Financial Data Analyst - Contractor

The Company

Stears is a Pan African data company. For global funds investing in Africa, Stears is the data and insights provider that enables quick, accurate decisions during the investment process. Stears users get access to industry, company, transaction, and macro data as well as constantly updated reports by researchers. Unlike other providers, Stears goes beyond just data to provide insights and context based on knowledge of local markets and delivers it all in an easy-to-use data platform. You can find more info about Stears here.

The Role

Why it’s important: High-quality data and insights are the core value that Stears provides to its customers. They empower our customers to make important decisions during the investment process. This role focuses on sourcing, collecting and analysing financial data that our customers need during the investment process. The financial data data we focus on covers the following:

• Company financials (e.g. profitability metrics, cash flow metrics, etc)
• Limited partner financials (e.g. total assets, commitments, etc) 
• Fund financials (e.g. distributed to paid-in capital, net asset value, etc)
• Transaction metrics (e.g. internal rate of return, valuation multiples, etc)

What it includes:

As a Data Analyst, your mission is to find, gather, and synthesise data for our data platform. Your work will primarily focus on manually collecting detailed financial data on entities such as companies, limited partners, transactions, and funds in Africa. While manual data collection is the primary responsibility, there are opportunities to leverage LLM tools and explore prompt engineering to enhance the data collection processes. Data Analysts at Stears should be comfortable with manual data collection while having the technical curiosity and skills to explore more advanced approaches where possible. The work includes research, data entry, data wrangling, data cleaning, quality checks, and contributing to visualising and analysing data.

Responsibilities

As a Data Analyst at Stears, you are responsible for:

• Source and compile financial data from publicly available sources (e.g., regulatory filings, financial statements, news platforms, fund reports, industry databases). 
• Reading articles and reports to extract specific pieces of information.
• Inputting data into our database with precision, including manual data entry and tagging.
• Extracting/scraping data from PDFs, websites, and other non-structured formats.
• Conducting diagnostic data analysis to identify inconsistencies, gaps, errors, or discrepancies in datasets.
• Cross-referencing information across multiple sources to ensure accuracy and consistency.
• Cleaning, combining, and organising datasets to ensure consistency and accuracy.
• Maintaining and updating financial records regularly to reflect the most current information.
• Exploring and utilising large language models (LLMs) and prompt engineering for automating data extraction and collection tasks (training will be provided).
• Collaborate with engineering or product teams to improve data pipelines and workflows. 
• Conducting quality checks on all data inputs and outputs to ensure data integrity.
  
  

We are looking for someone who has:

• Availability: Ready to begin work as soon as possible.
• Knowledge in finance: Beginner to intermediate knowledge is required.
• Technical aptitude: Training in economics, finance, statistics, or a related field.
• Self-starter attitude: Ability to quickly learn on the job, including teaching yourself new skills when needed.
• Experience: Strong proficiency in Excel/Google Sheets; experience with SQL or Python is a plus. Familiarity with financial terms and audited annual reports is a plus.
• Attention to detail: Strong ability to ensure data accuracy, promptly identifying and correcting errors for optimal data quality.
• Data curiosity: Passion for working with data and enthusiasm for using tools like LLMs to innovate and improve data processes.
  
  

What it Takes to Thrive at Stears
At Stears, we operate in a dynamic and rapidly evolving landscape. That means constant change, complexity, and a degree of unpredictability, t’s the nature of building the most trusted financial data platform in Africa. We’re looking for individuals who thrive in this environment, who are comfortable with ambiguity and eager to adapt. If you prefer a highly structured environment, Stears might not be the best fit, and that’s okay.

Before you apply, we’d like for you to consider if you:

• Are deeply passionate about understanding and driving positive change in the financial information ecosystem in Africa
• Can embrace rapid professional growth and actively seek opportunities to learn and develop.
• Can navigate a fast-paced environment where priorities can shift quickly to meet evolving market needs.
• Can demonstrate resilience and resourcefulness in the face of uncertainty, and see change as an opportunity for growth.
• Can bring strong analytical skills and well-informed perspectives to the table.
• Can collaborate effectively with diverse teams, valuing different viewpoints to achieve shared goals.
• Can work responsibly, efficiently and effectively in a digital-first and often remote environment.

Diversity

Stears is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants regardless of color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital or family status, disability, gender identity or expression, veteran status, actual or presumed belonging to an ethnic group, or any other legally protected status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.