep expertise in NLP & LLMs (transformers, HuggingFace, embeddings, multilingual models).
• Hands-on experience with RAG architectures (vector databases: FAISS, Weaviate, Milvus; LangChain, Haystack).
• Strong knowledge of risk & credit scoring models, exposure loss forecasting, and IDP techniques.
• Proficiency in machine learning & deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Scikit-learn).
• Experience with XAI, bias detection, and compliance-driven AI.
• Familiarity with MLOps practices (MLflow, CI/CD, containerization).

Experience & Leadership

• 5+ years of professional experience in Data Science or AI research.
• Proven track record of delivering NLP/AI solutions from research to production.
• Exposure to financial services, telecom, or regulated industries is a plus.
• International or multicultural project exposure (Africa, Europe, or Asia).
• Experience mentoring junior data scientists is an advantage.

Soft Skills

• Analytical and research-driven, with a pragmatic mindset for applied AI.
• Excellent communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Fluency in English required; French language proficiency would be a strong plus.
• Passion for developing AI with real impact in Africa.

Why Join Box Africa?

• Join a fast-growing company (+100 employees, >50% annual growth).
• Work on real applied AI projects: IDP, credit scoring, fraud detection, multilingual NLP, agentic AI.
• Shape the future of AI in West Africa alongside international experts.
• Contribute to the next generation of African AI talent.
• Career-defining opportunity: become a pioneer in Applied AI in Africa.

Benefits

• Relocation & settling-in support (housing assistance, logistics).
• Annual round-trip flight ticket to home country.
• Relocation allowance (moving expenses covered).
• Comprehensive health insurance.
• Training & certification budget (AI, NLP, Cloud, leadership).
• Annual performance bonus tied to company growth.
• International career growth opportunities as Box Africa expands across UEMOA and West Africa.

Recruitment Process

1. Initial call (30 min) – Introductory discussion.
2. Technical interview (1h) – Case study (NLP / RAG / IDP / risk scoring).
3. Leadership interview (45 min) – Research, mentorship, impact.
4. Executive meeting (45 min) – Strategy & cultural fit.
5. Final offer.