Lead, AI & Data Products

Worldwide Flight Services Holland B.V.; Singapore; On-site; SGD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

SATS is investing in a small number of high-impact AI and data products intended to operate across its global station network. We are looking for a Lead, AI & Data Products to take that ownership.

This is a senior individual contributor role for an engineer or applied scientist who has moved into product leadership, not a product manager with adjacent technical exposure. You will reason about model design, data architecture and production trade-offs at the level of the engineers building the

Qualifications

• 10+ years in engineering, AI or data science with production experience.
• Proven ownership of technical products end to end and scaling multi-site.
• Expertise in forecasting, optimization, simulation or GenAI.
• Proficient in Python and SQL and modern ML stack.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct reporting lines.
• Aviation/logistics experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical product end to end for AI and data initiatives.
• Be single-threaded owner for adoption and business case across stations.
• Translate operational problems into technical solutions.
• Lead across engineering, data science, operations and regional teams.
• Review designs and contribute to code; hands-on with architecture decisions.
• Ensure production quality: robustness, monitoring, latency and cost.

Skills

10+ years exp

Product ownership

Forecasting

Optimization

Simulation

GenAI

Python & SQL

ML stack

Stakeholder influence

Aviation/logistics

Education

Bachelor's/MSc/PhD in CS/Engineering/Data Science

Job description

Career Opportunities: Lead, AI & Data Products (1868)

Headquartered in Singapore, SATS Ltd. is one of the world’s largest providers of air cargo handling services and Asia’s leading airline caterer. SATS Gateway Services provides airfreight and ground handling services including passenger services, ramp and baggage handling, aviation security services, aircraft cleaning and aviation laundry. SATS Food Solutions serves airlines, institutions, and operates central kitchens with large-scale food production and distribution capabilities for a wide range of cuisines. SATS is present in the Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, powering an interconnected world of trade, travel and taste. Following the acquisition of Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) in 2023, the combined SATS and WFS network operates over 215 stations in 27 countries. These cover trade routes responsible for more than 50% of global air cargo volume. SATS has been listed on the Singapore Exchange since May 2000. For more information, please visit www.sats.com.sg

The Role

SATS is investing in a small number of high-impact AI and data products intended to operate across its global station network. Each requires a single accountable owner who can hold the technical architecture and the product direction together, from first implementation through multi-station scale.

We are looking for a Lead, AI & Data Products to take that ownership. This is a senior individual contributor role for an engineer or applied scientist who has moved into product leadership, not a product manager with adjacent technical exposure. You will be expected to reason about model design, data architecture and production trade-offs at the level of the engineers building the system, and to hold the roadmap, business case and stakeholder relationships at the level of the executives funding it.

The role operates horizontally. You will act as the single-threaded owner for assigned initiatives, working with the AI Centre of Excellence on patterns and feasibility, with Data Engineering and Platform on the data foundation, with Operational Excellence and the business product owners on process change, and with the forward deployed engineers in region on station rollout.

This is a hands-on role. You will review and contribute to code, make architectural calls, and spend meaningful time at the frontline understanding operations directly rather than through documentation.

Key Responsibilities

Technical product ownership

• Own the product end to end for assigned AI and data initiatives: discovery, technical architecture, roadmap, delivery sequencing and global rollout readiness.
• Act as single-threaded owner. One person accountable for whether the product works, is adopted, and delivers its business case across stations and regions.
• Convert programs into products. Move initiatives currently run as projects onto a product footing with a roadmap, a lifecycle, named users and a benefit measure.
• Make the build decisions: in-house, CoE pattern, capability center, or vendor. Own the trade-off and the consequences.
• Set the architecture for AI and data products spanning forecasting, optimization, simulation, GenAI and agentic workflows, and defend it in technical review.
• Work in the codebase. Review designs and pull requests, prototype where it resolves ambiguity faster than discussion, and contribute directly when delivery depends on it.
• Own production quality: model robustness, explainability, evaluation, monitoring, latency and cost in service, not only at launch.
• Build on the platform. Consume governed data through the semantic layer and apply CoE guardrails rather than constructing parallel capability.

Business and delivery leadership

• Translate operational problems into technical solutions and, equally, translate technical constraints into terms operations and commercial leadership can act on.
• Own the business case with the business product owner: the benefit hypothesis, the measurement approach and the reported outcome.
• Lead without direct authority across engineering, data science, operations and regional teams, including delivery through the capability center and vendor partners.
• Work from the frontline. Regular Gemba at stations, with operational understanding built first-hand.

Success in the First 12 Months

Measure

What good looks like

Products in service

Assigned initiatives live and running at multiple stations, not piloted

Adoption

Sustained use by the operational teams and customers the product serves

Measured movement against the business case, evidenced not asserted

Technical credibility

Recognized as a technical authority by CoE, platform and regional engineers

Architecture and roadmap that make each additional station cheaper than the last

Requirements

Experience

• 10+ years in engineering, applied AI or data science, with a substantial portion spent building and running systems in production rather than specifying them.
• Demonstrable record of owning technical products end to end and scaling them beyond a first implementation into multi-site or multi-market operation.
• Depth in one or more of: forecasting (time series, probabilistic, hierarchical), optimization (MIP, LP, heuristics), simulation, or production GenAI and agentic systems, with working literacy across the others.
• Strong Python and SQL, with practical command of the modern data and ML stack: cloud data platforms, pipelines, model deployment, evaluation and monitoring.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and operating across engineering, operations and commercial functions without direct reporting lines.
• Aviation, logistics or complex physical operations exposure is an advantage, not a prerequisite.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's, MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, Operations Research or a related field.

Personal characteristics

• Technical credibility earned through building, not through managing builders.
• Judgement on trade-offs between scope, speed and quality, with the confidence to decide under incomplete information.
• Clear communication with engineers, operators and executives, adjusting register without losing precision.
• Comfort with ambiguity and being accountable for outcomes rather than activity.

Travel

The role is global. Regular travel to stations, to the Singapore and India hubs, and to the EMEA and Americas regions is expected. Approximately 30 to 40% travel.

Core Values

Safety is ingrained in our DNA.

Customer Focus, every smile is a win.

Respect, we listen, understand and respect.

Excellence isn't just a goal, it's the SATS way.

Teamwork, we don't just collaborate, we amplify each other's strengths.