Karabo Nkosi

Chief Data Officer · Recommendation systems · embeddings

Indigo HQ

Cape Town, South Africa · SAST (UTC+2)

13+ years experience

Strathmore University

English, Afrikaans, German

Hiring

Messaging unavailable

Overview

I lead recommendation systems at Indigo HQ in Cape Town. Moved the homepage from rules to a learned ranker. Shipped a ranking change that increased conversion 2.9%. Travel slowly, usually by train.

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Working sessions on recommender systems
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Skills

recommender systemsSparkPythonrankingembeddingsPyTorch

HiringHiring for a role

closes in 3 months

5 data analyst roles open on the recommendations team in Cape Town

Role: Data analyst
Level: Mid
Type: Full-time
Work mode: Remote within country
Compensation: $183k-$244k
Team: Recommendations, 16 people
Start: Within a month
Must have: Strong SQL and statistics Turns analysis into decisions Clear written communication
Process: 3 conversations, no take-home

Comp $182k-$291k. One technical chat and a paid trial day. Message me with one thing you shipped that you're proud of.

Cape Town, South Africapythonrankingpytorch

Open

Experience

Chief Data Officer
Jan 2025 - Present
Indigo HQ · 1 yr 9 mo · Full-time · Cape Town, South Africa
- Shipped a ranking change that increased conversion 7.7%.
- Moved the homepage from rules to a learned ranker.
- Taught SQL to 195 non-analysts.
Staff Data Scientist
Nov 2021 - Jan 2025
Meta · 3 yr 2 mo · Full-time · Cape Town, South Africa
- Shipped a ranking change that increased conversion 5.6%.
- Taught SQL to 171 non-analysts.
Senior Data Scientist
Dec 2019 - Nov 2021
KPMG · 1 yr 11 mo · Full-time · Cape Town, South Africa
- Moved the homepage from rules to a learned ranker.
- Wrote the metric definitions the leadership team reviews every week.
Data Analyst
Jul 2017 - Dec 2019
Andela · 2 yr 5 mo · Full-time · Cape Town, South Africa
- Wrote the metric definitions the leadership team reviews every week.
Director of Data Science
Apr 2014 - May 2017
Moniepoint · 3 yr 1 mo · Full-time · Cape Town, South Africa
- Shipped a ranking change that increased conversion 7.7%.
- Taught SQL to 166 non-analysts.

Projects

Write-up: recommendation systems in practice

2025

A long-form guide to recommendation systems for people starting out.

References

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Education

Strathmore University
BCom, Statistics
1993 - 1997

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