First Abu Dhabi Bank Looking for AVP, Data Science Operations at Abu Dhabi ,  United Arab Emirates Full Time

Job Description

Role Purpose:
AVP Data Scientist role is responsible for modelling complex Institutional problems, discovering business insights and identifying opportunities through the use of statistical, algorithmic, mining and visualization techniques. In addition to advanced analytic skills, this Job holder is also proficient at integrating and preparing large, varied datasets, architecting specialized database and computing environments, and communicating results. Lead data scientists work closely with Business leaders, Business champions, data stewards, project/program managers, and IT teams to turn data into critical information and knowledge that can be used to make sound organizational decisions for First Abu Dhabi Bank.
The role requires job holder to be a creative thinker and able to propose innovative ways to look at business problems by using data mining (the process of discovering new patterns from large datasets) approaches on the set of Information available. They will need to validate their findings using an experimental and iterative approach. Also, Lead Data Scientist will need to be able to present back their findings to the business by exposing their assumptions and validation work in a way that can be easily understood by their business counterparts.
AVP Data Scientist will need a combination of business focus, strong analytical and problem solving skills and statistical programming knowledge to be able to quickly cycle hypothesis through the discovery phase of the data science projects. Excellent written and communications skills to report back the findings in a clear, structured manner are required.
Finally AVP data scientist will be primary owner for the implementation of the approved corporate Analytics strategy with an aim to develop actionable insights that continuously optimize business decisions. Drive execution of Digital Strategy by planning, budgeting & executing innovative initiatives for the various areas of First Abu Dhabi Bank. Aligning marketplace opportunities to Company business objectives. The role will also help Company capitalize on this rapidly changing technology environment by working with the business and technology teams to explore, evaluate and deploy Digital capabilities ensuring a cohesive and comprehensive digital strategy for FAB.
Working with Emerging Technologies and Enterprise Architecture leadership and business teams to evaluate various options on Digital including, but not limited to, Natural Language, Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation capabilities to align to FAB business needs.

• Work closely with the development teams to provide architecture services, including solution idealization, business value assessment, architecture design and leverage ensuring overall alignment to strategy.
• Develop & conceptualize sophisticated and innovative solutions that integrate diverse information assets available at First Abu Dhabi Bank to achieve incremental revenue or reduction in the costs or mitigating the financial risks.

Strategic responsibilities

• Develop & conceptualize sophisticated & innovative analytical solutions that integrate diverse information assets available at First Abu Dhabi Bank to achieve incremental revenue or reduction in the costs or mitigating the financial risks.
• Lead the discovery process for the analytics opportunities with the institutional stakeholders to identify the business requirements and the expected outcome.
• Make strategic recommendations on data collection, integration and retention requirements incorporating business requirements and knowledge of best practices.
• Define standard metrics and KPIs for measuring the success of all analytics engagements undertaken and establish processes to measure them.
• Educate the organizational colleagues from both IT and the business perspectives on new approaches, such as testing hypotheses and statistical validation of analytical results. Helps the organization understand the principles and the math behind these statistical processes to drive the organizational adoption.

Core responsibilities

• Apply advanced statistical and predictive modeling techniques to build, maintain, and improve on multiple decision systems, Designs experiments, and test business hypotheses.
• Identify what data is available and relevant in the bank for analytics opportunities, including internal and external data sources, leveraging new data collection processes such as geo-location data, Unstructured data sources such emails, log files, social media etc.
• Develop innovative and effective approaches to solve business problems using Analytics and communicate results and methodologies.
• Utilize patterns and variations in the volume, speed and other characteristics of data supporting the initiative, the type of data (e.g. Images, text, clickstream or metering data) in predictive analysis.
• Provide on-going tracking and monitoring of performance of decision systems and statistical models built by the data science unit.
• Recommend & Implement ongoing improvements to methods and algorithms that lead to findings, including new information & patterns in the data.
• Establish conducive ecosystem for analytics using tools, processes, vendors etc. within the bank that will enable adoption of analytics across the organization.
• Play the role of bank wide machine learning and Artificial Intelligence expert to use these techniques to solve the real business problems.

People Management responsibilities

• Coach & groom the data scientists in the team on gaining knowledge & skills on the principles of analytics techniques, problem solving, project management, client relationship management & team work skills. Conduct regular reviews with team members.
• Responsible to hire, train, motivate and continuously develop skillsets of the data scientists in the team.
• Define goals and key performance indicators for each member of data science team and coordinate the performance management review process for the team.

COMMUNICATIONS & WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:
Internal:

• The role requires establishing strong working relationship with the business groups as well as all support functions of the organization at various levels –
• Level N-1, N-2 and N-3 for the PBG and CIB groups.
• Level N-1, N-2, N-3 for the support groups.

External:

• The role requires regular interactions with a large number of vendors and consulting partners.

Key performance indicators (kpis):

• % Increase in organizational Analytics maturity score
• Number of areas/departments in the bank where advanced analytics solutions (Predictive & Prescriptive) were used for the first time.
• Business benefits realized through advanced analytics depending on initiatives undertaken benefits may include
• % Increase in effectiveness in customer engagement (increased sales, reduced churn)
• % Decrease in customer acquisition costs
• % Decrease in sales costs
• % Increase in marketing effectiveness
• Number of identified organizational opportunities to improve data value
• Feedback from internal and external stakeholders

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s in Business Administration from top B Schools.
• Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Computer Sciences, Maths, Operations Research or other related fields.
• Additional degree or certifications in the field related to the data science/Analytics is preferred.

Minimum Experience:

• Minimum 10+ years of experience in managing a large Analytics or BI function in a financial services organization.
• Education in Statistics is mandatory
• Typically 5 or more years of relevant quantitative and qualitative research and analytics experience.

Hand on experience is required on

• SAS (good to have)
• R (Must)
• Python (Must)
• Hand on experience Python Coding(Mandatory) minimum 4 yrs
• Machine Learning and AI (Mandatory )
• Data Visualization(Power BI optional)
• Unstructured data
• Web scrapping
• MS Cloud Azure services

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes:
Knowledge and Skills

• Ability to independently manage analytics engagements from start to finish, deliveringactionable insights within established timelines and budget.
• Excellent understanding of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence(AI) techniques and algorithms, such as k-NN, Naive Bayes, SVM, Random Forests, Deep Learning etc.
• Proficiency in statistical analysis, quantitative analytics, forecasting/predictive analytics, multivariate testing, and optimization algorithms.
• The ability to come up with solutions to loosely defined business problems by leveraging pattern detection over potentially large datasets.
• Use problem solving methodologies to propose creative solutions to solve business problem. Recommend design and develop state-of-the-art data driven analysis using statistical & advanced analytics methodologies to solve business problems.
• Strong programming skills and hands on experience on statistical modelling packages (like SAS, R or Python).
• Strong communication skills with ability to expresses technical and business concepts, ideas, feelings, opinions, and conclusions verbally and in writing. Listens attentively and reinforces words through empathetic body language and tone.
• Experience leading teams.
• In-depth industry/business knowledge.

Attributes

• Change Advocate: Identifies and acts upon opportunities for continuous improvement. Encourages prudent risk-taking, exploration of alternative approaches, and organizational learning.
• Conceptual & Innovating Thinking: Synthes facts, theories, trends, inferences, and key issues and/or themes in complex and variable situations. Recognizes abstract patterns and relationships between apparently unrelated entities or situations.
• Leadership: Leads members of formal and informal groups in the pursuit of common
• Missions, vision, values and mutual goals. Places team needs and priorities above personal needs. Involves others in making decisions that affect them. Draws on the strengths of colleagues and gives credit to others contributions and achievements.