Director, Data Scientist

Our Purpose

We work to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. We cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences enable us to be a better team – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation and delivers better business results.

Summary

Open Banking (OB) is a worldwide phenomenon, that has been accelerating in many markets driven by the commercial opportunities it presents for banks, fintechs, PSPs and Digital Players.

The Europe Open Banking team is looking for a talented Director, Data Science. This position will be responsible for deploying data science based solutions to financial institutions, FinTechs, small and medium businesses, large enterprises, and consumers – to help empower consumers and businesses with better financial wellbeing. You will be responsible for developing innovative data science solutions and identifying opportunities to support business and client needs in a quantitative manner and facilitate informed recommendations / decisions.

Every day, you will be solving real world challenges in a fast-moving and highly competitive area, and utilising your data science skills, leadership and innovation to bring the best in class scalable data solutions for the market.

This is a very exciting role that is at the earliest stages of setting up and building a data science capability for the Open Banking team in Europe. You will need to demonstrate leadership skills in working with and aligning matrixed stakeholders to bring your data science strategy to life. The first year will be spent building foundational capabilities which will grow into more hands-on data science operations.

No single day will be the same, so if you want an expansive role with challenge, flexibility and opportunity to learn, apply now!

Role:

• Lead, mentor and grow a small data science team in scoping, building and advancing a range of data models focusing on the application of Open Data to credit and affordability assessment.
• Direct team to design and implement machine learning models for a number of financial applications
• Scale strategies and solutions to work at a national and global level
• Own the overall data science strategy, team and outcomes of all projects
• Provide leadership in working with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure visibility and support for data science strategy and activities, including product leaders, engineering and data privacy
• Work with product leaders and clients to enable market facing solutions using data science
• Remove barriers for your team and create interoperability solutions with other teams across the organization
• Propose creative solutions to existing business challenges and provide thought leadership on new innovations such as Gen AI and help shape and influence new regulatory initiatives
• Assist with talent acquisition efforts and initiatives, facilitate training programs and conduct performance management for small team of direct reports

All About You:

• Experience in credit reference, lending, banking, payments or FinTech sectors
• Good knowledge of Open Banking or similar API led infrastructures
• 8+ years commercial machine/deep learning and modelling experience. Data Engineering experience may be considered with sufficient ML experience
• Experience in leading a team of data scientists
• A track record of designing, refining and operating data science models
• Engaging with customers and clients, both internal and external
• Deep understanding of design approaches and technologies utilised in your area
• Proven experience and leadership in aligning dependent organisations and removing blockers and issues
• Mid-senior level Python coding experience required
• Excellent written and oral communication skills on technical & non-technical topics
• Experience with Kubernetes, Containers, Docker, REST APIs, Event Streams or other delivery mechanisms is a plus
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience with at least one cloud platform, such as Azure, AWS, or GCP, for data storage, processing, and deployment.
• Experience following agile process when developing and delivering products or solutions
• Experience managing projects and product expectations to ensure client satisfaction

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must:

• Abide by Mastercard’s security policies and practices;
• Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed;
• Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and
• Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines.