Data Scientist Fellowship

Data Scientist Fellowship

South Africa

Description

Love Justice International (LJI) is a Christian nonprofit driven by a singular mission: to share the love of Jesus Christ by fighting the world's greatest injustices. We pursue this calling through two primary efforts—our expanding anti-human trafficking work and the care of orphaned and abandoned children.

We are looking for faithful, compassionate, and mission-driven problem-solvers—people who think deeply about how to fight injustice and share Christ's love in a broken world. This isn't just a job; it's a calling. If you're searching for an easy, comfortable career, there are plenty of other options. But if you're drawn to work that demands sacrifice, boldness, and faith, we invite you to apply and explore how you can be part of this mission.

Love Justice International has been recognized as a Best Christian Workplace for five consecutive years (2021–2025), most recently achieving the "Flourishing" category—the highest level of organizational health. Learn more about who we are, what sets us apart, and our open positions at lovejustice.ngo/careers.

What We Offer: Opportunities to truly change lives are exceptionally rare—but at LJI, that is exactly the kind of impact you can have. Although we're a nonprofit, we operate as an "Impact Engineering" organization, focused solely on maximizing real-world outcomes. By combining scientific and business principles with field-led, locally informed insights, we intercept potential trafficking victims for under $112 each, creating a ripple effect that prevents several more individuals from enslavement. This remarkable efficiency underscores the profound, far-reaching impact your work can have on countless lives.

Joining LJI means stepping into an opportunity to deeply impact lives by combating injustice and expressing the transformative love of Christ. At LJI, you'll be part of a connected, purpose-driven team committed to impactful, kingdom-class excellence.

We offer competitive and thoughtful benefits packages tailored to the specific role and location of our staff. Benefit offerings are designed to support wellness, work-life balance, and overall staff care. Details of specific benefits will vary based on location, local standards, and applicable regulations.

Position Type: Full Time; South Africa

Position Overview: Love Justice International (LJI) combats human trafficking through transit monitoring—intercepting potential victims at key transportation hubs, where traffickers and victims are most visible. Because trafficking is already underway at these points, our teams can gather vital information to assist law enforcement in arresting traffickers and disrupting trafficking networks. To date, LJI has intercepted over 100,000 individuals, resulting in more than 2,000 arrests. In addition, LJI operates 14 family homes for orphaned and abandoned children in South Asia, and since 2015 has provided an excellent education at our 'Dream School' to the children who live in our Family Homes.

Our approach to maximizing mission impact involves a process we call "Impact Engineering." Our data scientists are part of a dedicated Impact Engineering Team that develops, refines, and improves our core processes by creating practical, data-driven models that become the engines of our tools to drive impact. By continuously testing, refining, and standardizing these models, we ensure consistent, measurable, and scalable impact across all our programs. This team's innovative work directly supports our frontline staff and helps optimize our interventions, enabling Love Justice to deliver the greatest possible impact per dollar spent.

LJI prioritizes a rigorous, data-driven approach to maximize impact and minimize harm. We use careful data collection and analysis to measure our effectiveness, continually refining and improving our anti-trafficking interventions and care for the children in our Family Homes. Adhering to the principles of "be scientific" and "fail fast and often," we test innovative ideas quickly, discard what doesn't work, and scale interventions proven to produce the greatest measurable good per dollar spent. This disciplined, iterative approach helps us remain accountable to our mission, ensuring that every action we take truly benefits those we serve.

The primary duty of the Data Scientist is to bring data science, mathematical, and statistical methodologies to bear on the evaluation and execution of key program strategies. The Data Scientist will report to the Lead Data Scientist. The position is based in South Africa. Remote work will be considered on an individual basis.

Key Responsibilities:

• Use data, statistical analysis, and modeling to generate insights that advance Love Justice's anti-trafficking efforts, child-focused programs in South Asia, and organizational learning
• Apply analytical findings to support real-world action, including informing anti-trafficking operations and investigations, improving program design, and strengthening accountability
• Develop and maintain objective measures of impact, including assessing child wellbeing and benchmarking outcomes against relevant populations where appropriate
• Design, build, and continuously improve predictive assessments that support consistent, effective hiring across a range of roles
• Establish and document reproducible analytical workflows and standards, and contribute to the ongoing improvement of data systems, metrics, and data quality across the organization
• Build and maintain a team of financial supporters through regular communication and updates.

Christian Culture: The work at Love Justice International (including the duties listed above) is conducted within a culture that strives to emulate Christ and make Him first and central. As part of our team, we seek staff who embrace the following expressions of what it means to Abide in Christ, our first Global Value:

• Our primary identity is in Christ
• We believe God is sovereign over injustice
• We are made, called, and led By Christ
• We commit to connect with Jesus
• Prayer should be central to our work
• Our conduct is our testimony

We believe that our mission is not only about what we do but how we do it—through faith, prayer, and obedience to Christ.

Qualifications:

• Mission & Faith Alignment
  • Mature Christian faith and agreement with our Global Value to "Abide in Christ"
  • Knowledge, understanding, and agreement with how the Christian Gospel ministers to "the least of these" (Matthew 25:40) and guides us in our mission
  • Agreement with our Core Value "Be the Kingdom"(in mission execution and personal conduct)
  • Acknowledgment of our Statement of Faith
  • Passion for justice and advocacy on behalf of vulnerable populations.
• Experience & Skills
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, capable of assessing complex issues and finding systematic solutions
  • Ability to multi-task and manage various projects simultaneously
  • A master's degree or higher (doctoral degree preferred) in data science, research methods, statistics in the social sciences, or a related field
  • Proficiency in Python, R or an equivalent programming language

Application Process: We will continue to invite applications for this position until a new Data Scientist has been hired. Candidates will submit a letter of interest and CV when they submit their application here. Nominations, inquiries, and questions concerning this search may be directed to View email address on click.appcast.io. Visit the LJI careers page, to learn more about our mission, explore FAQs, and see how you can be part of our work.

Please allow us 1-2 weeks to process your application. Thank you for your interest!