Data Science Manager

Public Service Division; Singapore; On-site; SGD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A government agency in Singapore is seeking a Data Science Manager to lead the operationalization of AI models across ministries. This role emphasizes the integration of AI solutions, engineering leadership, and collaboration with stakeholders. Candidates should have extensive experience in machine learning engineering, technical leadership, and a strong grasp of software development practices. Join us to support the drive towards a digital and technologically advanced public service.

Benefits

Holistic employee benefits

Flexible work arrangements

Continuous learning opportunities

Qualifications

• Minimally 5+ years of development experience in machine learning engineering.
• Experience coaching developers and enhancing their performance.
• Strong understanding of software development best practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead the productization and operationalization of AI models across the ministry.
• Develop and integrate scalable AI solutions for business problems.
• Establish best practices for model deployment and observability.

Skills

Technical leadership

AI model development

Python

Machine learning engineering

Agile methodologies

Tools

ML frameworks

CI/CD pipelines

Monitoring stacks

Job description

Overview

[What the role is]

The Government Technology Agency (GovTech) is the lead agency driving Singapore’s Smart Nation initiatives and public sector digital transformation. As the Centre of Excellence for Infocomm Technology and Smart Systems (ICT & SS), GovTech develops the Singapore Government’s capabilities in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Application Development, Smart City Technology, Digital Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity. At GovTech, we offer you a purposeful career to make lives better. We empower our people to master their craft through continuous and robust learning and development opportunities all year round. Our GovTechies embody our Agile, Bold and Collaborative values to deliver impactful solutions. GovTech aims to transform the delivery of Government digital services by taking an \"outside-in\" view, putting citizens and businesses at the heart of everything we do. Play a part in Singapore’s vision to build a Smart Nation and embark on your meaningful journey to build tech for public good. Join us to advance our mission and shape your future with us today! Learn more about GovTech at tech.gov.sg.

What you will be working on

At Ministry of Trade & Industry (MTI), we are always on the lookout for high performing individuals who share our aspiration of making Singapore a conducive environment for entrepreneurs and enterprises to tap its diverse opportunities.

As a Data Science Manager (Assistant Director / Staff Data Scientist), you will drive the productisation and operationalisation of AI models and applications used across the ministry, our departments and statutory boards. You will lead technical implementation, system integration, and performance engineering — while strengthening our internal AI platform and tooling.

Our Team

You will be part of the Ministry Family CIO Office (MFCO), which leads MTI’s digital product development, innovation, and platform strategy. MFCO works closely with policy and corporate divisions to design and deliver meaningful, scalable digital solutions across the ministry.

This role focuses onleading the evaluation, development/ configuration and optimisation of generative AI and LLM solutionsfor policy making, knowledge management, employee productivity, Government-to-Business (G2B) service delivery, and developing the infrastructure needed to deploy them safely and effectively. You will also contribute to MTI’s AI strategy, portfolio and uplifting our functional capabilities and the competencies of MTI officers so that they are confident in using AI in their everyday work.

Roles & Responsibilities

AI Strategy and Portfolio

• Work closely with Strategy & Planning teams to define and maintain the AI strategy for MTI and the Ministry Family, ensuring the plan is technically feasible.
• Work closely with stakeholders and product managers to manage the AI portfolio and supporting strategies for structured and unstructured data.
• Create long-term technical plans and roadmap for the AI portfolio. Update it regularly to meet future business needs and infrastructure requirements.

AI Productisation and System Integration

• Lead data scientists/ engineers to develop prototypes which address business problems and promote them into production-ready solutions.
• Design and deploy scalable AI pipelines that support the real-time integration of LLMs and ML models into internal and external digital platforms.
• Ensure systems are robust, maintainable, and tuned for performance, latency, and cost-effectiveness.

AI Infrastructure and Optimisation

• Establish the AI technology stack for MTI and the Ministry Family ensuring alignment with central services and local infrastructure.
• Lead efforts to optimise models for inference speed, memory usage, and production readiness.
• Oversee the benchmarking and evaluation of AI solutions, models and frameworks.

Engineering Culture and Tooling

• Establish best practices in model deployment, testing, and observability.
• Contribute to reusable components, libraries, and infrastructure that support other AI and product teams.
• Mentor engineers on best practices for AI evaluation, model reliability, and technical excellence.

What we are looking for

• Engineering Leadership– Lead implementation across model deployment, observability, and infrastructure design with a focus on reliability and performance.
• Performance and Optimisation– Improve model inference speed and cost efficiency while ensuring high-quality outputs.
• Infrastructure Tooling – Build infrastructure to support the strategy of MTI and drive synergies out of the diverse needs and maturity in the Ministry Family.
• Collaboration and Execution– Work closely with business owners, product managers, data scientists/ engineers and data teams to deliver real-world, production-ready solutions.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Right candidate must be technically hands on and experience in all parts of the technology stack: client side, back end, infrastructure, performance, data, and others.
• Worked on the full stack development and built end-to-end systems in a digital product environment including user interfaces, APIs, backend systems, and database systems.
• Very well versed in the software development using Agile, modular design, pair programming, software automation, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and infrastructure automation.
• Experience building and deploying ML models in production environments (e.g. REST/gRPC endpoints, containerised models, model serving platforms).
• Proficiency in Python and experience with ML/AI frameworks.
• Experience with evaluation frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, and monitoring stacks.
• Strong systems thinking and performance engineering mindset.
• Familiarity with techniques for safe deployment, evaluation metrics, model guardrails, and A/B testing in ML systems.
• Have a strong sense of what it means to be a technical leader, particularly as it relates to the suite of soft skills beyond just your technical chops.
• Passion towards engineering excellence; you deeply understand that software engineering is a team sport, and you take pride in the craftsmanship aspect of software engineering.
• The ability to guide a team to achieve important goals together.
• Minimally 5+ year of development experience in machine learning engineering, or AI infrastructure roles; and 2+ years of experience coaching developers, helping them enhance their performance and grow their careers.

Join Us

If you’re excited to turn cutting-edge AI into robust, production-ready systems that power the future of education — we’d love to hear from you. Join us to build AI solutions that matter for the next generation of learners, educators, and public service!

GovTech is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive workplace that values diverse voices and perspectives, as we believe it is key to innovation.

Our employee benefits are based on a total rewards approach, offering a holistic and market-competitive suite of perks.

We champion flexible work arrangements (subject to your job role) and trust you to manage your time to deliver your best.

Learn more about life inside GovTech at go.gov.sg/GovTechCareers.