Principal Data Scientist

RAKBANK; Dubai; On-site; AED 300,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial institution in Dubai is seeking an experienced Senior Data Scientist to develop and deploy advanced propensity models, lead a team of data scientists, and collaborate with cross-functional teams. This role demands expertise in Python and cloud platforms along with a bachelor's degree in a relevant field and over 10 years of experience. Competitive compensation and career growth opportunities are offered as part of a performance-driven culture.

Benefits

Competitive and performance-linked compensation

Diverse workforce and inclusive culture

Career development and growth opportunities

Qualifications

• 10+ years experience in a senior data scientist position.
• Strong analytics experience in the bank sector is an advantage.
• Modelling experience including knowledge of Cloud, ML and GenAI.

Responsibilities

• Build and deploy propensity models for cross-sell and upsell.
• Set up model monitoring, drift detection, and alerting systems.
• Deploy models to production via APIs or streaming systems.

Skills

Expert-level coding in Python

Advanced experience with propensity models

Strong SQL skills

Experience with cloud platforms

Ability to lead senior data scientists

Education

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

Tools

Airflow

MLflow

Kubeflow

Spark

AWS

Job description

Company Description

At RAKBANK, we are committed to nurturing a culture of innovation, growth, and excellence. We go beyond being a bank — we are a thriving community fueled by teamwork, advanced solutions, and unwavering standards of governance.

Join us and be a part of shaping the future of RAKBANK!

Job Description

Modeling Expertise

• 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.

Qualifications

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

Additional Information

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.