Job Description

Chief Product Officer

Date: 10-Jun-2022 Location: Singapore, Singapore Company: Singtel Group

DataSpark is a leading provider of data science software tools and capabilities to extract mobility-rich data features (“mobility genomes”) from very large, nation-wide datasets. Created from a vision to transform Singtel’s rich and unique repository of data into business value and social impact, our software and data products and services are supporting the strategic and operational decisions of many businesses, government agencies, and other telecommunication companies:

• Telecommunications use our software capabilities to decide on the rollout of 4G and 5G cell sites and which cell site to upgrade capacity. Our data-intensive software application helps optimize network capex budgets that typically run into hundreds of millions of US dollars.
• Transport and urban planners use our data insights to make road and rail transport infrastructure investment decisions. These multi-billion investments require granular insights on population-wide mobility patterns, here and in the future.
• Outdoor media owners and brand advertisers want to know the reach and frequency of their outdoor advertisements. There is significant opportunity to optimize the increasing hundreds of millions of US dollars spent on out-of-home media activation.
• Lead DataSpark’s on a new 2 to 3-year strategic effort to modernise the data infrastructure of its parent companies Singtel and Optus (which is part of a S$~200m multi-year program), and to develop in parallel productized “data fabric” components for deployment in other telecommunication companies

There is a long-tail of use cases for which our population-wide mobility insights are relevant. We strive for our analytics to be trustworthy and relevant to our clients while adhering to high standards of data security and privacy. We are looking for a Chief Product Officer (CPO) who is a Data professional with strong experience in both business and technology. With expertise in areas of Product Management, Data Science, Data and Software Engineering, the CPO will steer ongoing efforts as well as drive new technology strategies to enhance DataSpark’s data products and large scale data-intensive applications solving business planning problems in telco network rollouts, transport systems management and outdoor media activation. Responsibilities Product Champion and Technical leader

• Lead ongoing efforts to build data-intensive software products that apply advanced machine learning and statistical modelling in real-world geo-spatial applications in the fields of Transportation, Telecommunications, and other domains. These applications include road and rail transport planning in transport, and value-based 4G/5G network rollout in telecommunications.
• Specifically, own, plan and oversee the execution of DataSpark’s Product and Technology roadmap, which comprises the product management, data science, data and software engineering tracks:
  • Set the vision and strategy for portfolio of products, through extensive consultation and alignment with internal stakeholders:
    • Regularly review market and technological trends and customer needs, some of which will be received from existing customers by the DataSpark delivery teams
    • Confirm or re-define roadmap and value proposition as part of the AOP process or whenever a product pivot is called for
    • Ideation management, and conduct of market research and requirement gathering to test prioritised ideas
    • High-level business case development and alignment with stakeholders
    • Securing of shareholders' approval for any required investment
    • Act as the key advocate on how to evolve the Product Roadmap and portfolio of products and secure alignment among various internal and external stakeholders
    • Build working prototypes in short iteration cycles with in-house or partner resources to demonstrate the feasibility and scalability of solutions
    • Drive rhythmic software product releases, through integrated operations of the product management, data science and software engineering teams, and leveraging outsourced capacity where necessary
    • Ensure seamless interface between productisation and implementation, i.e. deploying the data products and applications at scale in the field
    
    

• Lead new efforts to build the data fabric for Telco of the Future in an agile, programmatic manner. These include formulation of the design and implementation blueprints with a solid understanding of current and future business requirements, facilitating and making key decisions on the data solution architecture and resourcing, and overseeing and steering the execution of the blueprints. Specifically, you will:

Design the solution architecture of the data fabric

• Lead the technical solution design and delivery of architecture blueprints
• Analyse impact of solutions to mitigate business risks
• Recommend adoption of new data processing and serving technologies and applications
• Foster continuous improvement by looking for ways to improve the design processes, models and approach

Implement solution

• Drive the implementation to ensure technical soundness and integrity of solution
• Create rapid POC or prototypes to verify if customer requirements can be fulfilled or need to be updated
• Optimise design with user requirements
• Evaluate different tools and techniques
• Provide guidance on technical standards guidelines (such as eTOM) and best practices aligned to overall enterprise architecture
• Define the implementation and/or release processes
• Lead end-to-end technical testing and implementation of solution
• Drive compatibility, interoperability, stability and usability of recommended solution architecture

People leader

• Be an inspiring people manager for the growing team of product managers, data scientists and software engineers
• Work closely with community manager and recruiters to attract top product management, data science and software engineering talent
• Acting as a role model, coach and nurture data talent for industry success

Industry thought leader

• Amongst industry and academia, project DataSpark as a thought leader for applying data science to real-world problems via selective speaking engagements and managing patent filings and scientific paper publications

Requirements

• At least BA/BS degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent
• 10+ years of work experience with 7+ years’ in successful development and application of machine learning, data mining, and statistical analysis with demonstrable impact and proven tracks records.
• 4+ years' experience of leading and managing product development teams of data science or data or software engineering direct reports, fostering a positive workplace culture.
• Tangible experience of having built scalable B2B products from large data sets, the experience, thought leadership and vision in how products can be built for commercial scale and success
• Proven technical leadership experience and strong people followership of data professionals.
• Able to evaluate or lead a cross-functional team to assess multiple technologies and identify what are best for the DataSpark business, given a strong background in software development - system architecture, programming and software design.
• Knowing who to hire for the core data science team and product engineering team, and having experience managing the exit non-performing staff.
• Deep practical understanding of data and information lifecycle management, with a working knowledge of existing and emerging open-source Big Data technologies, including databases and engines for structure and non-structured data, data transformation (ETL).
• Proven project management skills, able to manage multiple technology development projects while setting realistic expectations to internal and external stakeholders.
• A strong focus on the internal and external customer. Ability to communicate with data in a clear and precise way to external business audience and company customers, as well as internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to take high level, loosely-defined business problems and identify precise, quantitative solutions.
• Demonstrated intuition for understanding customer needs from different perspectives and ability translate needs into product requirements.
• Ability to think strategically (big picture, long term) and tactically (detailed, short term), and to align both perspectives.
• Demonstrated clear and thorough logical and analytical thinking, as well as problem solving skills.
• Superior and proactive communications skills, including verbal, written, and presentation
• Excellent organizational skills, and proven ability to analyse, prioritise and align numerous workstreams, customer requests and priorities towards a coherent, elegant solution. A proven team player and contributor
• Self-directed, ability to work independently and research innovative solutions to business problems. Multi-skilled, curious and eager to learn a spectrum of hard and soft skills, including data analytics, software development, design thinking, project management, leadership, communication, market strategy.
• A passion for empirical research, data mining and ad-hoc analysis and coding.