Lead Data Scientist

Our Purpose

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.

Title and Summary

Lead Data Scientist

Job Description
• Own the full machine learning lifecycle: data analysis, model development, ideation, proof of concept, production deployment, monitoring, and optimization
• Lead the design, development, evaluation, and optimization of agentic and generative AI systems for production use
• Define and enforce quality standards for agentic AI, ensuring reliability, consistency, business relevance, and compliance
• Develop robust methods to evaluate, monitor, and set guardrails for non-deterministic AI systems
• Optimize AI solutions across accuracy, latency, and cost
• Build and maintain self-optimized and continuously learning algorithms
• Drive advanced personalization initiatives, including personalized ranking, and contextual recommendation strategies
• Apply cutting-edge AI techniques to solve complex business problems
• Lead rigorous experimentation and statistical analysis to guide decision-making and validate impact
• Conduct ongoing research by analyzing industry trends, academic publications, and competitor approaches to drive innovation

Requirements
• Master’s/PhD in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent practical experience
• Strong programming skills in Python, Github, Vibe Coding
• Solid background in theoretical statistics
• Hands-on experience in machine learning and deep learning
• Intensive experience in structured and unstructured data
• Proven experience with recommendation systems and personalization
• Experience in data analysis, experimentation, and visualization

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must:

Abide by Mastercard’s security policies and practices;

Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed;

Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and

Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines.