Director of Data Science

Key Skills

AI technology, Data science techniques, Deep Learning, Machine learning techniques, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Optimization

Job Description

Director of Data science

At Careem, our mission is to simplify and improve the lives of people and create an awesome organisation that inspires. With this vast mission statement, we started by improving transportation and delivery in the region, and now we are expanding into Payment and we?ve launched a super-app, hosting multiple Careem and 3rd-party apps, to further simplify and improve people’s everyday life.

We built the first multi-billion dollar tech startup in the MENAP region. The first line of code was written in Pakistan and we built on it further in Dubai and Berlin. We operate in 100+ cities across 11 countries. We joined Uber officially in early 2020. We grew and attracted top global talent and grew a culture for bold ambitions, shooting for the moon, innovation with tight constraints, and being Careem/gracious.

The Careem Data Science team’s mission is to drive competitive value from data at scale through building AI models to optimize user experiences, decision making, operational efficiencies, and lead the region’s AI ecosystem. As the leader of this team, you will be at the forefront of fulfilling this mission. You will be working with and leading the top data science talent of the region, leveraging AI to solve the region’s day to day problems, through state-of-the art machine learning, optimization, deep learning, and NLP models, that are deployed on top of our own in-house AI platform, serving users in real-time.

Responsibilities:

• Develop a strategy to leverage AI as a strategic competitive advantage to Careem.
• Develop a vision and thought leadership in the space of Mobility of People and Mobility of Things, having developed a strong hands-on experience in this space.
• Define a clear roadmap for the data science teams both in terms of goals and team development, working closely with product and commercial leaders.
• Lead and grow a midsize to large Data Science team distributed across the globe collaborating with cross-functional teams on multiple subdomains.
• Develop modern techniques, AI models and data that will enable finding a path to unsolvable questions and unlock significant impact opportunities.
• Collaborate with and influence leadership so that the team’s work directly impacts the organization’s strategy.
• Develop deep partnerships with engineering and product teams to deliver on major cross-functional efforts.
• Reimagine and reinvent operations and experiences through AI
• Build a fruitful relationship and collaborate with the AI counterparts at Uber, Careem’s parent company, in order to leapfrog our tech by leveraging Uber’s platforms.
• Participate in growing and contributing to the region’s AI community, working with universities and the wider industry ecosystem.

Qualifications:

• An advanced degree in a quantitative field - computer science, statistics, economics, or mathematics.
• Minimum of 12+ years of professional full-time experience working with data science and machine learning teams.
• Strong experience in setting up, managing, and growing a data science team is a must.
• Strong track record in delivering high impact from data and AI through leading multiple cross-functional projects.
• Track record of shipping new products and iterating on them over time.
• Track record of attracting and retaining top talent.
• Experience instilling a culture of ownership, collaboration, and results.
• Strong leadership and communication skills, critical thinking, and sound judgement.
• You are motivated to make an impact and raise the applied AI bar in the region’s ecosystem.