Senior Behavioural Scientist – Loyalty, Wellness & Return-to-Work

Johannesburg, South AfricaFull-timeSeniorOn-sitePosted 3 Nov 2026

Job Overview

Rand Mutual Admin Services (RMA) is appointing a Senior Behavioural Scientist in Johannesburg CBD (permanent; reference RM-961; posted 2 November 2026; apply before 1 December 2026). Sitting within the Group Actuarial function and working closely with the Executive Actuary: Loyalty and Behavioural Science, the role helps shape worker-directed loyalty, wellness, injury-prevention and return-to-work programmes as part of a Board-supported strategic initiative.

The incumbent translates behavioural science theory into practical programmes, designs evidence-based interventions and experiments (including RCTs), builds RMA’s behavioural evidence base, and ensures behavioural insights deliver measurable business and social impact for millions of workers across South Africa’s mining and metals sectors.

Key Responsibilities

• Co-design worker-directed loyalty, engagement, wellness, injury-prevention and return-to-work programmes

• Develop behavioural architectures, engagement frameworks and intervention designs – rewards, goals, social norms and gamification

• Run behavioural diagnostics and barrier analyses using COM-B and the Behaviour Change Wheel

• Lead qualitative and quantitative research – interviews, surveys, journey studies and behavioural assessments

• Design and support randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies; define hypotheses and evaluation frameworks

• Partner Actuarial, Data and Analytics teams to measure programme effectiveness and behavioural outcomes

• Produce behavioural specifications, journey maps and intervention playbooks for implementation teams

• Present insights to leadership and governance forums; build behavioural-science capability across the organisation

Required Qualifications

• Postgraduate qualification in Behavioural Science, Behavioural Economics, Psychology, Cognitive Science or related quantitative social science (Master’s/PhD advantageous)

• Minimum 5 years applying behavioural science in a commercial environment

• At least 3 years designing engagement, loyalty, wellness, employee or customer behaviour programmes

• Proven design and evaluation of behavioural experiments in live business environments

• SQL proficiency; Python or R advantageous

• Financial services, insurance, healthcare or other regulated-industry experience advantageous; understanding of POPIA and ethical behavioural design

Skills & Requirements

Behavioural ScienceBehavioural EconomicsCOM-B / Behaviour Change WheelExperimental DesignRandomised Controlled TrialsCausal InferenceLoyalty Programme DesignGamificationQualitative ResearchQuantitative ResearchSQLPython/RStakeholder Influencing