Hirezar Summary for South African Applicants

This fully remote contract position at micro1 is open worldwide, so South Africans can apply. The estimated monthly salary is R177,600 – R355,200 ZAR. This role is suited for mid-level professionals. As a remote position, you can work from anywhere in South Africa — whether you're based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, or a smaller town.

Job Description

Role Title:Competitive Data Scientist

Pay:$60–$120/hour

Location:Global, fully remote

Job Type:Contractor (~15 hours per week)

Schedule:Flexible-you choose the hours and days you work, including weekends if desired

We're looking for data scientists, machine learning practitioners, and applied mathematics experts with competitve Data Science experience. (Kaggle, DrivenData, etc.)

You’ll draw on your competition experience, mathematical reasoning, and programming skills to create tasks that require more than a plausible answer. Each task should have a reproducible environment, a verified reference solution, and reliable checks for successful completion.

What You’ll Do
* Build reproducible environments, prepare relevant data and dependencies, and implement reference solutions.
* Develop tests and evaluation criteria that reliably distinguish correct solutions from incomplete or flawed approaches.
* Run coding agents against tasks, investigate their failures, and refine the tasks based on observed behavior.
* Identify implementation errors, flawed assumptions, data leakage, and other issues that affect correctness.
* Document task requirements, solution reasoning, and verification steps clearly.

What We’re Looking For
* Demonstrated experience in data science, ML, quantitative modeling, or relevant research competitions. (Kaggle, DrivenData, etc.)
* Strong problem-solving ability and a clear understanding of the methods you use.
* Practical programming ability sufficient to implement and verify your own solutions.
Relevant competition platforms include Kaggle, DrivenData, Zindi, AIcrowd, Numerai, DataSource.ai, and CodaLab/Codabench.

Huge Pluses
* Strong coding experience, particularly in Python, including testing, debugging, and working with unfamiliar code
Originally posted onHimalayas

Tips for South African Applicants

Timezone Advantage

South Africa (SAST, UTC+2) overlaps well with European business hours and has a few hours of overlap with US East Coast. Mention your timezone flexibility in your application.

Salary in Context

At R177,600/month, this role pays well above the average South African remote salary. The USD equivalent ($60/mo) benefits from the favourable exchange rate.

Application Tips

Tailor your CV to international standards — use a clean format, highlight remote work experience, and include your English proficiency. Many SA applicants succeed by emphasising their strong work ethic and cultural adaptability.

Load Shedding Preparedness

If you're applying for a remote role, having a backup power solution (UPS, inverter, or generator) and mobile data as a backup internet connection shows employers you're prepared for South Africa's infrastructure challenges.

About micro1

micro1 is a company in the marketing industry that hires remote workers from South Africa. They currently have 53 open positions on Hirezar. View all micro1 jobs →