Expression Of Interest: Principal Data Scientist – Ml, Gen Ai Model Validation

Commonwealth Bank Of Australia; Sydney; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to lead independent validation of ML, statistical and GenAI models at scale. You will design validation strategies, evaluate model performance, and ensure risk controls across the Group in collaboration with data science, engineering and governance teams.

The role emphasizes independent judgement, technical leadership and hands-on programming in Python, with experience in GenAI tooling and real-world deployment considerations.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience developing, evaluating and validating ML/AI or statistical models, incl. GenAI.
• Degree in Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Experience validating agentic systems, LLMs and multi-agent architectures.

Responsibilities

• Lead independent review, challenge and validation of ML/AI models across the Group.
• Define validation strategies, tooling and standards for GenAI and traditional models.
• Collaborate with Data Science, Engineering and Governance stakeholders to shape validation pipelines.

Skills

ML/AI foundations

Statistics

GenAI & agents

Python

Leadership

Education

Statistics/Data Science/CS degree

Tools

PyTorch

AWS SageMaker

LangChain

LangGraph

OpenAI SDK

GitHub CI/CD

Job description

Expression of Interest: Principal Data Scientist – ML, Gen AI Model Validation

• Scope and design validation of complex ML and Gen AI Models at scale
• Shape model validation in collaboration with Data Science, Engineering and Governance stakeholders
• Drive and lead best validation practices, tooling and standards, and streams of work

Do Work That Matters

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.

At CommBank, we're investing in AI to create better customer experiences and meaningful value for the communities we serve. We welcome international talent who would love the experience of working in Australia. We encourage you to apply if you're open to diversifying your global experience and solving world-class AI problems across the Group in collaboration with our own AI Research Labs.

We operate with a fintech mindset as we grow our global footprint and build our people's careers, including a diversified culture of international Tech Hubs established in Seattle and San Francisco, USA, working alongside unique partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS and Microsoft to accelerate safer AI outcomes for Australia. Join us to experience this first-hand!

See yourself in our team

As a Principal Data Scientist within the team, you will lead independent review, challenge and validation of ML, statistical and AI models across the Group, including GenAI and agentic systems. You will assess whether they are fit for purpose and operate as intended, and whether the risks they introduce are understood and appropriately controlled.

We’re interested in hearing from people with:

• Technical foundation in ML/AI & statistics: Extensive experience developing, evaluating and validating ML/AI, GenAI or statistical models, traditional models (regression, random forests, XGBoost) and hands-on fine-tuning transformer models.
• Educational background: Degree in Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science, Actuarial Science or related field, or equivalent industry experience.
• Deep GenAI & agentic systems expertise: Working knowledge of GenAI and agentic architecture to validate and challenge orchestrators, sub-agents, RAG pipelines, tool use, guardrails, multi-agent routing, memory/persona handling and LLM-as-a-Judge backed by practical experience with PyTorch, AWS SageMaker and GenAI tooling such as LangChain, LangGraph, OpenAI Agents SDK, Pydantic and Langfuse/HoneyHive.
• Engineering & coding practice: Advanced hands-on coding in Python, R, TypeScript and use of AI coding agents - Claude Code, Codex, alongside GitHub, CI/CD, and skillfully read and navigate unfamiliar codebases, reproduce evaluation pipelines, write test harnesses and inspect trace data, and building/maintaining skills, sub-agents, hooks and plugins to automate workflows.
• Independent judgement & technical leadership: A courageous mindset with independent judgement, self-directed learning backed by curiosity and discipline to stay ahead of fast-changing AI techniques and risks, alongside technical leadership to lead projects, guide other data scientists through the work, turning complex systems into structured test plans.
• Communication across audiences: Strong communication skills to explain complex technical concepts clearly to mixed audiences, including senior stakeholders and governance forums.

Working with us

At CommBank, we foster a culture of inclusion and respect, celebrating diversity across cultures, abilities, capabilities, skills, global locations, genders, gender expressions and sexual orientations. If this role excites you but you don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the right fit for this role or another opportunity with us.

We’re committed to making a meaningful difference for Australia’s First Nations peoples and welcome all applicants. We are open to international talent that would love to experience working in Australia.