Lead Data Scientist – Financial Crime (APAC)

About the role

Mastercard is building a new Centre of Excellence in Asia‑Pacific for its Financial Crime Solutions team. As a Lead Data Scientist you will design, develop and maintain data‑science models that detect fraud, scams and money laundering using payment data, while supporting regional customers and aligning with global strategy.

Key responsibilities

• Perform proof‑of‑concept projects, design products and build prototypes.
• Develop novel algorithms and research methods to uncover criminal behaviours in payments data.
• Translate insights into new products and services for external clients.
• Write white papers, patents and client‑facing visualisations.
• Act as the regional expert for financial‑crime model development, maintenance and governance.
• Provide data‑science guidance and services to customers across APAC, tailoring global frameworks to local market needs.
• Collaborate with global data‑science and product teams to align methodology and model strategy.

Required profile

• Strong passion for designing algorithms that solve real‑world problems using data.
• Interest in financial services and a desire to combat financial crime.
• Experience delivering data‑science solutions in regulated or payments‑adjacent environments.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts to non‑technical colleagues.
• Fluent in English and comfortable working in a federated model balancing global standards with local execution.

Required skills

• Proficient Python programming with libraries such as pandas, polars, scikit‑learn and networkx.
• Experience developing new algorithms in novel situations.
• Knowledge of streaming and real‑time data processing.
• Familiarity with modern machine‑learning approaches, including deep‑learning frameworks.
• Expertise in network and graph‑based analysis to model complex behaviours.
• Ability to create custom data visualisations and analytical prototypes.