Head of Data Science and Asset Risk

About Al-Futtaim Group

Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim Group today is one of the most diversified and progressive, privately held regional businesses headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Structured into five operating divisions; automotive, financial services, real estate, retail and healthcare; employing more than 35,000 employees across more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Al-Futtaim Group partners with over 200 of the world's most admired and innovative brands. Al-Futtaim Group’s entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organisation to continue to grow and expand; responding to the changing needs of our customers within the societies in which we operate.

By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration and integrity; Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our customers each and every day.

Overview of the role

The Head of Data Science & Asset Risk owns the end-to-end analytics, forecasting and risk intelligence that protects and optimizes Al-Futtaim’s automotive and financial services portfolio.

This role is accountable for turning data, AI and market intelligence into financial outcomes, ensuring that pricing, leasing, provisioning, capital allocation and portfolio strategy are driven by forward-looking, explainable and regulator-ready models.

The position operates at the intersection of CFO-level financial control, CRO-level risk management and CDO-level analytics leadership, supporting executive and Board decision-making across the group.

What you will do

The role is responsible for the full lifecycle of assets and market intelligence, from data to financial decision-making. This includes:

• Owning all residual value, used-car pricing and market forecasting used across the business
• Maintaining authoritative market indices, price curves and forward-looking scenarios for all brands, powertrains and segments
• Defining and enforcing the Asset Risk Framework covering market risk, EV transition risk, concentration risk and volatility
• Providing risk-driven inputs to IFRS9, provisions, ECL and capital planning
• Ensuring all models are auditable, explainable and regulator-ready

The Head of Data Science & Asset Risk acts as the single source of truth for:

• Portfolio value
• Forward price risk
• Stress scenarios
• Financial impact of market movements

This role chairs the Residual Value & Risk Committees, translating complex analytics into clear financial actions for the CFO, CRO and Executive Management.

Strategic & Commercial Impact

The role directly influences:

• Vehicle pricing and lease structures
• Portfolio profitability and risk appetite
• Provisioning and capital allocation
• OEM negotiations and product launches
• Remarketing and stock strategy

Decisions supported by this function materially impact P&L, balance sheet and return on assets.

Technology, Data & AI Ownership

The role owns the group’s AI-driven asset intelligence platform, including:

• Data pipelines across brands, dealers, auctions, web and internal systems
• Forecasting, valuation and risk models
• Executive dashboards and real-time reporting

The mandate is to continuously replace external vendors and manual processes with in-house, scalable AI, delivering higher accuracy, faster decisions and material cost savings.

Leadership & Governance

The Head of Data Science & Asset Risk:

• Leads a senior team of data scientists and analytics specialists
• Defines modelling standards, governance and validation
• Ensures outputs are trusted by finance, risk and commercial teams
• Acts as the group’s technical authority on asset valuation and risk

Required skills to be successful

• Deep hands-on technical and analytical expertise, including Python, SQL, large-scale data extraction, and building advanced statistical and machine-learning models
• Ability to turn data into actionable insight, translating complex analysis into clear decisions with measurable business impact
• Strong data governance and risk discipline, ensuring models are explainable, controlled, and suitable for regulated environments
• Proven leadership and executive influence, able to build scalable teams and drive adoption at the senior-management level

About the team

You will be reporting to Chief Risk Officer.

What equips you for the role

• 10+ years in statistics, data science, risk, pricing, forecasting or financial modelling
• Experience in automotive, asset finance, banking, insurance or large portfolios
• Proven ownership of P&L-critical models
• Strong background in IFRS9, ECL, stress testing or portfolio risk
• Comfortable operating at CFO, CRO and Board level

Candidate experience

We’re here to provide excellent service but a little help from you can ensure a five-star candidate experience from start to finish.

Before you click “apply”: please read the job description carefully to ensure you can confidently demonstrate why this opportunity is right for you and take the time to put together a well-crafted and personalised CV to further boost your visibility. Our global talent acquisition team members are all assigned to specific businesses to ensure that we make the best matches between talent and opportunities. We not only consider the requisite compatibility of skills and behaviours, but also how candidates align with our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, and excellence.

As part of our candidate experience promise, we also want to make ourselves available to you throughout the application process. We make every effort to review and respond to every application.