Lead Data Scientist, Europe Visa Functions and Products (VFP)

Key Skills

AWS, Azure, DevOps, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Java Programming, PowerBI, Python Programming, SQL, Tableau

Job Description

This is a high-visibility opportunity for a technical leader who wants to work on large-scale problems with tangible business impact.

In this role, you will lead a small team of talented Data Scientists who support Visa’s Functions and Product (F&P) departments by answering key business questions with data-driven answers and actionable recommendations.

As a leader in the F&P Data Science team, you will:

• Bring structure to ambiguous business problems, using computational and statistical techniques to translate them into highly scalable solutions
• Set the standard for engineering excellence and shape the way we design, deploy, and maintain these solutions
• Foster a data-driven culture across the entire company, enabling F&P departments to consume your insights and take measurable actions
• Provide thought leadership and guidance within your team and across the broader Visa Europe Data Science community

What we expect from you, day to day:

Strategic Leadership

• Set the team’s strategic direction and plan of execution to drive meaningful business results
• Be a strong leader who can apply Data Science methods towards answering key business questions with data-driven answers
• Influence F&P teams by translating data and insights into actionable recommendations and ensuring they are adopted to successfully deliver business outcomes
• Stakeholder Leadership
• Plan and communicate with partners to scope projects, agree timelines, and define responsibilities
• Establish and foster a data-driven culture and strong relationships across F&P
• Collaborate effectively with other Data Science teams across Visa
• Team Leadership
• Facilitate project execution and knowledge sharing, allowing the team to operate at a high level
• Support the professional growth of a team of highly skilled Data Scientists
• Model Visa’s Leadership Principles and create an inclusive and supportive environment where every employee can thrive

Technical Leadership

• Be an experienced mentor to more junior Data Scientists on computational/statistical methods and their applications to loosely defined business problems
• Demonstrate a product mindset by identifying, developing, and maintaining reusable components that can be deployed into productised solutions
• Advance the team’s engineering craftsmanship by devising and sharing best practices
• Develop a deep understanding of Visa’s data assets and how they can be used to support F&P teams across the company
• Identify and prototype novel methods, algorithms, and tools from the open-source community and the scientific literature

Qualifications

Required qualifications

• Strong statistical knowledge and proven expertise in applying statistical solutions to business problems
• Solid relational modelling (SQL) and programming skills (preferably in Python)
• Good working knowledge of data visualisation / BI platforms such as Power BI or Tableau
• Experience leading the delivery of large-scale data solutions using Big Data and distributed processing platforms such as Hadoop, Hive and Spark
• Familiarity with modern DevOps practices (including Git and CI/CD)
• Long-term strategic thinking and strong problem-solving skills
• Stakeholder management ability including effective prioritisation, clear and concise communication, and delivery of actionable data-driven insights

Preferred qualifications

• A higher degree (or equivalent experience) in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or other quantitative discipline
• Functional knowledge of cloud computing platforms such as AWS, Azure or GCP
• Background in payments or banking
• Experience creating and protecting Intellectual Property through patents