Data Scientist

Network International; Dubai; On-site; AED 350,000 - 550,000; Full time

Job summary

Network International is seeking an Advisory professional to partner with banks and issuers to design, launch, optimize, and scale card issuing and consumer financing propositions. You will bring payments domain expertise, data-driven insights, and commercial advisory to improve profitability, acquisition, and performance across credit, debit, prepaid, EPP, and BNPL solutions.

The role covers end-to-end advisory engagements from new program launches to diagnostics, revenue and cost optimization,

Qualifications

• 3 to 5 years experience in a similar role.
• Strong understanding of card issuing and merchant acquiring economics.
• Proficiency in data analysis and coding, with Python, R and SQL.
• Hands-on experience with acquiring transaction data, merchant hierarchies, MIDs, MCCs, and BI tools such as Power BI.

Responsibilities

• Support go-to-market (GTM) strategy and readiness assessments for new and existing card issuers and acquirers, including product proposition, underwriting alignment, merchant segmentation, pricing, acceptance strategy, and launch planning.
• Conduct issuer and merchant acquiring portfolio diagnostics and financial analysis covering interchange, merchant service charges, scheme fees, non-compliance fees, EPP economics, acquiring margins, and portfolio P&L optimization.
• Lead and contribute to revenue assurance, pricing optimization, and scheme cost optimization initiatives for issuing banks and merchant acquirers.
• Support design and rollout of value-added issuing solutions such as EPP 2.0, BNPL, installment products, and card-linked financing.
• Work with data and product teams on analytics and AI-led advisory use cases, including card recommendation engines, issuer and merchant scorecards, and performance dashboards.
• Analyze merchant acquiring performance across total payment volume (TPV), transaction value and count, active merchant and terminal base, average ticket value, merchant service charge yield, net revenue, scheme and processing costs, and profitability.
• Develop merchant lifecycle and portfolio analytics covering merchant acquisition, activation, retention, churn, reactivation, like-to-like growth, share of wallet, and cohort performance.
• Segment acquiring portfolios by merchant, MID, MCC, industry cluster, merchant size, geography, channel (POS/e-commerce), card origin, card product, and scheme to identify growth opportunities and performance gaps.
• Assess merchant concentration, seasonality, refund and reversal patterns, approval and decline rates, cross-border activity, and unusual performance movements to support commercial, operational, and risk decisions.
• Translate acquiring analytics into actionable merchant strategies, including pricing, sales targeting, portfolio interventions, acceptance expansion, and value-added service opportunities.
• Develop client-facing materials (business cases, proposals, whitepapers, and presentations) to support advisory engagements and sales motions.
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders (Sales, Product, Technology, Data, Schemes) to ensure successful execution and delivery of advisory outcomes.
• Track KPIs, financial impact, and post-launch performance to demonstrate measurable value delivered to issuers and acquirers.

Skills

Python

R

SQL

Data analysis

Card issuing

Merchant acquiring economics

Tools

Power BI

Python

R

SQL

Job description

Job Description:

About Us

Network International is the largest Financial Technology company in Middle East and Africa. Payments is our core business where we provide services in more than 50 countries – UAE, Jordan, South Africa, Egypt are some of our key markets. Apart from payments, we provide services on Data and Insights, Lending, Insurance, Risk Solutions, etc. Our core customers are businesses at every scale and segment, though recently we are growing in direct to consumer card segment as well.

Our EVP's

At Network International, we always stay ahead. In the fast-paced world of financial services, we thrive on innovation, agility, and purposeful collaboration. We invest first in our people, empowering you to make bold decisions, learn fast, and grow your expertise alongside industry leaders. Here, solving complex problems means more than using cutting-edge technology; it’s about creating meaningful value for our customers, together. We foster a culture where trust, accountability, and achievement go hand in hand—because success isn’t just a goal; it’s how we work, every day, as one team.

Job Description

The Advisory team partners closely with banks and financial institutions to design, launch, optimize, and scale card issuing and consumer financing propositions. The role focuses on combining payments domain expertise, data-driven insights, and commercial advisory to help issuers improve portfolio profitability, customer acquisition, and product performance across credit, debit, prepaid, EPP, and BNPL solutions.

The candidate will work on end-to-end advisory engagements, including new card program launches, portfolio diagnostics, revenue and cost optimization, scheme economics, and advanced analytics-led use cases. This role requires strong cross-functional collaboration with product, technology, data, and commercial teams.

Responsibilities

Support go-to-market (GTM) strategy and readiness assessments for new and existing card issuers and acquirers, including product proposition, underwriting alignment, merchant segmentation, pricing, acceptance strategy, and launch planning.

• Conduct issuer and merchant acquiring portfolio diagnostics and financial analysis covering interchange, merchant service charges, scheme fees, non-compliance fees, EPP economics, acquiring margins, and portfolio P&L optimization.
• Lead and contribute to revenue assurance, pricing optimization, and scheme cost optimization initiatives for issuing banks and merchant acquirers.
• Support design and rollout of value-added issuing solutions such as EPP 2.0, BNPL, installment products, and card-linked financing.
• Work with data and product teams on analytics and AI-led advisory use cases, including card recommendation engines, issuer and merchant scorecards, and performance dashboards.
• Analyze merchant acquiring performance across total payment volume (TPV), transaction value and count, active merchant and terminal base, average ticket value, merchant service charge yield, net revenue, scheme and processing costs, and profitability.
• Develop merchant lifecycle and portfolio analytics covering merchant acquisition, activation, retention, churn, reactivation, like-to-like growth, share of wallet, and cohort performance.
• Segment acquiring portfolios by merchant, MID, MCC, industry cluster, merchant size, geography, channel (POS/e-commerce), card origin, card product, and scheme to identify growth opportunities and performance gaps.
• Assess merchant concentration, seasonality, refund and reversal patterns, approval and decline rates, cross-border activity, and unusual performance movements to support commercial, operational, and risk decisions.
• Translate acquiring analytics into actionable merchant strategies, including pricing, sales targeting, portfolio interventions, acceptance expansion, and value-added service opportunities.
• Develop client-facing materials (business cases, proposals, whitepapers, and presentations) to support advisory engagements and sales motions.
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders (Sales, Product, Technology, Data, Schemes) to ensure successful execution and delivery of advisory outcomes.
• Track KPIs, financial impact, and post-launch performance to demonstrate measurable value delivered to issuers and acquirers.

Qualifications

• Candidate with 3 to 5 years experience in similar role
• Strong understanding of card issuing and merchant acquiring economics, including interchange, merchant service charges, acquiring margins, scheme and processing fees, authorization flows, compliance fees, and portfolio profitability.
• Proficiency in data analysis and coding, with hands-on experience in Python, R and SQL for data extraction, analysis, automation, and building analytical models.
• Hands-on experience working with acquiring transaction data, merchant hierarchies, MIDs, MCCs, authorization and settlement data, and BI tools such as Power BI is preferred.
• Experience in card issuing, merchant acquiring, credit cards, consumer financing, BNPL, EPP, or payments consulting roles.
• Ability to perform financial modelling, business case development, and large-scale transaction and merchant-level data analysis to support decision-making.
• Proven capability to translate complex data insights into actionable recommendations for issuers, acquirors, and merchant-facing commercial teams.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with experience working across functions.

Network International is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, nationalities, and experience levels. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where innovation, diversity, and performance thrive.