Manager, AI/ML Model Development and Operations

Make banking a Fifth Third better®

We connect great people to great opportunities. Are you ready to take the next step? Discover a career in banking at Fifth Third Bank.

Do you have a passion for AI and Machine Learning and a desire to create a positive impact in the world?  Come help us delight customers and transform financial services using AI and Machine Learning at Fifth Third!  We are seeking applied AI scientists and engineers with diverse backgrounds to help make banking a Fifth Third better.  This position is for a data science manager who will be responsible for leading multiple initiatives and accountable for delivering significant impact at the bank.

**This role is not eligible for immigration sponsorship.

About Fifth Third

Fifth Third is a bank that’s as long on innovation as it is on history. Since 1858, we’ve been helping individuals, families, businesses, and communities grow through smart financial services that improve lives. Our list of firsts is extensive, and it’s one that continues to expand. Fifth Third is one of the few U.S.-based banks to have been named among Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies® for several years. With a commitment to taking care of our customers, employees, communities and shareholders, our goal is not only to be the nation’s highest performing regional bank, but to be the bank people most value and trust.

Did you know Fifth Third’s commercial payments business currently processes $17 trillion in annual payments volume and serves 25% of the Fortune 100?  For decades, the Bank has delivered innovative solutions and scalable technology to consumers and businesses alike: we pioneered the ATM network and enabled some of the first e-commerce transactions on the planet.  At Fifth Third, you will have the opportunity to continue in this tradition of innovation by applying data science and AI to a variety of business applications from lending to fraud to operations and customer service.

About The Job

The successful applicant will be curious, driven, and have a keen attention to detail and passion for all things data and analytics.  You will have completed coursework in computer science, statistics, machine learning, data science and AI.  You will be familiar with good software engineering practices.  You will have experience managing teams and inspiring them to deliver excellence.  On the job, you will be a player-coach, helping others do their best work as they prepare data and build models to improve business outcomes using cutting edge machine learning methods, pretrained models, and open-source tools.  You will contribute to a growing library of reusable code that enables us to accelerate our AI journey.

Our data science team drives highly impactful business outcomes such as reducing losses from bad loans, deciding where to build our next retail banking center, efficiently acquiring profitable customers that bring billions of deposits, ensuring our data-driven methods are equitable and fair to everyone, and automating loan operations and customer service to delight customers and drive efficiencies.  This is an opportunity to lead an incredibly smart team of data scientists and engineers and to leverage cutting edge data science to drive significant business outcomes that have a scaled impact in our communities. 

Data science managers are expected to serve as a model for their team, strive for excellence in methods and outcomes, innovate and push the envelope of what is possible using AI and machine learning in financial services, and openly exchange ideas and opinions with a vibrant community of hundreds of quantitative analysts across the bank. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage team of 3-5 data scientists and machine learning engineers.

• Manage data science projects from beginning to end, performing the work and effectively communicating it.

• Working in a cross functional setting with multiple stakeholders

• Gather and prepare data for analysis/modeling, including unstructured and structured data, including:  tabular data, text, maps, images, voice, video, etc.

• Develop data processing, model development and inference pipelines in python leveraging open source tools such as pandas and scikit-learn

• Understand modeling algorithms and methods:  how the learning algorithms work, which ones to use for which task, and how to debug and fix them when you don’t get the outcomes you want

• Leverage predictive modeling techniques for applications such as classification, regression and sequence modeling, including ensemble methods that combine e.g., LLM embeddings with more traditional supervised methods

• Perform evaluations to establish the efficacy and stability/reliability of model outputs

• Document the model development process for risk management partners who ensure what we develop will pass muster with regulators

• Leverage web services, containers, and cloud services to deploy and manage models

• Develop and automate robust reporting and model monitoring methods

• Contribute to a growing codebase of reusable python code that enables us to accelerate our application of advanced analytics

• Partner with key stakeholders to understand business needs and formulate, communicate and create buy-in for analytics approaches and solutions

• Transform unstructured problems into structured plans, including plans for investigations and experiments to move the data science application from idea to successful implementation with progressively more convincing evidence

• Successfully collaborate with others to bring your idea to life in production where it can positively impact millions of consumers and businesses

MINIMUM KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

• Experience managing and motivating teams, managing performance, conflict resolution

• Demonstrated ability to focus team on achieving business outcomes

• Highly collaborative, effective communicator

• Voracious curiosity and a passion for applied statistics and data science

• Fluent in python, pandas, scikit-learn, SQL, statistics

• Practical experience applying AI/ML:  project work, practicum, research or job experience

• Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Physics (where AI/ML and predictive modeling played a central role in coursework and research);  Advanced degrees preferred but not required

• Ability to understand and implement cutting edge methods published in conferences and journal preferred but not required

• Excellent written and oral communications skills

• Focus on outcomes, able to effectively manage time, independent and highly self-motivated

At Fifth Third Bank, we understand the importance of rewarding our employees for their hard work and dedication, therefore, our Total Rewards offering includes a differentiated compensation package and comprehensive benefits.

Benefits:

Our benefits programs are designed to support the health, happiness, and financial well-being of our employees and their families. Your benefits will include access to comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) plan and employee stock purchase plan that both offer a generous employer match, flexible paid time off, comprehensive leave programs, and unique benefits to support your overall mental and physical wellness. For additional details, please contact your recruiter.

Compensation:

The base salary for this position is reflective of the range of salary levels for all roles within this pay grade across the US. Individual salaries within this range will vary based on factors such as role, relevant skillset, relevant experience, education and geographic location. In addition to the base salary, this role is eligible to participate in an incentive compensation plan, with any such payment based upon company, line of business and/or individual performance

Fifth Third Bank, National Association is proud to have an engaged and inclusive culture and to promote and ensure equal employment opportunity in all employment decisions regardless of race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, veteran status or any other legally protected status.