Consultant

We're looking for consultants who are not only technically strong but also great communicators — people who thrive on collaboration, both within our team and with our clients. We believe that working closely together leads to smarter, more impactful solutions and creates valuable opportunities to learn from one another. who can join our awesome team of data scientists and engineers to help design, develop, and deploy ground-breaking solutions for our clients.

cITY

Johannesburg

Category

Technical

Job Level

Senior

Employment Type

Full time

Opti-Num Solutions have been innovating in the South African technology sector for almost 30 years. We collaborate with our clients, applying our innovative thinking and class-leading tools to develop meaningful solutions that allow our clients to make impactful, evidence-based, business decisions.

We're looking for individuals who can join our awesome team of data scientists and engineers to help design, develop, and deploy ground-breaking solutions for our clients. Our projects span many industries from finance and business analytics through to mining and aerospace/defence (and more).

We apply our skills and creativity in data science with machine learning techniques and Model-based Design, combined with high-quality software engineering, to craft solutions with tangible business impact in the real world. We work in close collaboration with our clients – who are domain experts. Our projects include the development of novel analytics, models, algorithms and frameworks which enable our clients to leverage these capabilities operationally to improve their business outcomes.

• Cross industry exposure – consult with, get advice from, and share your projects with colleagues from a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, mining, process engineering, automotive, property, and financial industries. We have a culture that encourages knowledge transfer through project shares and code and design reviews at all levels.
• Endless learning opportunities – from coding dojos, a data science club, and internal training courses, to funding for external courses and further studies. We encourage both business and technical skills development.
• Flexible hybrid working conditions – we support working remotely, but our well-equipped offices with a great atmosphere are available for those days when you wake up in the mood for office environment. We have casual work environment to foster collaboration.
• Mentorship – receive mentorship and guidance from our team leads and senior management, while at the same time, have the opportunity to mentor junior and graduate engineers on the team.

Opti-Num's projects require consultants who are both strong technically and have strong consulting communication skills, and enjoy collaborating with their peers and our clients. This collaboration results in better solutions being conceived and developed as well as provide a great opportunity to learn from others.

• Strong technical skills in software engineering, UI development, data analytics and/or modelling and simulation and embedded systems design – in addition to strong coding ability we need you to have experience applying software architecture and design patterns, a good understanding of automated unit testing, and hands on experience using Git to collaborate with a team. You would also need to be able to support and coach others on best practices (both colleagues and clients), and support with integration and deployment into the client's production systems.
• We're looking for a minimum of 3 years industry experience
• We are looking for strong skills in software engineering with MATLAB or Python (exposure to C/C++, VHDL, JavaScript or SQL would be a plus), applied in one or more of the following areas:
• User interface development
• Data engineering
• Data analytics and reporting
• Data science and modelling, machine learning and AI techniques
• Model-Based Design with Simulink
• Embedded solutions
• Computer vision
• Cloud solutions

• Impact – you will leverage your experience (minimum 2 – 3 years) and Opti-Num support network to understand how the Opti-Num business works and use this to drive critical (and often complex) projects and business development opportunities to success. Ownership and proactivity are essential.

• Leadership – depending on your level you may support and direct the activity of up to 5 team members through projects and business development initiatives you lead. You would need to be comfortable and proficient delegating appropriate work as well as leading by example, getting the job done. You should be able to monitor your own project success by evaluating implementation progress against milestones and budget usage and manage scope creep and change control.

• Ability to engage with clients – the most exciting technical challenges that our clients come to us for help with need deep engaging conversations as we uncover the problem and discover the business requirements together. You are expected to also handle difficult conversations that come up managing the client expectations of scope, budget and performance with tact and maturity, always thinking about how to grow a successful project. Good presentation skills are essential.
• An eye for detail – you need to be someone who likes to dig into the "Why?". When you see an interesting or unusual result, we'd like you to be someone who notices, and stops and thinks about it. The most exciting work we do comes from noticing something in the data that doesn't make sense at first.
• Education - Bachelor's degree in a STEM field. The work we do requires a strong grasp of linear algebra, so a strong focus on mathematics is essential, preferably up to a 3rd year level. We're looking for qualifications such as mechanical, electrical, chemical or computer engineering, physics, computer science, mathematics, computational and applied maths, statistics, actuarial sciences, financial engineering, or financial mathematics. A Master's degree or interest in pursuing a Master's degree is great (we can help you with this).

If your application passes our initial screening, you will enter our interview process, which usually consists of two interviews. The first interview is conversational, and we will ask questions around your interests, skills, and experience. Following this, you may be given a take-home task, which will involve coding a small problem which you would have to present back to us during the second interview, first as if we were clients wanting to see insights, and then as if we were colleagues in the form of a code review.