UAE national | Senior Data Scientist | Financial Services Transformation & Development | Al Futtaim

Job Requisition ID: 177293 

Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim Group today is one of the most diversified and progressive, privately held regional businesses headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Structured into five operating divisions; automotive, financial services, real estate, retail and healthcare; employing more than 35,000 employees across more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Al-Futtaim Group partners with over 200 of the world's most admired and innovative brands. Al-Futtaim Group’s entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organization to continue to grow and expand; responding to the changing needs of our customers within the societies in which we operate. 

By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration and integrity; Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our customers each and every day

Overview of the role :

Al Futtaim is looking for a Senior Data Scientist to join our team in Dubai, part of a team sitting at the cornerstone of algorithms, mathematics and engineering, a team that is tasked with solving problems by designing and implementing production-ready data science algorithms and machine learning models to manage Risk and help Al Futtaim maintain the advantage in the market.

What you will do :

The senior data scientist is responsible for the development and management of the inhouse predictive and forecasting models that help Al Futtaim manage the Risk and its competitiveness in the market. Also, will be responsible for monitoring and reporting Risk exposures in the UAE as well as International Markets. 

•    Responsible for the development of the predictive and forecasting models (RV, Equity Mining, SMR, etc.)
•    Responsible for the full model cycle from experimentation to deployment (ML-Flow), model calibrations to accommodate any drifts and define the post modeling adjustments (PMA) to optimize performance.
•    Responsible of the Regional and International Asset Risk Monitoring.
•    Calculate RV Provisions, identify hand-backs as well as their rates, and quantify features impact.
•    Conduct statistical and quantitative analyses to identify and quantify potential risks. Prepare RV Risk recommendations highlighting the risks and proposing mitigations
•    Design and develop risk measures, methodologies, and models (RV & SMR Risk)
•    Define the pull-forward (or backward) strategy to optimize the trade cycle.
•    Quantify the features importance in Time-to-fail and Mileage-to-fail
•    Develop other predictive and analytical models using the appropriate methodologies
•    Recommending actions based on your insights by effectively telling the story that is supported by data through presentations, data visualizations and clear and concise verbal and written communication skills
•    Building relationships with key stakeholders across Al Futtaim such as IT, Finance, Remarketing, Sales etc.
•    Coordinating with various stakeholders to help implement recommended actions
•    Guiding/mentoring other data scientists/analysts on best practices for analysis and data storytelling

Required Skills to be successful :

•    Planning, organizing and time management
Must be capable of developing related operational plans as well as detailed project level plans. Must display sound independent time management skills by delivering activity within prescribed timeframes through the effective prioritization of actions across multiple operations and projects 

•    Communication
Must possess good written and verbal communication skills and be able to effectively communicate with and present to both internal and external stakeholders across all business levels.

•    Teamwork
Must be an excellent team player, able to establish strong working relationships with stakeholders, colleagues, and business partners.

What equips you for the role:

•    Experience in financial services. Preferably in the Automotive or Captive Finance industries.
•    Experience in Data Science (Machine Learning, NLP, Neural Nets, Time-Series Forecasting, etc.). Supervised and un-supervised learning methods for inference on data patterns.
•    Strong statistics knowledge and quantitative problem-solving skills
•    Proficiency with open-source ML frameworks (scikit-learn, tensorflow, RF, xgboost, MLFlow etc.)
•    Excellent Python, R and SQL programming skills. Familiarity with Azure Databricks is a plus.
•    Advanced level of MS-Office required. Data visualization tools Power BI, Tableau or Qlik is preferred
•    BSc or MSc degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Actuarial, Engineering, or a closely related discipline. 
•    Full proficiency in English (mandatory)

About Al-Futtaim Group Real Estate
The real estate development and operations arm of Al-Futtaim, Al-Futtaim Group Real Estate is responsible for a multi-billion-dollar portfolio across MENA. With high-quality residential, business, retail, tourism, educational and healthcare developments, the master developer caters to the diverse needs of cities and communities in the region. From origination, conception, development, sales, procurement and construction of mega-projects and the leasing, operation and management of these projects after completion, Al-Futtaim Group Real Estate (AFGRE) has been developing and managing owned landbanks, unlocking the economic potential of the region and contributing to future development for more than 40 years. 
Our focus is to enable and invest in meaningful relationships to make our properties the best places to live and work, build additional products and services and enable partnerships to create true value to our customers throughout their entire experience with us.
AFGRE is responsible for master planning of all projects in its portfolio, including two large scale mixed use destinations: Dubai Festival City and Cairo Festival City.

About Al-Futtaim Malls 
Al-Futtaim Malls provides development and asset management expertise, specializing in building retail-led super regional malls in prime locations across MENA and beyond. With a proven track record of creating both sustainable revenue growth and value enhancement for tenants, Al-Futtaim Malls delivers exceptional experiences and exciting shopping environments for customers. 

Part of the Al-Futtaim Group, Al-Futtaim Malls leadership team brings more than 30 years of experience and a deep understanding and knowledge of the retail sector, both from a shopper’s point of view but as curators of space or landlords to other brands. The company has a directly managed portfolio including over 9 million sqft of retail space across four malls in the MENA region and two under development. Malls under the Al-Futtaim Malls portfolio include Dubai Festival City Mall and Festival Plaza in the UAE, Cairo Festival City Mall in Egypt, Doha Festival City in Qatar and Zenata Mall, Morocco.

Leveraging on the expertise of its parent company, Al-Futtaim Malls established PLEX Management Services offering a full array of services including asset management and development, leasing, and brand experience expertise to shopping mall landlords and retail organizations globally. Implementing global best practice and deploying Al-Futtaim Mall’s deep understanding of mall management and retail dynamics, PLEX promises to deliver continuous growth and long-term value for its partners.

For more information on Al-Futtaim Malls, please visit https://www.al-futtaimmalls.com/

About Al-Futtaim Engineering & Technologies
Al-Futtaim Engineering & Technologies offers customers complete engineering and systems integration solutions. 
 
The Engineering arm operates in the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt providing a wide variety of products and services from air conditioning, scaffolding and access solutions, elevators and escalators, control and life safety, facilities management, building products, MEP, Energy Management, Technology Infrastructure and Digital Transformation. 
 
The Technologies division provides complete business solutions to large, medium and small customers that include, contact centre solutions, business applications, business intelligence, data management, advanced analytics amongst others. The IT infrastructure portfolio comprises IP telephony, ELV systems, networking solutions, professional audio-visual solutions and managed services. 
 
These solutions are further complemented by services that include project management, installation, testing, commissioning and after-sales maintenance contracts.