Director of Data Science - Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Careem

Description

Careem is building the Everything App for the greater Middle East — making it easy to move around, order food and groceries, manage payments, and more. Our purpose is simple: to simplify and improve people's lives and build an awesome organisation that inspires.
Since 2012, Careem has enabled earnings for over 2.5 million Captains, simplified the lives of more than 70 million customers, and built a platform where the region's best talent and entrepreneurs thrive. We operate in 70+ cities across 10 countries, from Morocco to Pakistan.

About the Role

The Director of Data Science (ML) leads Careem's central Machine Learning and Data Science organization — a 30+ members team driving applied AI innovation across the Everything App. This leader defines and executes Careem's AI strategy, scaling machine learning capabilities across all verticals, and ensuring AI becomes a core competitive differentiator.

You will shape how Careem personalizes user experiences, optimizes its marketplace dynamics, and leverages the latest in Generative AI and Large Language Models to serve millions of customers every day.

What you'll do

1. Strategic Leadership

• Define and execute the vision and multi-year strategy for Data Science and Machine Learning across all Careem verticals.
  
  
• Closely partner with product, engineering, and business leaders to identify and prioritize high-impact AI opportunities with measurable business ROI.
  
  
• Drive standardization, scalability, and platformization across ML systems to accelerate delivery and innovation.
  
  
• Evangelize AI across the company, ensuring alignment between AI investments and Careem's overall strategic priorities.
  
  

2. Team Leadership & Development

• Build, lead, and inspire a high-performing team of 30+ ML engineers and data scientists distributed across geographies and domains.
  
  
• Foster a culture of inclusion, experimentation, and excellence — empowering teams to take ownership and innovate.
  
  
• Ensure clear ownership and accountability across core DS streams, and continuously evolve team structure for scale and accelerating impact.
  
  
• Mentor emerging leaders and invest in developing technical and leadership capabilities across the organization.
  
  

3. Technical & Operational Excellence

• Oversee the design, development, and deployment of end-to-end ML systems — from data collection and feature engineering to productionized models and monitoring.
  
  
• Partner with engineering to ensure robust infrastructure for training, retraining, and serving ML models at scale.
  
  
• Define and oversee the technical AI roadmap and direction for the team.
  
  
• Lead innovation in Generative AI and LLM applications, ensuring Careem stays at the forefront of applied AI technologies.
  
  
• Champion MLOps and automation to reduce experimentation-to-production cycle time.
  
  

4. Product Impact & Delivery

• Ensure each Data Science domain delivers measurable impact aligned with company OKRs and product outcomes.
  
  
• Collaborate with vertical leaders to embed ML into user-facing experiences (e.g., personalized discovery, dynamic ranking, ETA prediction, integrity systems).
  
  
• Establish clear success metrics and measurement frameworks for AI-driven initiatives with clear AI impact accounting.
  
  
• Champion a data-driven culture across Careem — ensuring insights and experimentation inform every product and business decision.
  
  

5. Cross-Functional Influence

• Represent Data Science leadership in executive and strategic forums, influencing company priorities and investment decisions.
  
  
• Collaborate closely with Engineering Platform, Product Analytics, and Data Platform teams to align on architecture, tooling, and data strategy.
  
  
• Serve as a thought leader for AI innovation across the region and strengthen collaboration with academia and research centers.
  
  

What you'll need

• 10+ years of experience in Data Science, ML, or Applied AI, including 5+ years leading large, high-performing technical teams.
  
  
• Proven record of building and scaling ML systems in production for large-scale consumer platforms (e.g., personalization, recommendation, search, marketplace optimization, fraud detection).
  
  
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field.
  
  
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex ML concepts into strategic business impact.
  
  
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills across technical and non-technical domains.
  
  
• Deep passion for product-oriented AI — using data and ML to create delightful, human-centered experiences.

What we'll provide you

We offer colleagues the opportunity to drive impact in the region while they learn and grow. As a full time Careem colleague, you will be able to:

• Work and learn from great minds by joining a community of inspiring colleagues.
• Put your passion to work in a purposeful organisation dedicated to creating impact in a region with a lot of untapped potential.
• Explore new opportunities to learn and grow every day.
• Work 4 days a week in office & 1 day from home, and remotely from any country in the world for 30 days a year with unlimited vacation days per year.
• Access to healthcare benefits and fitness reimbursements for health activities including gym, health club, and training classes.