Senior Specialist

About The Department Of Finance – Abu Dhabi
Established in 1966 with the objective of strengthening the financial sustainability of the Emirate, DoF is responsible for the development and execution of the Abu Dhabi government's annual budget and for overseeing government returns, expenditures, funding and liquidity. DoF does this by working closely in partnership with the relevant local government entities and the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.

Job Purpose
Under general directions, Data Scientist is primarily responsible to mine, clean, model, and interpret data to deliver business insights to DoF's business users through relevant tools, dashboards and reports.

Key objectives for the role include (but not limited to):

• Collaborate with product design and engineering to develop an understand business users' needs
• Research and devise innovative statistical models for data analysis using advanced Machine Learning, NLP and AI technologies
• Design, develop and implement end-to-end machine learning production pipelines (data exploration, sampling, training data generation, feature engineering, model building and performance evaluation)
• Enable smarter business processes and implement advanced analytics solutions for meaningful insights
• Desing and implement databases integrations to enrich existing data sources

Essential Duties

• Work as the lead data strategist, identifying and integrating new datasets that can be leveraged through DoF's business capabilities and work closely with the engineering team to strategize and execute the development of data products
• Execute analytical experiments methodically to help solve problems and make true impact across the organisation
• Identify relevant data sources and sets to mine for business needs, and collect large structured and unstructured datasets and variables
• Devise and utilize advanced algorithms and models to mine big data stores, perform data and error analysis to improve models, and clean and validate data for uniformity and accuracy
• Analyse data for trends, patterns and interpret data and develop advanced and accurate prediction algorithms with a clear business objective
• Implement advanced analytical models into production by collaborating with other software developers
• Communicate analytic solutions to stakeholders and implement improvements as needed to operational systems
• Develop agentic AI solutions using AI models (SLM, LLM) and other AI specific workflow automation tools

Generic Accountabilities
Supervision

• Plan, supervise and coordinate all activities in the assigned area to meet functional objectives
• When necessary, train and develop the direct reporting staff on relevant skills to enable them to become proficient on the job and deliver the respective section objectives

Budgets

• Provide input for preparation of the department budgets and assist in the implementation of the approved budget and work plans to deliver department objectives
• Investigate and highlight any significant variances to support effective performance and cost control

Policies, Systems, Processes & Procedures

• Implement approved department policies, processes, systems, standards and procedures to support execution of the work programs in line with DoF and best international standards
• Comply with all applicable legislation and legal regulations

Performance Management

• Contribute to the achievement of the approved Performance Objectives for the department in line with the organization performance framework

Innovation and Continuous Improvement

• Design and implement new tools and techniques to improve the quality and efficiency of operational processes
• Identify improvements in internal processes against best practices in pursuit of greater efficiency in line with industry best standards to define intelligent solutions

Health, Safety, Environment (HSE) and Sustainability

• Comply with relevant HSE policies, procedures & controls and applicable legislation and sustainability guidelines in line with international standards, best practices and DoF Code of Practices

Reports

• Provide inputs and prepare progress reports

Communications & Working Relationships
Internal

• Daily interaction with business users, peers, IT staff, and other focal points to discuss and implement Machine Learning/AI solutions and other related projects

External

• Federal and Local Entities at equivalent level to coordinate/participate on API and data integration
• Vendors and business solution providers for exchange of information & technical/commercial clarifications

Qualifications, Experience, Knowledge & Skills

• Bachelor's degree in statistics, applied mathematics, or related discipline
• Master's degree in stats, applied math, or related discipline
• 7+ years of solid experience in data science
• Proficiency with data mining, mathematics, and advanced statistical analysis
• Advanced pattern recognition and predictive modelling experience
• Experience with Machine Learning and Python for forecasting, predictions and optimization
• Strong experience with SQL, Phyton, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn, Plotly, Scikit-learn, SciPy, NumPy, Anaconda, Jupyter Notebook, PyTorch and other similar tools
• Familiar with Spark, TensorFlow, Analysis Services, GitLab
• Comfortable working in a very dynamic environment with several ongoing concurrent projects

Other Technical Competencies

• Experience in developing and documenting Standards and Processes
• Strong Communication, interpersonal and people management skills