Principal Data Scientist

The Role

Were looking for a Principal Data Scientist to set the technical direction for how we build end-to-end data-driven products that create tangible value for hirers and job this role youll lead the design of the inference and decisioning layers across our most critical AI/ML products shaping how SEEK understands supply and demand dynamics in the marketplace and informing highimpact decisions across the business. You will be a force multiplier: developing technical strategy uplifting standards and practices across multiple teams and partnering closely with Product Engineering Strategy and Commercial leaders to deliver measurable business outcomes.

You thrive in a complex fast-moving environment and operate comfortably across ambiguity aligning stakeholders on direction navigating dependencies shaping estimation and delivery plans and communicating trade-offs clearly. You remain hands-on where it mattersdiving deep into models methods and data qualitywhile cultivating a culture of continuous learning and scientific rigor across the Data Science community.

On any given day you might:

• Evaluate and guide the development of statistically sound pragmatic models and decision systems balancing performance risk and operational constraints.

• Prototype and assess new approaches to unlock step-change improvements on core business problems and articulate the value assumptions and limitations to senior stakeholders.

• Partner with Product Managers Strategy Architecture and Commercial teams to refine problem framing and align roadmaps to the highest value opportunities.

• Collaborate with an Experimentation team to design instrument and interpret A/B and quasi-experiments; set best practices for causal inference and robust measurement.

• Mentor and sponsor data scientists reviewing methodologies validating outputs and raising standards for reliability scalability and ethical use.

• Shape and guide end-to-end AI/ML solutions with Engineering and Productspanning data readiness simplicity feature pipelines model lifecycle observability and governance.

Your closest collaborators will include senior peers across the Data Science stream stream leads who bring Data Science Engineering and Product perspectives to joint problem-solving and squad leads driving contributions across SEEKs broader AI initiatives. You will also influence cross-stream forums to ensure coherence in technical approaches and reuse of foundational capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the technical strategy for a focus area (e.g. pricing market position ad performance) ensuring data and modelling work directly serve business outcomes and risk thresholds.

• Build a deep understanding of SEEKs data assets and systems and champion the data quality observability and documentation required for robust decisioning at scale.

• Translate ambiguous high-value business problems into actionable requirements clarifying value assumptions and constraints; drive alignment on approach and success measures.

• Establish and uphold modelling and experimentation standards (evaluation protocols causal inference patterns offline/online validation guardrails) across multiple squads.

• Provide technical leadership and coaching to data scientists and leads; review solution designs and code where appropriate; foster a culture of scientific rigor safety and learning.

• Partner on roadmaps and OKRs influencing prioritisation and sequencing across teams; balance exploration with reliability and scale in production environments.

• Communicate complex concepts to a wide range of audiencesexecutives Product Engineering and other functionstailoring depth and framing to drive clear decisions.

Qualifications :

Qualifications

• Extensive (typically 10 years) commercial experience building and evolving data-driven products with deep hands-on expertise in machine learning algorithms decision systems and model performance tuning at scale.

• Proven track record operating as a bridge across Data Science Product Architecture and Engineering solving complex commercial problems and influencing strategy.

• Experience leading through influence across multiple teams or managing a high-performing team of Data Scientists; delivery of large complex multi-stakeholder initiatives.

• High proficiency with Python SQL and Spark for data extraction and processing; strong fluency with modern software practices and tooling (e.g. Git AWS Databricks MLflow or equivalents).

• Exceptional communication and stakeholder influence skills; ability to operate confidently amid ambiguity set direction and drive alignment across functions.

• Comfortable in a *nix command-line environment; postgraduate qualification in a quantitative discipline (e.g. Physics Mathematics Bioinformatics Computer Science Engineering) or equivalent industry experience.

Additional Information :

Permanent Perks
At SEEK we offer:

• Annual Performance Bonus Plan
• Support of flexible working including a mix of office and work from home days depending on your role.
• Paid and unpaid leave benefits including Personal Flexi Days and Volunteer Days as well as the opportunity to purchase additional leave
• Support for parents with 14 weeks paid primary carers leave and 2 weeks paid leave for partners

At SEEK we are passionate about fostering a culture of inclusion and wellbeing that embraces and values the diversity of our people. We are a purpose driven business that works with heart.

We know teams with diverse ideas experiences and perspectives are more creative and are critical to ensuring effective delivery and innovating to enable our future success. As such we welcome applications from people with diverse backgrounds and life experiences especially as they relate to gender sexual identity culture faith disability and life stages. If you have the skills curiosity and an adaptable mindset but dont meet every responsibility or qualification listed in this advertisement please still get in touch with us.

Should you require any specific support or adjustments throughout the recruitment process and beyond please advise us and we will be happy to assist.

For this role only those candidates with the eligible right to work will be considered.

SEEK kindly requests no unsolicited resumes or approaches from recruitment agencies and will not be responsible for any associated fees.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time