Lead Data Scientist - AI at Discovery Limited

Key purpose

• Lead the delivery of a variety of AI projects and ensure they align with the organization’s strategic goals. You will work closely with cross-functional teams and executives to ensure that projects are completed on time, within scope and budget, and meet the highest quality standards. Your work will directly impact product offerings, and operations and servicing quality.

Key Outputs

Delivery management and stakeholder engagement

• Engage with diverse teams for driving the delivery of projects, including: the users of products that the team builds, executives, operations teams, knowledge management teams, systems and architecture teams.
• Ensure the successful end-to-end delivery of data science projects which meet both functional and non-functional requirements.
• Monitor project progress and performance, implementing corrective actions as needed.

Technical AI and product decision making

• Lead a team of data scientists, engineers and developers in building sophisticated data science, NLP, and AI products.
• Oversee the design and implementation of these products from prototype to deployment and scaling, making the final technical decisions.
• Foster a culture of scientific decision-making, prioritizing research and experimentation.
• Ensure the team remains well-read and informed about the cutting edge in foundational and applied AI.
• Participate in pair-programming and code reviews as needed.
• Advocate for the needs to the team and product-delivery with respect to large-scale platform and Group technology decisions.

Influence and align to Group-wide strategies

• Collaborate with senior managers and technical partners to identify and prioritise business problems that can be solved with LLMs and NLP methodologies
• Create evidence-driven business cases for investment in LLM and NLP innovation
• Lead international working groups to ensure the sharing of and alignment to best practices in data science and AI practice.
• Support other data science and AI teams in the Discovery Group with direction and advice.
• Function as a senior advisor regarding the value and risks of AI at Group Exco and Board levels.
• Build relationships with external industry, academic, and NGO, and governmental organizations for mutual benefit.

AI governance

• Ensure alignment to the highest privacy and data governance standards across all projects.
• Contribute to Group policies regarding privacy and data governance.
• Actively participate in Responsible AI working groups

Team leadership

• Oversee a team of ~12 data scientists, engineers and developers (permanent staff and contractors) at the forefront of LLM research and implementation.
• Coach team members to maximize their potential and project progress.
• Prioritize career development, understanding personal and professional goals, and creating opportunities to achieve them.
• Set up mentoring opportunities internally and externally to aid in team members’ career development.
• Set challenging goals for team members which are aligned with personal and project objectives. Provide continuous feedback regarding performance towards these goals.
• Lead recruiting efforts to grow the team.

External network

• Represent Discovery publicly, giving talks and participating in industry events.
• Build a network of organizations and experts for mutual learning and support.
• Be recognized as an expert and valued opinion contributor

Personal Attributes and Skills  

• A creative and enthusiastic attitude to unearthing valuable insights and generating value for Discovery clients 
• Ability to balance multiple priorities and to step back and see how analytics work fits into the wider business context 
• Results driven, curious and able to work autonomously or within teams
• Good time and task management skills
• Ability to communicate results of analyses in a clear and effective manner
• Aligned to Discovery values and core purpose 

Experience, qualifications, and mandatory requirements

• Post-graduate degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Applied Maths or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in data science, with a focus on natural language processing (NLP) and LLMs.
• 4+ years of experience leading a team of data scientists.
• 1+ years of technical experience with LLMs and GenAI.
• Proven track record of leading successful projects from conception to deployment.
• Strong programming skills (preferably Python) and experience with models like the GPTs, LLaMA, Gemini etc.
• Excellent problem-solving and project management skills with the ability to work in a fast-paced and fast-changing environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Advantageous:

• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Publications or presentations at conferences or industry events.
• Experience in a leadership role within a consulting, research, or development team.