Data Scientist

Jumia Kenya

Nairobifull time~KES 130k – 220k/mo3w ago

Quick Take

The Role

Build and deploy machine learning models for customer churn, lifetime value, and product recommendations while designing A/B tests and translating data insights into business decisions.

You Need

Strong Python and SQL skills with 3+ years of data science experience and a background in Statistics, Mathematics, or Computer Science.

You Get

A competitive above-market salary, the chance to work at Africa's leading e-commerce platform, and high-impact exposure to large-scale transaction and customer datasets.

Job Description

•Role Overview

Jumia Kenya, the continent's foremost e-commerce destination, is looking to bring on board a talented Data Scientist to join their team in Nairobi. This is an exciting opportunity to work at the heart of one of Africa's most data-rich digital businesses, where your analytical expertise will directly shape how the company understands and serves its customers.

In this role, you will harness the power of Jumia's extensive transaction and customer datasets to surface actionable intelligence. You will work cross-functionally, partnering with product and business teams to translate complex data findings into clear, strategic decisions that drive growth and improve the overall customer experience.

•Key Responsibilities

Develop and deploy predictive models focused on areas such as customer churn, customer lifetime value, and personalised product recommendations
Work with large-scale datasets, applying Python, SQL, and a range of statistical techniques to uncover meaningful patterns and trends
Plan and execute A/B experiments, then interpret and present the outcomes to guide product team decisions
Translate complex analytical findings into clear, compelling narratives for business stakeholders across the organisation

•Required Skills & Experience

A Bachelor's or Master's degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a closely related discipline
At least three years of hands-on experience working in a data science capacity
Demonstrable proficiency in Python and SQL for data manipulation, analysis, and modelling
Solid grounding in machine learning concepts and practical experience applying ML techniques to real-world problems

•Who Should Apply

This position is best suited for an analytically minded professional who thrives in a fast-paced, data-driven environment. If you have a strong quantitative background, are comfortable working with large and complex datasets, and can confidently communicate technical insights to non-technical audiences, Jumia Kenya wants to hear from you. Candidates with prior experience in e-commerce, retail tech, or consumer-facing platforms will find this role particularly rewarding. You should be self-driven, intellectually curious, and passionate about using data to solve meaningful business challenges across the African market.

•How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates should submit their applications through Jumia Kenya's official recruitment channels. Ensure your application clearly highlights your relevant data science experience, technical skills, and any notable projects or models you have built. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further steps in the selection process.

Requirements Breakdown

Must Have

BSc or MSc in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field
3+ years of hands-on data science experience
Proficiency in Python for data analysis and machine learning
Strong SQL skills for querying large datasets
Experience designing or interpreting A/B tests

Nice to Have

Experience with e-commerce or retail data (e.g. recommendation systems, CLV modelling)
Familiarity with ML frameworks such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow, or PyTorch
Experience with big data tools like Spark or cloud platforms (GCP, AWS)
Ability to build data visualisations or dashboards for non-technical stakeholders

Don't meet every requirement? Tailor your CV to close the gap →

Salary Context

Above market rate for a mid-level Data Scientist in Nairobi

Data Scientists in Nairobi with 3+ years of experience typically earn between KES 90,000 and KES 170,000 per month, making Jumia's upper range of KES 220,000 notably competitive. Pay in this field is influenced by specialisation in ML, company size, and experience with production-grade model deployment.

About Jumia Kenya

Jumia Kenya is the local arm of Jumia Group, Africa's largest e-commerce marketplace, listed on the New York Stock Exchange and operating across more than 10 African countries. In Kenya, Jumia connects millions of consumers with thousands of sellers across categories including electronics, fashion, and groceries, processing a significant volume of daily transactions. Working at Jumia offers rare exposure to African-scale data problems, a fast-paced tech environment, and the opportunity to build products that directly shape how Kenyans shop online.

Likely Interview Questions

1
Walk us through a predictive model you built from scratch — how did you frame the problem, select features, and validate your results?
2
How would you approach building a customer churn model for an e-commerce platform with millions of users and sparse purchase histories?
3
Describe how you would design an A/B test to evaluate a new product recommendation algorithm — what metrics would you track and how would you ensure statistical validity?
4
How do you communicate a complex model's findings to a non-technical business stakeholder who needs to make a quick decision?
5
What techniques would you use to handle class imbalance in a churn prediction dataset where only 5% of customers actually churn?

Application Tips

Showcase specific ML projects on your CV that map directly to Jumia's stated use cases — churn prediction, customer lifetime value, or recommendation systems — ideally with measurable business outcomes.
Highlight any experience working with large, real-world transactional datasets and the data engineering or SQL skills you used to wrangle them at scale.
Demonstrate stakeholder communication skills by referencing examples where your data insights directly influenced a product or business decision, as Jumia explicitly values this bridge between data and action.

Career Path

Roles that lead here

Data Analyst

Junior Data Scientist / ML Engineer

YOU

Where this leads

Senior Data Scientist

Head of Data Science / Data Science Manager

Skills & Keywords

data-sciencepythonmachine-learningsqlecommercejumia

Honest Assessment

Green Flags

Salary range is transparent and sits above the Nairobi market average for this experience level, signalling that Jumia values the role.
Working with a large, live e-commerce dataset provides genuine scope for impactful, production-grade data science work rather than academic exercises.
Jumia is a well-known, established pan-African brand with international backing, offering credibility and career profile value on a CV.
The role spans the full data science lifecycle — from analysis and modelling to A/B testing and stakeholder communication — offering broad skill development.

Watch Out

The job description does not mention team size, reporting structure, or data infrastructure maturity, making it hard to assess the level of support or resource availability.
No mention of remote or hybrid work flexibility, which may be a concern for candidates outside Nairobi's immediate commuter belt.

A Day in the Life

☀️

A typical week might start with a Monday morning sync with the product team to review A/B test results from a recent recommendation engine experiment, followed by writing Python scripts to pull and clean transaction data via SQL for a customer churn model update. Mid-week, you might be deep in a Jupyter notebook tuning a gradient boosting model, then shifting to prepare a concise slide deck translating your lifetime value findings into actionable segments for the marketing team. By Friday, you could be peer-reviewing a colleague's analysis or scoping a new experiment request that came in from the growth team — no two days are identical when the data never stops flowing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What qualifications do I need to apply for the Data Scientist role at Jumia Kenya?

You need a BSc or MSc in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related field, along with at least 3 years of practical data science experience and strong proficiency in Python, SQL, and machine learning techniques.

Is the Data Scientist position at Jumia Kenya a remote or office-based role?

The listing specifies Nairobi as the location and does not mention remote or hybrid options, so candidates should expect this to be a primarily on-site role in Nairobi.

How much does a Data Scientist earn at Jumia Kenya?

The posted salary range is KES 130,000 to KES 220,000 per month, which is above the typical market rate for mid-level Data Scientists in Nairobi, with the final figure likely depending on experience and interview performance.

What are the career growth opportunities for a Data Scientist at Jumia Kenya?

Given Jumia's scale and data-rich environment, this role offers a strong pathway to Senior Data Scientist or a Data Science leadership position, and the breadth of the work — spanning modelling, experimentation, and stakeholder engagement — builds a well-rounded profile for advancement.

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