Data Scientist

Scotiabank; Toronto; On-site; CAD 100,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation and benefits

Inclusive and collaborative culture

Professional development opportunities

Support for AI initiatives in finance

Job summary

Scotiabank seeks a highly specialized Data Scientist to join the CID&A team in Toronto. You will translate unstructured data into actionable insights using AI/ML, NLP, and advanced visualization to improve client experience and journey performance across bank lines.

You will partner with business stakeholders, frame problems, develop scalable analytics, and communicate findings with clear storytelling. A STEM degree and strong Python/Cloud experience are required.

Qualifications

• Expert-level proficiency in Python for data manipulation, statistical modeling, and pipeline development.
• Experience applying AI and machine learning techniques to solve business problems, ideally in client experience, journey analytics, or insights generation.
• Direct experience partnering with business stakeholders to frame ambiguous problems, define hypotheses, identify meaningful measures, and translate analytical findings into practical recommendations.
• Practical experience with analytical techniques such as statistical analysis, segmentation, predictive modeling, prompt engineering, and other methods used to understand drivers of client behaviour and experience outcomes.
• Experience with big data tools such as SQL, Hadoop, and Spark.
• Experience applying AI and GenAI capabilities to support analytics, insight generation, automation, or productivity use cases.
• Experience working with cloud-based data environments, including Google Cloud and Azure.
• Proven ability to ingest, clean, integrate, and analyze large volumes of structured and unstructured data from multiple sources to build a cohesive view of the client journey.
• Experience with DevOps principles and/or software engineering best practices (Git, CI/CD, Jira).
• University/Post graduate degree in a relevant STEM discipline (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).
• Strong communication skills and ability to tell a persuasive data-driven story for varied audiences.
• Ability to translate technical analysis into business value and collaborate across technical and non-technical teams.
• Expert-level proficiency of Power BI.

Responsibilities

• Develop, test, and implement analytical approaches to uncover patterns in client behaviour, experience, and journey performance across channels.
• Write and maintain Python and SQL code to source, prepare, and analyze large data volumes.
• Employ NLP techniques including LLMs, prompt engineering, text classification, topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and information extraction.
• Design and apply statistical, ML, and exploratory analyses to identify drivers of satisfaction and friction points.
• Create compelling data visualizations, dashboards, and reports for business and executive stakeholders.
• Stay up to date on advances in AI, ML, experimentation, visualization and best practices; support R&D in improving the client journey.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate business questions into scalable analytical approaches.
• Ensure risk culture and appetite considerations in model development and deployment.
• Collaborate with data scientists, data engineers, software engineers, product owners and business partners to deliver scalable analytics and measurement frameworks.

Skills

Python

AI/ML techniques

SQL

NLP

LLMs

Prompt engineering

Topic modelling

Sentiment analysis

Information extraction

Power BI

Google Cloud

Azure

Git

CI/CD

Jira

Data wrangling

Spark

Hadoop

Communication

Education

STEM degree

Tools

Git

CI/CD

Jira

Hadoop

Spark

Power BI

Job description

Join a purpose driven winning team, committed to results, in an inclusive and high-performing culture.

Scotiabank is seeking a highly specialized and innovative Data Scientist to join our Customer Insights Data and Analytics team. This role is central to delivering analytics and actionable insights that deepen understanding of client experience and the end-to-end client journey across the bank’s business lines, helping identify opportunities to improve outcomes for both clients and the business.

The ideal candidate will bring a strong unstructured data analytics skillset with deep analytical expertise, to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights. They will use AI/ML, experimentation, visualization, and robust Python skills to solve high-impact business challenges related to client experience and journey performance. Excellent business communication and storytelling skills are a must.

The Data Scientist will be a core member of the CID&A team, partnering closely with business lines and stakeholders to identify opportunities where analytics can identify trends within unstructured data, delivering root cause, emerging topics and potential remediation opportunities. You will work with a diverse team of data scientists, data engineers, product partners, and business stakeholders to frame problems, analyze data across multiple touchpoints, and turn findings into scalable recommendations and solutions. You will help uncover drivers of client behaviour, pain points, and moments that matter across the journey, while ensuring the Bank’s risk appetite and risk culture are considered in decision making.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Delivery and Development

• Develop, test, and implement analytical approaches that uncover meaningful patterns in client behaviour, experience, and journey performance across multiple channels and touchpoints.
• Write and maintain high-quality Python and SQL code to source, prepare, and analyze large volumes of structured and unstructured data, building robust analytical datasets and pipelines.
• Employ modern NLP techniques—including LLMs, prompt engineering, text classification, topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and information extraction.
• Design and apply statistical, machine learning, and exploratory analytical techniques to identify drivers of client satisfaction, friction points in the client journey, and opportunities to improve engagement, retention, and overall experience.
• Create compelling data visualizations, dashboards, and reports that clearly communicate insights, trends, and opportunities related to client experience and client journey performance to business and executive stakeholders.
• Stay up to date on advances in AI, machine learning, experimentation, visualization, and data science best practices. Support research and development focused on applying design thinking and advanced analytical techniques to better understand and improve the client journey.

Collaboration and Strategy

• Support high-impact analytical use cases across a wide variety of business lines, delivering insights that help improve client experience, remove journey friction, and create value for both customers and the organization.
• Collaborate with key stakeholders and partners to translate business questions and customer experience challenges into scalable analytical approaches, leveraging available data assets and reusable components.
• Understand how the Bank’s risk appetite and risk culture should be considered in decision making related to model development and deployment.
• Collaborate seamlessly with data scientists, data engineers, software engineers, product owners, and business partners to deliver scalable analytics, insight frameworks, and measurement approaches across the bank.

Do you have the skills that will enable you to succeed in this role? - We'd love to work with you if you have:

• Expert-level proficiency in Python for data manipulation, statistical modeling, and pipeline development.
• Demonstrated experience applying AI and machine learning techniques to solve business problems, ideally in areas related to client experience, customer behaviour, journey analytics, or insights generation.
• Direct experience partnering with business stakeholders to frame ambiguous problems, define hypotheses, identify meaningful measures, and translate analytical findings into practical recommendations.
• Practical experience with analytical techniques such as statistical analysis, segmentation, predictive modeling, prompt engineering, and other methods used to understand drivers of client behaviour and experience outcomes.
• Experience with big data tools such as SQL, Hadoop, and Spark.
• Experience applying AI and GenAI capabilities to support analytics, insight generation, automation, or productivity use cases, with an understanding of how these technologies can enhance business decision-making.
• Experience working with cloud-based data and analytics environments, including platforms such as Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, to support scalable data processing, model development, and deployment.
• Proven ability to ingest, clean, integrate, and analyze large volumes of structured and unstructured data from multiple sources to build a cohesive view of the client journey.
• Experience with DevOps principles and/or software engineering best practices (e.g., Git, continuous integration/delivery, Jira).
• University/Post graduate degree in a relevant STEM discipline (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).
• Strong communication skills with the ability to prepare clear project documentation, deliver compelling presentations, and tell a persuasive story with data for a range of audiences.
• Ability to translate technical analysis into tangible business value and recommendations that improve client experience and client journey outcomes, while collaborating effectively across technical and non-technical teams.
• Expert-level proficiency of visualization tools such as Power BI.

What's in it for you?

• The opportunity to join a forward-thinking company surrounded by a collaborative team of innovative thinkers at the forefront of AI implementation in finance.
• A rewarding career path with diverse opportunities for professional development and internal support to enhance your skills.
• A competitive compensation and benefits package.
• An inclusive and collaborative working environment that encourages creativity, curiosity, and celebrates success!
• An organization committed to making a difference in our communities—for you and our customers.

Location(s): Canada : Ontario : Toronto

Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets.

At Scotiabank, we value the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the Bank, and are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone. If you require accommodation (including, but not limited to, an accessible interview site, alternate format documents, ASL Interpreter, or Assistive Technology) during the recruitment and selection process, please let our Recruitment team know.

We thank all applicants for their interest in a career at Scotiabank; however, only those candidates who are selected for an interview will be contacted.