Vice President, ML Engineering & Data Science

Company Description

Rapid technological development is transforming the fashion retail industry.  From AI to data-driven business development, user experience to engineering, we turn business challenges into innovative tech solutions – making H&M Group a global leader in combining tech, fashion, and design. 

The H&M Group’s Tech organization created a completely new product organization where we explore new ways of working, have a customer focused mindset, embrace our strong values, and release the power of our people to innovate and develop products that make a meaningful impact to customers all over the world.  The team aims to continuously surprise and delight our customers and accelerate our business - by releasing the power of people, data and technology.  To cater to the individual needs and desires of our millions of customers, Business Tech will deliver technological solutions for the entire value chain for all our brands.

Job Description

Imagine an opportunity to make an impact at scale by leading the strategy, design, development, and implementation through managing your own Data Science and ML Engineering team within H&M  Tech Organization!  As a leader, you will develop AI and ML Engineering strategies to build, integrate, and optimize the overall data ecosystem environment to maximize H&M Brand’s business value. You thrive in fostering teamwork/collaboration and developing world-class Strategic, Technical, Engineering, and Operational capabilities. We are shaping the future of sustainable fashion and design- we trust and challenge you to grow, develop, and write your own story! 

Core Responsibilities includes but is not limited to:  

• Build, develop, and scale H&M Group as the Center of Excellence for AI, Data Science & ML Engineering through hiring a powerhouse of ML/AI talent, driving innovation across the globe, and develop a forward-thinking global technology strategy that advances the business needs for agility, cost, and stability 

• Define a comprehensive multi-year analytics capability and services roadmap for AIAD in creating a holistic vision in defining current and future-state business architecture and define/automate end-to-end model governance processes while partnering with business leaders 

• Establish and maintain model governance, consistent with global standards, for review and approve execution of the regional technology strategy from an after-thought to a fully automated and integrated function within the entire software engineering pipeline 

• Contribute to timely analytic engagement (e.g., Enterprise Data Council), data and modeling standards governance, public cloud architecture governance as well as application portfolio management, technology products governance and risk management, including audit and regulatory engagements 

• Implement and govern key model architecture processes and telemetry to provide a measured view of quality, accountability, and reusability while alignment with H&M specific global and external industry standards 

• Sustain a thorough understanding of present and anticipated technology economics, evaluating the influence of targeted investments outlined in the roadmap. Analyze technology trends and opportunities, pinpointing best practices to gauge our standing in terms of position, capability, and performance against both direct competitors and parallel industries/organizations. Challenge the status quo with the aim of positioning H&M competitively in an era marked by heightened competition and digital disruption. 

• Lead a team in developing data tools to analyze, curate, and interrogate our data with statistical models, data processing frameworks, end-to-end dashboards, automated reports, and web apps and develop systems to account for and track model outputs and metrics through all steps of data generation and analysis.  

• Champion an inclusive and diverse global mindset to attract a deep and diverse talent pool within the organization that includes effective coaching and development 

• Lead programs that aid data-science guidance mindset across the organization by actively connecting with stakeholders across the company to identify areas of data-science needs and opportunities to more fully leveraging the value of data 

• Present scientific results to program teams, external conferences, and executive leadership with opportunities and enable measurable improvements quickly and best utilize resources, while building an automation roadmap that matches strategy and direction 

• Formal staff responsibility, including salary review, performance dialogues and support in individual development plans and competence needs 

Qualifications

• Masters or PHD or Graduate degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Data Science, or Engineering is desired 

• Open to any Industry, though experience within retail/brands/e-commerce would be an added advantage 

• 10+ years of Data and Analytics leadership experience of leading at scale 

• Demonstrated experience applying Data Science, Statistical, and Machine-Learning techniques to a variety of applications at scale, operationalizing ML models in production, overseeing the implementation of MLOps and instilling software engineering best practices 

• Experience working with modern deep learning frameworks across a variety of analytics functions and capacities, designing and leading or rolling out product-oriented methodology across teams 

• Experience with advanced data science techniques including advanced qualitative and quantitative data mining, complex predictive modeling, and other real-time pattern detection methods.  

• In-depth experience with machine learning, ML Ops, algorithms, statistics, visualization, data engineering, natural language processing, data platforms and engineering. 

• Experience working in a globally matrixed organization (Agile method and scum teams) with the ability to unify and lead teams within a matrixed organization.  

• Standardization of disparate approaches to Data and AI/Data Science and established partnerships with top academic institutions or industry/domain leaders 

• Previous experience managing large programs and budgets preferred, referenceable leadership, management, or key influencer experiences required 

• An individual who embodies and exemplifies the core values of H&M in both their actions and communication 

Additional Information

Why Join Us? 

The H&M Group’s Tech organization aims to continuously surprise and delight our customers and accelerate our business to shape the future of sustainable fashion and design through the power of people, data, and technology.  You will be part of turning business challenges into innovative tech solutions – making H&M Group a global leader in combining tech, fashion, and design. Being a major player gives us countless opportunities to make a real impact and shape the future.  You are empowered, trusted, and challenged to explore your own path and write your own story. We believe in giving people responsibility early on, to create a strong sense of ownership and accountability.  Our business is your business. 

Everyone is a Leader at Business Tech  

To reach our ambitious business goals and create meaningful growth, we believe a new and shared leadership is needed. Every person must use his or her passion, curiosity, and ideas to lead the way and make a difference. We believe that everyone at the H&M Group is a leader. We all have different strengths – use yours! Sometimes you lead and sometimes you follow. We support each other’s growth and enable strong collaboration within and outside Business Tech.