principal data scientist

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

Job summary

Rakbank is seeking an Executive‑level Data Scientist to lead the development and deployment of advanced ML solutions powering personalized customer decisioning in the UAE. You will drive modeling, MLOps, and data engineering practices while collaborating with product, engineering, and business stakeholders.

You will apply expert Python coding, manage scalable pipelines, and deploy models to production using modern tooling and cloud platforms.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience building and deploying propensity models for cross-sell/upsell.
• Expertise in Next Best Action/Next Best Offer engines.
• Strong foundation in supervised learning, uplift modeling and causal inference.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and deployment of advanced ML solu­tions powering personalized customer decisioning.
• Mentor senior data scientists and collaborate with product managers and engineers.
• Build robust end‑to‑end ML pipelines and productionize models via APIs or streaming systems.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Econometrics, Actuarial Science, Maths/Statistics, Computer Science

Tools

Python

R

Scala

Spark

Dask

Ray

Airflow

MLflow

Kubeflow

Kafka

Flink

SageMaker

Vertex AI

Prometheus

Grafana

Evidently

FAISS

Pinecone

Job description

Job Purpose

To lead the development and deployment of advanced machine learning solutions that power personalized customer decisioning, while driving best‑in‑class modeling, MLOps, and data engineering practices. This role combines hands‑on technical expertise with leadership to deliver scalable models, robust pipelines, and high‑impact insights across the organization.

What You Will Bring

• Advanced experience in building and deploying propensity models for cross-sell and upsell.
• Deep understanding of Next Best Action / Next Best Offer engines.
• Strong grasp of supervised learning, uplift modeling, and causal inference.

Programming & Engineering

• Expert-level coding in Python (mandatory); familiarity with R or Scala is a plus.
• Experience with distributed computing (Spark, Dask, Ray).
• Proficient in writing production-grade ML pipelines using tools like Airflow, MLflow, or Kubeflow.
• Strong understanding of software engineering best practices: version control, CI/CD, testing.

Data Infrastructure

• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure) and data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift).
• Strong SQL skills; ability to optimize queries and manage large datasets.

MLOps & Deployment

• Experience deploying models to production via APIs or streaming systems (Kafka, Flink).
• Proficient in model versioning, experiment tracking, and deployment using MLflow, SageMaker, or Vertex AI.

Monitoring & Observability

• Ability to set up model monitoring, drift detection, and alerting systems using Prometheus, Grafana, Evidently, or custom dashboards.
• Experience with logging frameworks and performance profiling for ML services.

GenAI (Preferred)

• Experience with LLMs, embeddings, prompt engineering, and vector databases (e.g., FAISS, Pinecone).
• Ability to integrate GenAI into decisioning systems or customer-facing products.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Ability to lead senior data scientists while remaining hands‑on.
• Comfortable working with product managers, engineers, and business stakeholders.

What You We Are Looking For

• Bachelors degree in a relevant field including Econometrics,Acturial Science.Maths/Statistics, Computer Science etc,
• 10 years experience in a senior data scientist position
• Modelling experience including knowledge of Cloud and GenAI
• Strong Analytics experience in the bank sector is an advantage

What’s In It For You

• Pay for performance culture (Competitive and performance-linked compensation)
• Diverse workforce and inclusive culture
• Career development and growth opportunities by design
• Work with the best minds in the field
• Get opportunities to bring your whole self to the organization and perform to your best.

Job Details

Role Level: Executive-Level Work Type: Full-Time Country: United Arab Emirates City: Dubai Company Website: http://www.rakbank.ae Job Function: Information Technology (IT) Company Industry:/ Sector: Banking