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anil pise

@anilpise

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Senior Data Scientist translating complex business challenges into scalable AI/ML solutions and recommender systems.

South Africa

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What I'm looking for

I’m looking to lead end-to-end AI/ML and recommender initiatives where I can own problem framing, scalable modelling, deployment, and real-time monitoring—collaborating closely with product and engineering to deliver measurable customer impact.

I’m a Senior Data Scientist with 10+ years translating complex business challenges into scalable analytical solutions across insurance, financial services, retail, education and government sectors. I currently lead AI and machine learning initiatives at X-idian, designing recommender systems and exploration–exploitation algorithms for 100k+ insurance customers.

My strength is end-to-end delivery: from problem framing and statistical modelling to model deployment and stakeholder communication. At X-idian, I build dynamic recommender systems across customer quote journeys and implement ML pipelines that cover data acquisition, preprocessing, feature engineering, and model deployment—backed by real-time monitoring dashboards (Grafana).

Previously at Deloitte, I led end-to-end analytical workstreams, developed scalable data pipelines with Apache Spark, and delivered impactful client outcomes—like a Modern Data Warehouse that improved query performance by 40% and reduced processing time from 5 hours to 30 minutes. Earlier, at the University of the Witwatersrand, I spearheaded a legacy migration of 100M+ records to SAP IS-U with 99.9% accuracy, combining robust ETL with validation for data integrity.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Senior Data Scientist

Current

X-idian

Jan 2025 - Present (1 year 4 months)

Led AI/ML initiatives in insurance and financial services, designing recommender systems for personalisation across 100k+ customers. Built scalable end-to-end ML pipelines and exploration–exploitation algorithms, and delivered real-time model monitoring dashboards to stakeholders.

Recommender Systems Thompson Sampling Exploration–Exploitation Machine Learning Pipelines Python Feature Engineering

Senior Consultant (Data)

Deloitte

Jan 2023 - Dec 2024 (1 year 11 months)

Managed end-to-end data science delivery across client engagements, from problem framing and data acquisition to model deployment and evaluation. Built segmentation and churn prediction models, and engineered a modern data warehouse that improved query performance by 40% and reduced processing time from 5 hours to 30 minutes.

Apache Spark Data Warehousing predictive modeling Clustering XGBoost LightGBM MySQL REST APIs

Senior Data Scientist

Final Mile (A Fractal Company)

Sep 2021 - Dec 2022 (1 year 3 months)

Developed and maintained data platforms using statistical analysis, machine learning, and predictive analytics to support strategic decision-making. Built a Tableau dashboard for COVID vaccination sentiment and trends and applied deep learning to unstructured data to inform policy and planning.

Statistical Analysis Predictive Analytics Machine Learning Deep Learning Tableau NLP Dashboards

Principal Data Scientist

University of the Witwatersrand

Sep 2019 - Apr 2020 (7 months)

Led a legacy data migration transferring 100M+ records to SAP IS-U with 99.9% accuracy across revenue data from disparate local government systems. Built robust ETL pipelines for transformation, validation, and recovery to ensure data integrity and completeness.

ETL SAP Data Migration Data Validation data transformation Data Engineering SQL

Senior Lecturer Computer Sci

Jayawant Shikshan Prasarak Mandal

Jun 2010 - Mar 2016 (5 years 9 months)

Taught undergraduate and postgraduate computer science, including statistical methods and programming, and mentored students in academic and professional development. Published 50+ research papers and 12+ book chapters and served on institutional committees contributing to policy and strategy.

Computer Science Education Statistical Methods Programming Instruction Mentoring Curriculum Development