Staff Data Scientist

Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent

Experience Level:8+Years

Role Overview

We are hiring a Staff Data Scientist to lead strategic data science initiatives in support of a mission-critical government client in the national defense and security domain. Based in Abu Dhabi, this role requires an Emirati with strong analytical expertise, practical ML experience, and the ability to operate in highly secure environments.

The ideal candidate brings deep technical capabilities, leadership maturity, and a strong sense of national service.

You will work closely with multidisciplinary teams to design, build, and operationalize machine learning solutions that support real-world decision-making and mission success.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and deployment of advanced machine learning and AI solutions for defense-focused use cases such as:
• Threat detection and classification
• Predictive maintenance
• Force readiness modeling
• Geospatial and sensor data analytics
• Secure communication and anomaly detection
• Translate mission and operational requirements into data- driven insights and decision-support models.
• Collaborate with internal data engineers, solution architects, and client teams to develop

secure, scale able, and interpret able ML models.

• Lead code reviews, experimentation, and mentoring of junior data scientists.
• Ensure compliance with data governance, security, and ethical AI practices in highly controlled environments.
• Communicate analytical findings and model impact to executive and technical stakeholders.
• Drive innovation and continuously improve modeling, infrastructure, and analytics methodologies.

Minimum Qualifications

• Emirati with valid documentation.
• Master’s Ph.D in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or related field.
• 8+years of hands-on experience in data science and machine learning, with at least 2 years in a technical leadership role.
• Strong proficiency in Python, Ml libraries (e.g., sci kit-learn, Tensor Flow, PyTorch), and statistical modeling.
• Experience with big data processing (e.g. Spark, Hadoop) and cloud environments (Azure, AWS, or private cloud).
• Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive data, with an understanding of security, access controls, and ethical AI.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in national security, defense, or critical infrastructure environments.
• Familiarity with MLOp stools and workflows (ML flow, Docker, Airflow, etc.).
• Background in geospatial analytics, signal processing, or real-time data applications.
• Exposure to DevSecOps, model validation, and AI governance.