Commonwealth Bank

Senior Staff Data Scientist - Gen AI, Model Validation

• You are passionate about cutting edge Gen AI tools and validation space
• We are leading the world in AI ambition being Australia's largest bank!
• Together, we create the future of banking with innovative AI solutions.

Do Work That Matters:

Are you ready to shape the future of model risk management in one of Australia’s leading financial institutions? At CommBank, we’re looking for a Senior Staff Data Scientist, AI & General Model Validation who blends deep technical expertise with strategic leadership to ensure our models are robust, reliable, and ready for the future.

See yourself in our team:

At CBA, our Model Risk & Validation team plays a critical role in safeguarding the integrity of data-driven decisions across the Group. We provide second-line assurance through rigorous oversight and challenge, ensuring every model meets internal and regulatory standards. Join us and be part of a team that’s shaping the future of risk, technology, and AI across the bank.

As a key member of our Model Risk & Validation team, you’ll drive robust validation processes, deploy cutting-edge analytics tools, and embed robust risk management practices across our model ecosystem. You’ll work with a high-performing quantitative team, guiding them to uphold the integrity of our model risk framework while influencing the Group’s broader AI and transformation strategies.

Your core responsibilities will include:

• Model Validation & Technical Leadership – Design and execute comprehensive validation plans to assess model performance, compliance, and risk.
• Stakeholder Engagement – Establish strong professional relationships with model developers, business units, to ensure transparency and alignment. Present insights to internal technical forums, governance committees and/or regulatory meetings.
• Strategic Transformation & Continuous Improvement – Embed AI best practices into business strategies; develop and integrate AI-driven tools to enhance model development/validation quality and speed.
• Team Leadership & Mentorship – Mentor and guide team members, fostering a collaborative and inclusive culture and champion modern analytics tooling and promote best practices in technical communication.

We are interested in hearing from people who have:

• Demonstrated experience developing, evaluating and/or validating ML/AI, Gen-AI and/or statistical-based models
• Relevant experience with Gen-AI techniques like RAG, prompt engineering, and/or orchestration tools (e.g., LangChain, LangGraph)
• Strong programming skills and experience with tools like Python, R, SQL, Spark, TensorFlow, and PyTorch; familiarity with version control (GitHub)
• Experience with project planning and task allocation for project-based teams
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for diverse audiences.
• Experience with platforms like AWS SageMaker, AWS Bedrock, or H2O.ai is a plus.
• Degree qualified in Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science, Actuarial Science, or a related field – or equivalent industry experience.

Working with us

Whether you’re passionate about customer service, driven by data, or called by creativity, a career here is for you. At CommBank, we advocate and facilitate a culture of inclusion and respect, celebrating all cultures, abilities, genders, expressions of gender and sexual orientation. Read more about our commitment to inclusion and diversity on our careers website.

Our people bring their diverse backgrounds and unique perspectives to build a respectful, inclusive and flexible workplace. We are working hard to recruit people who represent the diversity of our customers and our society. If you're excited about this opportunity but you don't meet every single requirement, or your experience doesn't align perfectly, we still want to encourage you to send in your application. You may just be the perfect candidate for this opportunity or another within CommBank.

At CommBank we will inspire you with work that makes a difference, surround you with talented people that respect and value each other, and empower you to grow professionally and personally. Most of all, making a positive impact for customers, communities and each other is part of our every day.

We’re determined to make a real difference for Australia’s first peoples. We encourage all interested applicants to apply. If you’re already part of the Commonwealth Bank Group (including BankWest), you’ll need to apply through Sidekick to submit a valid application. We’re keen to support you with the next step in your career.

APPLY NOW to live your best life and do your best work with us!

AI Risk Business Partner — Line 1 Risk

Role purpose

Partner with Product, Delivery and Risk leaders to enable Bankwest to innovate safely at pace using AI.

This role is the Line 1 AI risk champion combining strong commercial judgement, technical literacy and courageous challenge to ensure AI initiatives create sustainable customer and shareholder value without exposing the bank to unacceptable regulatory, operational or reputational risk.

You will shape how AI risk is embedded into delivery, lift capability across Crews, and continuously evolve controls so governance keeps pace with innovation.

Key accountabilities

• Line-1 risk stewardship for assigned Crews - act as the primary risk partner for AI initiatives, providing advice to ensure each use-case progresses with appropriate controls, evidence and approvals before changes or go-live.

• Commercial risk adviser and challenger - Partner with Crew Leads and Crew Tech Leads to shape AI initiatives early, constructively challenging assumptions, risk appetite, control design and commercial trade-offs to optimise both safety and value.

• Policy conduit and translator (Group ↔ BW) - act as the primary conduit between Group AI policy/standards and Bankwest business: interpret and translate Group requirements into practical BW-specific obligations, ensure Crews implement Group expectations, escalate material policy conflicts or implementation risks, and feed operational learnings back to Group to inform policy refinement.

• Triage and risk classification - assess new and materially changed AI use cases, determine the correct risk tier and governance pathway, and ensure timely routing to NFRC or other forums.

• Control-and-evidence owner for L1 - ensure required artefacts are complete, current and demonstrably evidence-based.

• Operational monitoring oversight - own Line-1 monitoring over Group Model Register for AI

• AI Risk Forum Rep - Active member of AI technical review forum which provides independent review, challenge and endorsement of new AI models and material model changes.

• Incident management and remediation - lead Line 1 Risk response to AI/model incidents, support blameless post-mortems, and escalate material unresolved issues promptly.

• Capability uplift and pragmatic guidance - Drive a step-change in AI risk capability across Line 1 by embedding repeatable patterns, practical guardrails and scalable monitoring approaches that allow innovation to occur safely and sustainably.

• BW AI Risk Steward – Ownership, maintenance and creation of BW specific AI Risk Governance materials e.g. BW AI Minimum Requirements, AI Guidance tool.  Ensure governance pathways are proportionate and enable safe experimentation, avoiding unnecessary friction while maintaining control integrity.

• Business translation and pragmatic advice - convert technical findings into operational and regulatory implications for business leaders and recommend proportionate, implementable risk treatments.

We’re interested in hearing from people who have:

• Extensive experience in financial services risk, operational risk or model risk management with demonstrable ownership of model governance or model lifecycle activities.

• Practical understanding of AI/ML concepts, model testing and validation, and modern generative AI (LLMs) risks and controls.

• Strong stakeholder management - proven ability to influence technical and non-technical audiences at senior levels.

• Excellent written and verbal communication: able to convert technical findings into clear, actionable risk advice for business leaders and committees.

• Strong analytical mindset and attention to evidence: comfortable assessing monitoring outputs, validation results and control artefacts.

• Experience with incident management, post-incident reviews and driving remediation to agreed deadlines.

• Demonstrated commercial acumen - able to assess risk in the context of customer impact, speed to market and strategic value, not in isolation.

• Proven ability to provide constructive, evidence-based challenge in complex stakeholder environments, including influencing senior leaders.

• Experience operating in environments undergoing technological or regulatory change.

• Strong digital literacy - comfortable navigating modern data ecosystems, model lifecycle tooling, automation concepts and emerging AI capabilities.

If this sounds like the role for you then we would love to hear from you. Apply today!

We support our people with the flexibility to balance where work is done with at least half their time each month connecting in office. We also have many other flexible working options available including changing start and finish times, part-time arrangements and job share to name a few. Talk to us about how these arrangements might work in the role you’re interested in.

Do work that matters

As a Senior Manager in our Credit Model Validation team, you’ll join a talented group of credit risk modelling experts, driving excellence in model validation.

You’ll play a key role in shaping the future of our credit models, ensuring best practice and alignment with our customer and regulatory expectations.

As part of a highly skilled quantitative team serving all lending businesses across the CBA Group, you will lead critical validation projects for credit risk models. You will also help shape and deliver strategic initiatives that strengthen modelling frameworks and uplift the agility and efficiency of validation activities.

This will be a permanent full-time opportunity.

See yourself in our team

As a key member within the Credit Model Validation chapter, you will lead technical validation activities, deploy advanced analytical methods and tools, and reinforce strong risk management practices throughout the entire model lifecycle. You will deliver comprehensive validation reviews from end to end, mentor and develop team members, and play a pivotal role in enhancing our validation frameworks and methodologies. You will set high standards of technical excellence, exercise sound judgement, and foster strong, effective engagement with stakeholders across the Group.

Your core responsibilities will include

• Model Validation & Technical Leadership – Lead the design and execution of comprehensive validation plans assessing data quality, modelling methodologies, model performance and regulatory compliance.
• Stakeholder Engagement – Engage proactively with model developers/owners, business stakeholders, auditors and regulators to communicate findings, risks, and recommendations. Present insights to internal technical forums, governance committees and/or regulatory meetings.
• Strategic Transformation & Continuous Improvement – Drive strategic transformation and continuous improvement in the validation function, streamlining workflows, uplifting validation methodologies, and enhancing the quality, consistency and efficiency of validation outcomes.
• Team Leadership & Mentorship – Provide mentorship and leadership to team members, cultivate a collaborative and inclusive environment, and advocate for the adoption of advanced analytics tooling and high-quality communication standards.

We are interested in hearing from people who have

• Extensive experience (7+ years) in developing and/or validating a wide range of credit risk PD/LGD/EAD models across different portfolios (in both retail and non-retail) and applications (including AIRB regulatory capital, loan loss provisioning and stress testing).
• A deep understanding of credit risk modelling practices and regulatory requirements is essential.
• Strong quantitative and statistical capability, with excellent analytical judgement and the ability to challenge assumptions constructively.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with experience presenting technical findings to senior audiences and ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, accessible language for non‑technical stakeholders.
• Proven ability to supervise and mentor junior quantitative analysts and lead technical workstreams to successful outcomes.
• Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, Actuarial Studies, or related field.
• Proficient in coding languages such as R/SQL/Python.

Why join us?

• Work on high impact models that shape credit decisions, loan loss provisions and regulatory capital outcomes for Australia’s largest bank.
• Drive meaningful change by ensuring models are robust and aligned with regulatory expectations.
• Be part of a team that values intellectual curiosity, technical rigor and forward-thinking ideas.
• Enjoy access to flexible working options, career development pathways and industry-leading learning opportunities.

Working with us

At CommBank, we advocate and facilitate a culture of inclusion and respect, celebrating all cultures, abilities, genders, expressions of gender and sexual orientation. Read more about our commitment to inclusion and diversity. Our people bring their diverse backgrounds and unique perspectives to build a respectful, inclusive, and flexible workplace. One where we’re driven by our values, and supported to share ideas, initiatives, and energy. One where making a positive impact for customers, communities and each other is part of our every day.   

We’re committed to being an accessible employer and want to make finding your dream job as easy as possible. If you experience any accessibility issues or if you require additional support, please contact HR Direct. We support our people with the flexibility to balance where work is done with a hybrid approach of at least half your time each month connecting in office. We also have many other flexible working options available including changing start and finish times, part-time arrangements and job share to name a few. Talk to us about how these arrangements might work for you. 

Here, you’ll thrive. You’ll be supported when faced with challenges and empowered to tackle new opportunities. We’re hiring talent from across all of Australia and have opened technology hubs in Melbourne and Perth. We really love working here, and we think you will too.

Apply Now to live your best life, by doing your best work with us!

If you're already part of the Commonwealth Bank Group (including Bankwest, x15ventures), you'll need to apply through Sidekick to submit a valid application. We’re keen to support you with the next step in your career.

We're aware of some accessibility issues on this site, particularly for screen reader users. We want to make finding your dream job as easy as possible, so if you require additional support please contact HR Direct on 1800 989 696.