Director-Data Science

Key Skills

Java Programming, Python Programming, SQL, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Apache Hive, R Programming, SAS

Job Description

You Lead the Way. We’ve Got Your Back.

At American Express, we know that with the right backing, people and businesses have the power to progress in incredible ways. Whether we’re supporting our customers’ financial confidence to move ahead, taking commerce to new heights, or encouraging people to explore the world, our colleagues are constantly redefining what’s possible — and we’re proud to back each other every step of the way. When you join #TeamAmex, you become part of a diverse community of over 60,000 colleagues, all with a common goal to deliver an exceptional customer experience every day.

Functional Description

We are looking to hire a Director, Enterprise Personalization Decision Science, within the Credit & Fraud Risk (CFR) division at American Express. CFR is responsible for enabling profitable growth in close collaboration with business teams, managing the net loss provision for American Express, and reducing fraud related losses. The group manages multiple critical functions for the company including marketing decision science, underwriting strategies for credit products, ongoing exposure management of existing customers, developing, and managing credit & fraud risk models, and developing policies pertaining to credit and collections.

Purpose of the Role/ Responsibilities

The candidate will be responsible for leading the decision science team driving the enterprise personalization engine- Orchestra. Personalization is an evolving ecosystem that anticipates customer needs and powers relevant experiences, through the right channel at the right time, across the Enterprise. Orchestra is at the heart of Personalization and supports multiple Cross Business Use Cases which are displayed to customers across channels. Orchestra arbitrates what and where to show treatments, and personalizes how and when that content is delivered, improving Customer Experience and Business Outcomes.

Responsibilities:

The candidate will lead a team of data scientists in the development and enhancement of AI/ML decision science that fuel personalization across Amex proprietary platforms servicing existing customers. The candidate will have several core responsibilities including

1. Developing Decision Science solutions to support expansion of Personalization including expansion to additional placements, integrating new contents and supporting additional use cases including servicing
2. Elevating the Core Orchestra AI engine which spans across auto retraining models, resting framework, feature engineering, cross channel, and cross placement optimization
3. Innovate and identify challenger algorithms
4. Generate more value from existing data sources, rationalize number of features, and create new features to capture sequential and temporal information.
5. Build on optimization outcome framework and generate insights from P(click) models to increase marketing efficiency and influence growth strategy.

• Critical Factors to Success

Business Outcomes:

This position is unique and lies at the intersection of advanced AI/ML and customer engagement solutions. Leader will work across multiple product, technology, and business teams to design, develop, enhance, and test sophisticated ML solutions that deliver superior economics, higher customer engagement, and incremental efficiencies. Demonstrated ability to remain abreast of the latest ML developments and innovations. Share key insights and developments with technical and non-technical audiences

Leadership Outcomes:

• Puts enterprise thinking first, connect the role’s agenda to enterprise priorities and balances the needs of customers, partners, colleagues & shareholders
• Leads with an external perspective, challenge status quo and bring continuous innovation to our existing offerings
• Strong relationships and business partnerships across business units and key functional support areas
• Thought leadership and ability to influence non-technical audiences and bring them along. Ability to convey rigorous mathematical concepts and considerations to non-experts

Past Experience

• 3-7+ years’ experience applying ML to solve complex problems for large-scale applications
• 3-7+ years of experience applying theoretical models in an applied environment, with successful experience building AI algorithms
• 0-3+ years’ experience managing data scientists or proven experience building and managing a highly efficient cross-functional science talent pool
• Reputation for building excitement and a culture of continuous learning leading technical teams

Academic Background

• Master’s degree in a quantitative field (data science, mathematics, computer science, statistics, operations research, management) preferred

Functional Skills / Technical Skills

• Solid applied understanding of latest supervised and semi-supervised (self-learning) Machine Learning solutions. Ability to apply them in code and explain most used ones from a technical point of view, with complete clarity on advantages and disadvantages of each
• Experience using ML across various applications such as images and text
• Experience with PyTorch, TensorFlow and other similar open-source ML platforms
• Understanding of technologies supporting development and implementation of ML solutions at Enterprise scale

• Extensive knowledge of customer marketing ecosystem across the enterprise

Knowledge of Platforms

• Big Data - Cornerstone

Behavioural areas

• Set the Agenda: Define What Winning Looks Like, Put Enterprise Thinking First, Lead with an External Perspective
• Bring Others with You: Build the Best Team, Seek & Provide Coaching Feedback, Make Collaboration Essential
• Do It the Right Way: Communicate Frequently, Candidly & Clearly, Make Decisions Quickly & Effectively, Live the Blue Box Values, Great Leadership Demands Courage

Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the U.S. is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.

American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law.