Who we are

Moniepoint Inc. is Africa’s all-in-one financial ecosystem, helping 10 million businesses and individuals access seamless payments, banking, credit, and business management tools since 2019.

As Nigeria’s largest merchant acquirer, it powers most of the country’s Point of Sale (POS) transactions. Through its subsidiaries, Moniepoint Inc. processes $22 billion monthly for its customers while operating profitably.

About the role : 

At Moniepoint, data is at the core of everything we do. We are a customer-centric company, and your work will enable our teams to make informed, data-driven decisions that directly impact the success of our business. We’re looking for an experienced Senior Data Scientist who’s excited to solve meaningful problems, collaborate across teams, and turn complex data into clear, actionable insights. You’ll work at the intersection of data, product, and engineering to uncover insights, guide strategic decisions, and develop models that enhance user experience and business outcomes.

Curious about what makes Moniepoint an incredible place to work? Check out posts on how we cultivate a culture of innovation, teamwork, and growth.

What You’ll Do

• Lead high-impact projects: Design and deliver end-to-end data science solutions that support product innovation and business strategy.
• Uncover insights: Analyze large, complex datasets to identify trends, surface opportunities, and influence key decisions.
• Build models: Develop and deploy predictive and prescriptive models using machine learning and statistical techniques.
• Enable experimentation: Design A/B tests and causal inference studies to help teams learn quickly and make informed choices.
• Collaborate cross-functionally: Work closely with product managers, engineers, and business leaders to understand goals and deliver data-driven solutions.
• Promote data fluency: Build dashboards, tools, and frameworks to enable self-service analytics and scale your impact across teams.

To succeed in this role, you should have

• 5+ years of experience as a Data Scientist, ideally in fast-paced or high-growth environments
• Proficiency in SQL and experience working with large-scale data systems (e.g., Redshift, BigQuery, Snowflake).
• Strong analytical and statistical skills; fluency in Python or R.
• Experience with machine learning libraries (e.g., scikit-learn, XGBoost) and data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker, Plotly).
• Solid understanding of experimental design, hypothesis testing, and causal inference.
• Ability to distill complex data problems into clear, actionable insights.
• BSc/MSc/PhD in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Economics, or similar.

Experience with the following would be a plus

• Experience with deep learning, NLP, or time-series forecasting.
• Knowledge of tools for building production data pipelines (e.g., Airflow, dbt).
• Familiarity with business domains like fintech, e-commerce, healthcare, etc.

What we can offer you

• Culture - We put our people first and prioritize the well-being of every team member. We have built a company where all opinions carry weight and where all voices are heard. We value and respect each other and always look out for one another. Above all, we are human.
• Learning - We have a learning and development-focused environment with an emphasis on knowledge sharing, training, and regular internal technical talks.
• Compensation - You’ll receive an attractive salary, pension, health insurance, annual bonus, plus other benefits.
• The opportunity to drive impact through data in a high-growth environment.
• A collaborative culture with room to grow and experiment.
• Access to rich data and a modern analytics stack.

What to expect in the hiring process

• A preliminary phone call with the recruiter
• A coding exercise on HackerRank – covering core data science theory (math, statistics, linear algebra) and Python fundamentals (data structures & algorithms).
• A take-home assignment
• A technical interview with a Lead in our Engineering Team to review your take-home assignment in depth
• A behavioural and technical interview with a member of our Executive team

Moniepoint is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and candidates.

About Sand

Sand Technologies is a global Physical AI company using data and AI to make critical industries work better. We partner with governments, cities and enterprises to improve how essential systems operate across healthcare, water, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure.

Our work delivers proven real-world impact. We have built AI systems that help manage London’s water supply, supported telecom network planning across hundreds of cities, and developed digital healthcare platforms serving tens of millions of people across Africa. From intelligent command centers to AI-powered infrastructure platforms, we help organizations sense, analyze and act in complex environments.

Our people are ambitious, curious and relentlessly practical. Our teams work alongside clients in the field, solving hard problems and deploying solutions that last. With colleagues across Africa, Europe, the UK and the US, we operate across the full stack - from research and engineering to deployment and capability building.

Our mission is simple: to harness AI to solve humanity’s most pressing challenges.

About the role

Sand is scaling rapidly across Africa, partnering with Ministries of Health to deploy the Health Operating System (HOS) — a decision-support and execution platform that transforms how health systems sense, analyze, and act on data. The HOS is already operational across multiple countries, with plans to expand to 15 countries by end of 2026, supported by 80+ Forward Deployed Engineers.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you are the technical spearhead of our client engagement in Nigeria. Unlike our roaming FDE roles, this is a permanently embedded position. You will be based full-time within the Ministry of Health in Nigeria, becoming a long-term extension of the client's operational team. Your mandate is to build deep institutional relationships, develop comprehensive understanding of the national health system, and deliver sustained value over an extended engagement — not just rapid sprints, but lasting transformation.

This is not staff augmentation. You are an amalgamation of three roles:

1. The Software Engineer — Deep technical acumen to build and deploy production-grade solutions using Sand's product suite
2. The Product Manager — Strategic foresight to understand client problems, influence business objectives, and identify expansion opportunities
3. The Consultant — Client-facing finesse to navigate complex stakeholder relationships, manage scope, and transfer knowledge

Your primary mission is to prove our value fast, delivering functional solutions rapidly using Sand's products, playbooks, and tools, and then maturing those solutions into mission-critical infrastructure that the Ministry depends on daily. Over time, you become the institutional memory of the deployment — the person who understands the data landscape, the stakeholder dynamics, and the operational realities better than anyone.

Who We're Looking For

The Forward Deployed Engineer is a highly ambitious individual. You are someone who is deeply keen on learning — someone who dives in headfirst to solve some of the hardest, most complex problems in global health. You thrive on understanding the technology, understanding the stakeholders, understanding our product suite, and weaving all three together to deliver solutions that change how health systems operate.

This role is not for someone looking for comfort or routine. It is for someone who wants to step outside of their comfort zone, build something they can be proud of, and grow faster than they thought possible. The FDE programme is a career accelerator — an intensive rotation that exposes you to technical depth, strategic thinking, and client leadership in equal measure, all while working on problems that matter for millions of people.

For this permanently embedded role, you also need the maturity and resilience to sustain deep client relationships over months and years — not just weeks. You will become the face of Sand in Nigeria, and that requires patience, cultural fluency, and the ability to navigate institutional complexity while maintaining momentum.

Key Responsibilities

Serve as Sand's Permanent Technical Presence in Nigeria

• Embed full-time within the Ministry of Health, becoming a trusted member of the client's extended team
• Develop deep, longitudinal understanding of the national health data landscape, institutional dynamics, and operational priorities
• Build and maintain relationships across all levels of the Ministry — from frontline data officers to senior leadership
• Act as the primary technical point of contact for all Sand activities in-country, coordinating with launchers, country directors, and visiting FDE teams

Drive On-Site Value Delivery

• Rapidly unlock, explore, and integrate client data sources (e.g., DHIS2, SCADA systems, network management platforms, operational databases)
• Understand client problems through prototyping and rapid value delivery — deploying POCs and MVPs using Sand's product components and playbooks
• Transition initial solutions into hardened, production-grade systems that the Ministry relies on daily
• Own the long-term health of deployed solutions — monitoring adoption, troubleshooting issues, and iterating based on user feedback
• Deliver and track value generated through deployment of Sand products

Enable Product-Led Growth

• Lead with Sand's existing product suite — know the products by heart and where each solution is most effective for the domain you're deployed in
• Document learnings, client challenges, and successful solutions as reusable patterns for the broader FDE community
• Drive discovery and expansion by uncovering new opportunities on the ground

Build Local Capacity and Sustainability

• Work alongside Ministry teams to co-create solutions and progressively transfer knowledge, ensuring they can operate and maintain systems independently
• Identify, recruit, and mentor local data engineers, scientists, and analysts to build sustainable in-country capacity
• Develop training materials and documentation tailored to the local context, language, and skill level
• Be the continuity that ensures handover isn't a cliff — you bridge the gap between Sand's deployment and the Ministry's long-term ownership

Feed the Platform Feedback Loop

• Channel field learnings back to improve the core product through structured mechanisms (Technical Deep Dives, Solution Swarms, pattern documentation)
• Turn "gravel roads" into "paved superhighways" — document solution patterns so the next FDE can move faster
• Contribute field feedback that influences 30% of the product roadmap

Requirements — Essential

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical field
• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, data science, system deployment, or technical leadership
• Proficiency in at least one of: Python, SQL/PostgreSQL, JavaScript — with ability to write production-grade code
• Strong problem-solving skills with a bias toward action and rapid prototyping
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills — comfortable presenting to senior government or corporate stakeholders and translating between technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience working with or deploying to government, public sector, or large institutional clients
• Proven ability to lead local technical teams and build capacity
• Willingness to relocate and be permanently based in Nigeria for the duration of the engagement (12-24+ months)
• Language: Local language proficiency is a significant advantage

Requirements — Preferred

• Experience with data integration, ETL pipelines, and working with diverse data sources
• Experience in one or more of Sand's focus domains: health informatics/digital health, water utility operations, telecommunications network operations, or energy systems
• Familiarity with domain-specific platforms (e.g., DHIS2, OpenMRS for health; SCADA, GIS for water/energy; OSS/BSS for telecom)
• Experience with BI and dashboarding tools, particularly Apache Superset
• Experience with data transformation tools such as dbt or Airflow
• Comfort working with data dictionaries, reporting requirements, and identifying common data quality issues
• Knowledge of data security, privacy, and interoperability standards (e.g., FHIR for healthcare, GDPR, local data sovereignty requirements)
• Experience operating in resource-constrained environments (unreliable power, limited connectivity)

Work Environment

This is a permanently embedded role. You will work on-site at the Ministry of Health in Nigeria 4 days per week, with 1 day for focused remote work, internal collaboration, and knowledge sharing with the broader FDE community. You should expect to be based in Nigeria for a minimum of 12-24 months.

You must be self-driven, comfortable operating as Sand's primary technical representative in-country, and disciplined with online collaboration tools to stay connected with the broader Sand team across geographies. Cultural sensitivity, adaptability, and genuine interest in the local context are essential — you are not passing through, you are putting down roots.