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ROLE DESCRIPTION
Title:
Code:
Senior Data Scientist
Role Holder (if currently filled):
Role archetype
na
Division/Department
Career Level
Corporate Development
Senior Manager
Reporting to
Location
Advanced Analytics Lead
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Managing/Leading (if applicable):
Date of last revision
Role Purpose:
Majid Al Futtaim invites you to join us in our quest to create great moments for everyone, everyday! We are the leading shopping mall, residential communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, serving over 560 million visitors a year. For the past two decades, we have shaped the consumer landscape across the region, transforming the way people shop, live and play. We have over 45,000 team members in 16 international markets representing over 110 nationalities – all keeping the customer at the heart of everything we do.
Our diverse businesses present a unique opportunity to leverage one of the richest and most expansive sources of data within the MEA region, as part of the overarching vision of knowing and serving our customers better. In our efforts to realize this vision and to support our digital transformation we are building one of the largest Data & Analytics teams in the region by investing in best of breed analytics talent, technology platforms and assets. We have accomplished considerable successes in this agenda by delivering multiple powerful analytics use cases like a personalized recommendation engine for cinemas, retail promo & assortment optimization tools for supermarkets, etc. and are on our way to scaling up other experiments into a powerful product portfolio and embed them into different operating companies within the MAF ecosystem. At the core of our analytics organization lies the central data science unit which provides best in class capabilities required to support strategic decision-making. Based in Dubai, reporting into the Advanced Analytics Lead within the central holding company, the Senior Data Scientist will act as a recognized Subject Matter Expert in the application of quantitative methods, machine learning algorithms and predictive models to address complex business problems. He/she will lead a team of Data Scientists, in-house and offshore, leveraging large structured and unstructured datasets to develop and operationalize models, tools, and applications that drive optimized decision making.
In some cases, these analyses may result in an opportunity to productize insights to institutionalize the use of these analytical models on a day to day basis by the business.
Currently, the Advanced Analytics unit continues to be in a start-up mode and is expected to grow very quickly. As such, team members are given the latitude to shape the trajectory of the unit and bring their ideas and visions into fruition.
Role Details – Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:
Data science and analytics delivery
- Lead a team of 4+ data scientists & external vendor consultants while delivering effective analytical solutions to complex business problems for the Retail/ Properties/ Leisure, Entertainment & Lifestyle sectors
- Provide oversight/ carry out hands-on development of Predictive Models, Segmentation, Optimization algorithms, etc. using Machine Learning techniques on large volumes of structured and unstructured data.
- Manage the delivery lifecycle while proactively identifying problems that may arise in the project, outlining options, recommending solutions, and escalating as needed
- Champion the needs of business teams and stakeholders throughout the development process, ensuring deliverables are aligned with the original goals and objectives
- Challenge current best thinking, test theories, evaluate data science and machine learning concepts and iterate rapidly while owning the deliverables and managing team’s priorities/timelines
Process
- Develop best practice analytic frameworks, tools and other assets by working with vendors, scale to other opcos
- Draft policies & procedures / establish process adherence to Data Science workflows, model lifecycle management, technical documentation and knowledge repository management
- Define the inventory of tools that data scientists use to deliver a use case with clear standards to handle an increasing heterogeneity of data science toolkits
Community development
- Support advocacy of a data driven culture – Organize/participate in internal events, tech talks to increase the adoption of DS across MAF
- Share and communicate – Create a medium where data achievements can be shared and celebrated with the community of Data Science practitioners
- Provide technical expertise to federated analytics teams within MAF Opcos, fostering an environment of collaboration
- Contribute towards building a culture that promotes continuous learning, development and retention of data science talent
Collaboration with other teams
- Work closely with Data Engineering team to guide them on structuring relevant data to facilitate data exploration and fast prototyping, report data quality issues.
- Collaborate with Product, DevOps and other teams to test, deploy, scale and monitor ML models as components to Data based products/ Use Cases
Functional/Technical Competencies
- Very strong background and theoretical foundation in statistical modeling; in depth project expertise in regression, cluster analysis, classification methods, time series, optimization, etc
- Excellent understanding of machine learning techniques and algorithms, such as k-NN, XGBoost, SVM, Random Forests, etc; Understanding of the underlying mathematics, in addition to the tips and tricks that are involved in data preparation, model evaluation and model interpretation.
- Python proficiency – Ability to write clean, modular, object oriented, extendable code in the Python data science stack (numpy, pandas, scikit-learn, matplotlib, seaborn, keras)
- Experience working with web APIs and creating APIs for data serving and consumption
- Data summarization, query, and analysis expertise using SQL, Hive, etc
- Knowledge of Unix command line tools, Git version control system. GitHub profile which could demonstrate your work is highly appreciated.
- Experience working in an iterative or agile/DevOps continuous integration and delivery environment using lifecycle management methods and tools.
Nice to Have
- Familiarity with cloud computing through AWS/GCP/Azure
- A practical experience in using deep learning / Text mining/ NLP in a business setting.
- Familiarity with big data frameworks like Hadoop, Spark.
- Visualization tools like Tableau/ QlikView/ PowerBI
- Experience in Docker, Kubernetes, and Flask (or any other web framework) for model containerization and scaling
Personal Characteristics and Required Background:
Personal characteristics
- Proactive problem solver with immediate professional and intellectual credibility and an impactful Style.
- Collaborative team player, low-ego, pragmatic, and excited about Majid Al Futtaim’s business and vision. Will live and breathe Majid Al Futtaim’s values.
- Positive attitude and a Commercial mindset
Minimum experience
- 6+ years’ experience in a statistical and/or data science role, with deep knowledge of machine learning, statistics and optimization
Minimum Qualifications/education
- Degree in computer science, economics, mathematics, statistics, or operations research or related technical discipline
- Certifications in statistics, data mining and machine learning a plus. Kaggle experience could be a plus.
