Director, Data Science

We are seeking a Director of Data Science to lead and manage a team of diverse profiles under HK Data Lab. This role is pivotal to developing AI-first products to deliver business value and to support IFC’s strategic business imperatives for our CL/SL businesses. The ideal candidate will collaborate with both business and technical collaborators in Canada and other jurisdictions, to define, develop and deploy innovative AI products. This position locates in Hong Kong and reports to the Head of Hong Kong.

What you will do here:

Team Management

• Lead, mentor, and manage a cross-functional team of managers and senior individual contributors with diverse expertise: Data Scientist, AI Developer, Actuarial, etc.

• Foster a collaborative and learning culture in the team and across the HK lab, keeping our staff motivated to develop the industry’s best AI products to enable outperformance by unlocking value from the rapidly evolving AI technologies.

• Attract top talents to the Lab through involvement in recruitment events, industry events, local AI community to build presence and demonstrate IFC’s leadership in AI.

AI Product Mangement and Execution

• Develop and manage a portfolio of AI products, responsible for the full product life cycle of each product from ideation for solving complex business problem with a novel approach, early-stage product experimentation to proof business value, commercialization for full scale deployment, and continuous improvement and maintenance to ensure optimal performance.

• Implement best practices in both data science and engineering perspectives to ensure products delivered are robust in performance and adherence to IFC’s compliance and security standards.

• Collaborate with business and technical stakeholders to ensure alignment on objectives, scope, timelines and infrastructure design. Lead cross-functional squads to drive end-to-end delivery.

Strategic Planning and Leadership

• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to business leaders translating strategic and business objectives into AI roadmap and execution plan, focusing on business impact, innovation and building capabilities scalable across IFC’s global operations.

• Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and service level objectives to measure and improve business impact and operational excellence.

• Manage use of human, financial and material resources according to business strategies and budget planning, proactively seeking opportunities to optimize value creation to IFC from available resources within the lab.

What you bring to the table:

• AI enthusiast with deep expertise and applied knowledge in data science or related fields including and not limited to machine learning, actuarial science, mathematics, statistics, computer science.

• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience including at least 3 years building data science products.

• Experience managing first-level managers, a large team of at least 10 people mixed with diverse technical expertise in multiple disciplines.

• Strong ability & political sense to influence various level of management. Excellent written and verbal communications skills.

• Lead with vision and values. Make strategic decisions independently and collaboratively with others.

• Superior negotiating skills, foster engagement and develop strategic working relationships. Facilitate change by taking risks.

• Excellent communication skills to collaborate with both business and technical stakeholders and across IFC’s global operations.

About Us

The Intact Lab – with headquarters in Montreal, Canada – is a fast-growing, digital innovation hub backed by Intact Financial Corporation (TSX: IFC, HK$110 billion in market cap), Canada’s largest home, auto and business insurance company. Intact Financial (HK) limited (Intact Lab, HK) is our first R&D A.I. centre outside of Canada. This expansion into the Asia Pacific region is an exciting chapter of our journey to become the best insurance A.I. shop in the world.

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At Intact, we value diversity and strive to create an inclusive, accessible workplace where all individuals feel valued, respected, and heard.

If we can provide a specific adjustment to make the recruitment process more accessible for you, please let us know when we reach out about a job opportunity. We’ll work with you to meet your needs.

Click here to review other important information about the hiring process, including background checks, internal candidates, and eligibility to work in Canada.