Chapter Lead (Executive Manager) - Data Science and Gen AI, Model Risk Validation

Commonwealth Bank; Sydney; On-site; AUD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Commonwealth Bank is seeking an exceptional AI Chapter Lead (Executive Manager) to guide a multidisciplinary data science team across Australia and India, driving scalable model validation, robust tooling, and governance engagement.

You’ll shape AI model strategy, mentor engineers, collaborate with product and risk stakeholders, and deliver high-quality validation outputs while advancing responsible AI practices in a regulated financial services environment.

Qualifications

• Proven leadership of multidisciplinary teams with Gen AI, data science and software engineering
• Agile project management experience in fast-moving environments
• Advocate for automation to improve workflows and validation
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills
• Knowledge of model risk governance and validation processes is desirable

Responsibilities

• Lead a chapter of data scientists across Australia and India, including hiring and development
• Plan and run validation work with prioritised engagements and on-time delivery
• Develop and evolve validation tooling and methods, ensuring robust evidence
• Engage senior stakeholders including General Managers, model owners, central AI teams and internal audit

Skills

Executive leadership

Gen AI

Data science leadership

Agile project management

Automation tooling

Python

GitHub

CI/CD

LangChain

OpenAI APIs

Education

Degree in Statistics/Data Science/CS/Engineering

Actuarial Science

Tools

LangChain

LangGraph

OpenAI SDK

PyTorch

AWS SageMaker

GitHub

CI/CD tooling

Python

SQL

R

TypeScript

Job description

Do Work That Matters

At CommBank, we’re redefining the future of banking through world-class AI innovation. AI & General Model Validation (AIGMV) provides independent technical challenge and review of the Group's most important ML and AI models, across business and support units. As a Chapter Lead (Executive Manager) in our AI & General Model Validation team, you’ll lead a talented group of data scientists across Australia and India, driving excellence in model validation and tooling development.

You’ll play a key role in shaping AI models at CommBank, ensuring our models are safe, scalable, and aligned with customer and regulatory expectations. You will represent the chapter with model developers, senior business leaders, product owners and governance experts.

See Yourself in Our Team

CommBank is leading new-to-the-world innovations. As part of our team, you’ll be empowered to shape the future of AI in financial services, working alongside top-tier talent in a collaborative, inclusive environment. Model Risk & Validation is part of Risk Management and provides considered challenge to improve modelling outcomes.

We’re seeking an exceptional AI Chapter Lead (Executive Manager) to shape the future of AI model validation at scale. You’ll be part of a collaborative, forward-thinking team committed to ethical AI, innovation, and continuous learning at scale.

Your Impact

• Lead a chapter of data scientists across Australia and India, including hiring, coaching, performance and career development. Occasional international travel may be required.


• Plan and run the chapter’s validation work, from prioritising engagements to delivering on time at a consistent quality bar.


• Lead the development of validation tooling and methods and stay close enough to the work to challenge methodology and evidence.


• Engage senior stakeholders, including General Managers, model owners, central AI teams and internal audit.

We are interested in people with:

Leadership & Vision

• Proven experience in leading high-performing multidisciplinary teams with Gen AI, data science, and software engineering skill sets. Experience in mentoring data scientists and leading technical initiatives.


• Project management experience in agile environments.


• Enthusiastic about developing automation tools to drive continuous workflow improvements.


• A courageous mindset and independent judgement. You enjoy self-directed learning, and have the curiosity and discipline to stay ahead of fast-changing AI techniques and risks


• Strong stakeholder management skills. Exceptional communication skills and a growth mindset.


• Knowledge of model risk governance and validation processes is desirable.

Technical Excellence

• Deep working knowledge of GenAI and agentic architectures with enough depth to challenge the design.


• Hands-on experience designing, building and evaluating AI and Generative AI solutions. Fine-tuning transformer models is a plus.


• Advanced Python, with strong GitHub, version control and CI/CD experience. SQL, R or TypeScript is a plus.


• Ability to read and navigate unfamiliar codebases, reproduce evaluation pipelines, write test harnesses and inspect trace data


• Practical experience with AI coding agents (including Claude Code, Codex and GitHub Copilot) and skills, sub-agents, hooks and plugins that automate validation or engineering workflows.


• Working knowledge of traditional machine learning models, including random forests, XGBoost, and related evaluation methods, and the ability to validate and challenge them.


• Experience with current GenAI frameworks and tools such as LangChain, LangGraph, OpenAI Agents SDK, Pydantic, Langfuse/HoneyHive, and with PyTorch or AWS SageMaker


• Ability to assess the risks, limitations, monitoring requirements and control effectiveness of AI and agentic systems


• Degree in Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science, Actuarial Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent industry experience.

Working with us

Whether you’re passionate about customer service, driven by data, or called by creativity, a career here is for you. At CommBank, we advocate and facilitate a culture of inclusion and respect, celebrating all cultures, abilities, genders, expressions of gender and sexual orientation. Read more about our commitment to inclusion and diversity on our career’s website.

Our people bring their diverse backgrounds and unique perspectives to build a respectful, inclusive and flexible workplace. We are working hard to recruit people who represent the diversity of our customers and our society.

We’re determined to make a real difference for Australia’s first peoples.

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