Data Scientist

AirAsia; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 60,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

AirAsia Berhad in Kuala Lumpur is seeking a data scientist/ML engineer to advance models and optimize business outcomes across demand forecasting, pricing for ancillaries, and revenue planning.

You will write clean Python and SQL, deploy models on Google Cloud (BigQuery, Vertex AI), and work with commercial teams to infuse AI into revenue-driving processes. A BS in a quantitative field is required with up to 4 years of related experience.

Qualifications

• BS in Physics, Mathematics, DataScience or Engineering with up to 4 years relevant experience beyond first degree.
• Machine and Deep Learning: Experience building production ML systems beyond notebooks and competitions.
• Strong understanding of ML algorithms, XGBoost, LightGBM, neural networks, and decision trees.
• Hands-on Python and ML frameworks such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow, or PyTorch.
• Ability to interpret models (SHAP, partial dependence) and explain results to non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience with Google Cloud Platform, BigQuery and Vertex AI for training, registry, endpoints, pipelines.
• Exposure to time-series forecasting at scale and probabilistic forecasts a plus.
• Nice-to-have: AutoML tooling like PyCaret for rapid baselining.

Responsibilities

• Improve models and algorithms to optimize business outcomes across areas like forecasting and pricing.
• Modeling: build optimization/predictive/statistical models to estimate demand and sales.
• Data operations: query data, deploy models and automate pipelines in cloud.
• Set up validation baselines and prove a model beats them before shipping.
• Write clean Python and SQL, merged through code reviews; document work for handover.
• Collaborate with commercial teams to maximize revenue by infusing AI/ML in systems.

Skills

Python

SQL

Machine learning

Forecasting

Time-series

BigQuery

Vertex AI

GCP

Model deployment

Communication

Education

BS in Physics, Mathematics, DataScience or Engineering

Tools

BigQuery

Vertex AI

GCP

LangGraph

PyCaret

TensorFlow

PyTorch

scikit-learn

Job description

Job Description Duties and Responsibilities

Improve models and algorithms to further optimize business outcomes. Work across the following areas: Exploratory analysis: use data to suggest and prove hypotheses Modeling: build optimization / predictive / statistical models to learn from data and estimate the unknowns - demand and sales forecasting, dynamic pricing for ancillary products, and demand planning Data operations: query data, deploy models and automate pipelines in cloud Set up sound time-based validation and honest baselines, and prove a model beats them before it ships. Write clean, reviewable Python and SQL, merged through proper code review. Help analyze live experiments and learn to spot a misleading readout. Communicate findings clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders. Document work so a teammate can run and extend it without you. Working with commercial teams to maximize the revenue by infusing AI & ML in their systems.

Requirements and Qualifications

• BS in Physics, Mathematics, DataScience or Engineering discipline Up to 4 yrs relevant experience beyond first degree Experience with common data science toolkits, programming languages (.py), visualisation tools and SQL/NoSQL databases.
• Machine and Deep Learning : Experience building production ML systems, beyond notebooks and Kaggle competitions.
• Solid understanding of machine learning algorithms, XGBoost, LightGBM, neural networks, decision trees, with a clear grasp of why you tuned what you tuned.
• Strong Python and hands-on experience with ML frameworks such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow, or PyTorch.
• Demonstrable understanding of forecasting and regression pitfalls - lag feature leakage, target leakage in cross-validation, high-cardinality categorical handling, and the trade-offs between MAE, MAPE, and RMSE.
• Ability to interpret models — SHAP, partial dependence, residual diagnostics — and explain results to non-technical stakeholders without dumbing them down.
• Hands-on Google Cloud Platform experience, particularly BigQuery (window functions, partitioning, cost-aware SQL) and Vertex AI (training jobs, model registry, endpoints, pipelines).
• Experience with propensity / take-up (purchase-probability) models and probability calibration is a plus.
• Exposure to time-series forecasting at scale (many related series), probabilistic forecasts, or demand that builds up toward a deadline is a plus.
• Nice-to-have: deep learning for tabular and time-series problems (TFT, N-BEATS, NeuralProphet, TabPFN, Chronos); AutoML tooling such as PyCaret for rapid baselining.

Algorithm Engineering

• Strong ability to implement, improve, and deploy ML and mathematical models in Python (Golang a plus for performance-critical services).
• Experience productionizing models end-to-end, from SQL feature pipelines to deployed serving endpoints, on GCP using Vertex AI and BigQuery.
• Conduct systems tests for security, performance, and availability of deployed models.
• Develop and maintain design documentation, error analysis runbooks, and troubleshooting guides.
• Git-based workflows, CI/CD discipline, and code review hygiene.
• Monitoring discipline : drift detection, data quality checks, model performance tracking in production.
• Nice-to-have: experience with LLM-based or agentic tooling (LangGraph, MCP servers, prompt engineering for structured outputs, eval harnesses for LLM systems)

AirAsia Berhad

Asia's leading airline was established with the dream of making flying possible for everyone. Since 2001, AirAsia has swiftly broken travel norms around the globe and has risen to become the world's best. Driven by the Dare to Dream spirit, we pride ourselves in the region's largest low-cost carrier, serving 24 countries and over 130 destinations. We're not confined by walls, except when we need to answer the call of nature, so all departments mingle every day. As we embrace new technology to become a digital airline, services like BIG Duty Free, BIG Pay, BIG Loyalty, Touristly, ROKKI and Xcite Inflight Entertainment will be an exciting evolution, placing us ahead of the game. Are you in? AirAsia is set to take low-cost flying to an all new high with our belief, "Now Everyone Can Fly"