Senior Data Scientist

What you will do

This role partners directly with functional leaders in Finance, Credit, Operations, Legal, and HR to translate business needs into clear technical requirements; collaborates closely with data engineering to design or acquire the right datasets; and leads the model‑to‑product lifecycle with strong attention to Responsible AI and model governance. In addition to delivering high‑impact solutions tied to VFS priorities, the role mentors and guides data scientists, setting technical direction and quality standards while building the foundations for a future formal leadership path.

Key Responsibilities: 
•    Own the discovery, scoping, and delivery of AI/ML solutions that measurably improve outcomes in VFS business functions. 
•    Translate open-ended business problems into structured problem statements, success metrics, and prioritized backlogs. 
•    Partner with data engineers and data operations to design and secure data pipelines and access for AI products. 
•    Define model architecture and evaluation strategies to productionize models with monitoring, drift detection, and CI/MLOps guardrails aligned with Group AI architecture and governance practices.
•    Establish and track business level KPIs and model-level KPIs to ensure sustained value realization.
•    Act as a bridge between business and technology.
•    Mentor and direct data science team, setting coding standards, review analyses, unblock delivery, and coach on stakeholder engagement.
•    Model best practices in research, reproducibility, and documentation. 

Your future team

You will report directly to the Manager, Data Quality and Products within VFS D&IT and will be assigned to a stable, global cross-functional team. Digital and IT is the engine of the VFS business, and we continue our strategic journey to further improve performance and to deliver the best customer experience in the industry.  In this exciting environment, we are focused on Digital Innovation to meet the demands of our customers in an increasingly digitalized world. 

In many of our markets, VFS has won the Great Place to Work award, where Great Work is done. By interacting with each other as an on-site business, we build relationships, which allow us to work together more efficiently and form stronger bonds with our colleagues and customers.

The preferred location can be Wroclaw (Poland), Gothenburg (Sweden), or Greensboro, NC (USA).

Who are you?

Do you dream big? We do too, and we are excited to grow together.

In this role, we believe it is the right mindset that will make a difference at VFS. If you, besides your genuine interest in working with people in Transforming Together, also have a positive, service-oriented, and collaborative mindset, and take a proactive approach to handling all responsibilities, idea generation, and recommendations for productivity and efficiency - then we would welcome you to apply for this role. We believe the successful candidate has the passion and excitement to take on this challenge.

Qualifications likely required to be successful in this role include:

•    Experience translating complex business problems into structured analytical and AI solutions. 
•    Overall information technology experience of a minimum of 5 years
•    Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, analytics, statistics or equivalent preferred
•    Expertise in end-to-end AI product development, from data preparation to production. 
•    Strong stakeholder management skills, engaging leaders across business functions.
•    Proficiency with modern ML/AI frameworks and advanced statistical modeling techniques
•    Ability to communicate with team members and guide technical problem solving with clarity.
•    Skill in collaborating with data team members to design scalable data pipelines.
•    Strength in communicating technical insights through compelling visualization and storytelling.
•    Comfort operating in ambiguity and independently driving high-impact initiatives
•    Cross-functional collaboration skills for translating functional needs into technical requirements
•    Ability to influence technical and strategic decisions across teams and domains.
•    Continuous learning mindset to stay current with evolving AI platforms, tools and methods.