Zindi launches recruitment platform

Cape Town based data science platform Zindi launched a recruitment platform on the first day of AI Expo Africa 2020 ONLINE in September to help organisations around the world find the data science talent they need. Zindi will draw on its community of more than 18 000 data scientists across Africa and the rest of the world to match companies and organisations with the right talent for the job at hand.

“ZINDI has the largest community of data scientists in Africa, which makes us uniquely positioned to help organisations find the talent they are looking for,” says Celina Lee, CEO of Zindi. “We are proud to be pioneering a data-driven, evidence-based approach to data science recruitment in Africa to ensure you get candidates with the proven skills you need.”

Primarily a data science competition platform, Zindi launched zindi.africa/jobs in response to what it said was a clear need from organisations operating in Africa. Many of the companies Zindi works with have expressed their frustrations in not being able to find the right talent in Africa for their needs through traditional channels.

On the other hand, Zindi has in just two years accumulated the largest pool of talented, passionate data scientists in Africa, many of whom are looking for work: 55% of Zindi users are actively looking for their next professional opportunity. These users cover a wide range of data science skills and languages, and 75% have a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification. Many are new to the data science field, but approximately half of them boast more than a year of data science experience.

Zindi data scientists also have a demonstrated entrepreneurial, can-do mindset. More than 50% of our users are engaged in or thinking about creating a startup within the machine learning and AI space. This positions them uniquely as self-driven candidates keen to make a difference to the continent and to the organisation they are a part of.

Zindi said in a statement in September that is proud to have already helped place several candidates with its partners around Africa. This includes recruiting a data scientist for a COVID-19 response project in the Democratic Republic of Congo for GSMA, and placing the winners of a recent Zindi competition to implement their air quality forecasting solution for AirQo in Uganda. ai