Team Lead AI

About AkzoNobel

Since 1792, we’ve been supplying the innovative paints and coatings that help to color people’s lives and protect what matters most. Our world class portfolio of brands – including Dulux, International, Sikkens and Interpon – is trusted by customers around the globe. We’re active in more than 150 countries and use our expertise to sustain and enhance the fabric of everyday life. Because we believe every surface is an opportunity. It’s what you’d expect from a pioneering and long-established paints company that’s dedicated to providing sustainable solutions and preserving the best of what we have today – while creating an even better tomorrow. Let’s paint the future together.

For more information please visit www.akzonobel.com 

© 2024 Akzo Nobel N.V. All rights reserved.

Let's paint a picture of the role

Akzonobel is in the middle of changing and modernizing its IT function, and AI is in the middle of this change. We are forming an AI / ML team from scratch, supported by a central, global data platform, an organization that is rife with opportunity and a business that is actively looking for ways to act on AI related use cases they see. Akzonobel being the large multinational manufacturer of paints and performance coatings that it is, operating in industry and consumer markets, you can imagine that there is a lot to do in areas like digital marketing, (Gen)AI Q&A based assistance, price, margin and stock management, R&D, coat lifetime prediction and many more.

Are you that AI Team Lead who enjoys building from the ground up and laying down the foundations for an MLOps process that can support high value deployments in a well structured way for years to come? Then keep reading!

Our AI team is part of the Data & Analytics domain in IT Delivery, where we deliver data and analytics products from our Akzonobel Data Fabric, a centralised, global platform leveraging Databricks on Azure, as well as MS Fabric as an exposure layer, in a medallion architecture. Of course our primary focus is to bring value to our business, but a driving principle behind this is that we use an agile, iterative approach to prevent rework and replication and optimise for effective deployment, reuse and scalability. 

We are looking for a driven AI team lead who is excited in equal parts by the opportunity to leverage the current rapid technical developments in our field and the organisational challenge of setting up a new technical team in an established large multinational. Even though the team is still small, the role will require big picture thinking in terms of the future of AI in the organisation and the propensity to immediately start executing in big and small and above all, agile ways.

Responsibilities

•    Collaborate with business, architects and demand and project managers to understand company needs and devise possible AI / model based solutions.
•    People management of internal employees in the AI team (target setting, compensation, learning and personal development)
•    Resource allocation of internal and external employees across the AI project portfolio (3-5 FTE and counting)
•    Manage requirements and in- and outflux of external resources with our external partners
•    Guide all aspects of AI platform development, standardisation and governance in Databricks – MLOps practices, structured code sharing, model governance and monitoring setup.
•    Liaise with other team / domain leads (Data Engineering, Reporting, Integration, Cloud teams) on both technical and non-technical aspects of team and platform development
•    Drive strategy and direction for the team in alignment with Domain Lead D&A, Architects D&A, AI program manager and higher management in IT
•    Support and stimulate high level technical development, state of the art and out of the box thinking through knowledge sharing in- and outside the team and the company and creating room for experimentation through e.g. hackathons and small PoC initiatives.
 

What do you have to have to be successful in this role?

•    MSc in mathematics, statistics, computer science or related field; PhD degree (preferred) OR equivalent experience.
•    Excellent understanding of machine learning techniques and algorithms, including LLM’s, but with a solid foundation in ‘traditional’ predictive modelling. Hands-on experience developing and deploying machine learning pipelines.
•    Solid understanding of the MLOps process and related principles (CI/CD, testing, documentation, ML governance, model performance management) and the ability to guide their structured application in practice.
•    Experience leading a technical team, including people management as described above
•    Strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to communicate in an engaging yet realistic way about AI and ML with a non-technical audience

What does AkzoNobel offer in return?

It’s a two-way street. This means that we offer not only a competitive salary but also believe in a healthy work-life balance.
•    Above average number of annual holidays (30 (mm5/mm6) / 44 (g-level) / 46 (mm1 – mm2) days' off.)
•    Participation in the AkzoNobel pension plan.
•    Fixed bonus (CLA) or bonus structure. (MM5/MM6)
•    Travel expenses to and from work.
•    Opportunities for ongoing education and professional development.
•    Hybrid way of working (60/40).
•    Being part of events and networking platforms.
•    Paint with a discount.

We aim to create a sense of belonging, where everyone can share their diverse backgrounds, participate in events, and connect through networking platforms.

More information on how to apply

We welcome your online application via https://careers.akzonobel.com/.

The recruitment process includes a selection of the best applications received through the system, interview rounds and further steps. An online assessment and an employment screening might be part of the selection process.

If you have questions about the role or interview process, please contact Berber Wegener at berber.wegener@akzonobel.com
 

At AkzoNobel we are highly committed to ensuring an inclusive and respectful workplace where all employees can be their best self. We strive to embrace diversity in a context of tolerance. Our talent acquisition process plays an integral part in this journey, as setting the foundations for a diverse environment. For this reason we train and educate on the implications of our Unconscious Bias in order for our TA and hiring managers to be mindful of them and take corrective actions when applicable. In our organization, all qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability.

Requisition ID: 38749