About

Data Scientist | Analytics Engineer | Statistician

Introduction

I am Mfundo Monchwe, a Data Scientist, Analytics Engineer, and Statistician with 4+ years of experience solving data problems across finance, healthcare, retail, and mining.

My work covers the full analytical lifecycle: understanding business questions, exploring and validating data, developing statistical or machine-learning models, building analytical applications, and communicating results to stakeholders.

I am particularly interested in work where statistics, machine learning, data engineering, and business decision-making meet. I prefer practical modelling: start with the problem, understand the data-generating process, establish a sensible baseline, validate carefully, and only add complexity when it produces meaningful value.

Education

MSc in Statistics (Cum Laude) | University of KwaZulu-Natal

Aug 2024 – Mar 2026

Dissertation: Spatial and Joint Modelling of Chronic Illness and Household Wealth among South African Adults
Final mark: 75%

My postgraduate research examined health and wealth inequality using advanced statistical modelling, including Generalized Additive Models, Markov Random Fields, spatial modelling, and copula-based joint frameworks.

The work strengthened my interests in statistical inference, spatial data, uncertainty, model interpretation, and research that connects quantitative methods with real socioeconomic questions.

BScHons in Data Science | Sol Plaatje University

Feb 2021 – Dec 2021

Advanced training in data science, statistics, machine learning, programming, and applied analytics.

BSc in Data Science | Sol Plaatje University

Feb 2017 – Dec 2020

Foundation in statistics, mathematics, computer science, programming, and data analysis.

Professional Experience

Data Scientist / Pricing Analyst | Avis Budget

Apr 2024 – Apr 2026 | Isando, Gauteng, South Africa

My role combined data science with pricing and commercial analytics.

  • Developed ARIMA-based forecasting models for vehicle termination and maintenance planning using time-ordered historical data.
  • Supported pricing and fleet decisions through analytical forecasting work associated with an approximately 11% improvement in profitability.
  • Built a machine-learning model to forecast future new-vehicle valuations and support pricing decisions.
  • Performed customer profiling and segmentation to identify profitable and loss-making customer groups and analyse associated loss ratios.
  • Developed an interpretable credit-risk recommendation system.
  • Conducted EDA, data-quality validation, documentation, IRR calculations, and deviation analysis across datasets from six countries.
  • Developed a Shiny dashboard for the iLease product to make analytical outputs accessible to business users.

Key themes: pricing analytics · forecasting · customer analytics · credit risk · data quality · business reporting · Shiny

Data Scientist – Consultant | Notto Africa

Apr 2025 – Jul 2025 | Johannesburg, South Africa

  • Designed and commercialised a credit-scoring model using customer financial data.
  • Exposed model predictions through a REST API for integration with the wider platform.
  • Integrated Explainable AI (XAI) so predictions could be interpreted rather than treated as black-box scores.
  • Implemented Keycloak-based authentication and authorisation for secure model access.
  • Built a Streamlit application for real-time interaction with model predictions.

Key themes: credit scoring · model deployment · REST APIs · XAI · Streamlit · Keycloak

Data Scientist – Freelancer | Arena Holdings

Oct 2024 – Jan 2025 | Johannesburg, South Africa

  • Delivered commercial reporting, predictive modelling, and data-engineering support.
  • Built analytical and visualisation workflows for editorial data.
  • Translated analytical outputs into reporting that could be used by non-technical stakeholders.

Key themes: reporting · predictive analytics · data engineering · visualisation

Trainee Data Analyst | Auditor-General of South Africa

Mar 2024 – Apr 2024 | Pretoria, South Africa

  • Provided data analytics support across multiple audit business units.
  • Investigated operational datasets and contributed to data-quality and analytical work.
  • Developed analytical models and supported comprehensive audit reporting.

Key themes: audit analytics · data quality · reporting · stakeholder support

Freelance Data Scientist | Remote / International Client Work

Feb 2023 – Aug 2023

  • Analysed FASTQ and VCF files from RNA and exome sequencing, including quality control and variant annotation.
  • Investigated treatment effects on inflammatory RNA expression using statistical significance testing.
  • Conducted A/B testing, ANOVA, CFA, SEM, and hypothesis testing for applied research and retail use cases.
  • Produced statistical analysis reports on co-morbidities, genomics, and business data.

Key themes: bioinformatics · statistical testing · research analytics · Python · R

Academic Tutor | Sol Plaatje University

Mar 2021 – Nov 2021

Tutored Big Data Foundations and Introduction to Python Programming to second-year students, covering data structures, data wrangling, analysis, visualisation, and Python problem-solving.

Skills

Programming & analytics

  • Python
  • pandas
  • NumPy
  • SQL
  • R
  • Scikit-learn
  • XGBoost
  • TensorFlow
  • Git / Bash

Data science & statistics

  • Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)
  • Data cleaning and validation
  • Statistical modelling
  • Time-series forecasting
  • Classification and regression
  • Customer segmentation
  • Pricing analytics
  • Credit risk
  • Hypothesis testing
  • A/B testing
  • ANOVA
  • CFA and SEM
  • Bayesian methods
  • Spatial modelling

Data delivery & engineering

  • REST APIs
  • Analytical pipelines
  • Streamlit
  • Shiny
  • Keycloak
  • Model interpretation / XAI
  • Data visualisation
  • Business reporting

Applied domains

  • Finance and credit risk
  • Automotive and pricing analytics
  • Retail and customer analytics
  • Mining
  • Healthcare and bioinformatics
  • Computer vision
  • NLP and text analytics

Independent Technical Development

Modern AI Engineering | 2026

I am actively building a structured, hands-on learning repository around modern AI engineering. My focus is on understanding how contemporary AI systems work end-to-end rather than treating LLMs as isolated chat interfaces.

Current areas include:

  • Generative AI and LLM fundamentals
  • API-based versus local-model workflows
  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
  • Knowledge-base grounding and controlled responses
  • Tool calling
  • Agentic AI
  • Multi-step AI workflows

View the modern-ai-learning repository

Research & Publications

I am a published researcher with work spanning probabilistic machine learning and computer security. My current research interests also include spatial statistics, joint health-wealth modelling, and applied statistical learning.

View my publications

Contact

I am open to conversations around data science, analytics engineering, statistical modelling, machine learning, applied AI, and research collaboration.

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