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BBVA is a global company with more than 160 years of history that operates in more than 25 countries where we serve more than 80 million customers. We are more than 121,000 professionals working in multidisciplinary teams with profiles as diverse as financiers, legal experts, data scientists, developers, engineers and designers.

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At AI Factory, we're at the forefront of AI and machine learning innovation-building products that seamlessly blend deep technical excellence with unmatched business and user value. Our mission is to accelerate delivery of scalable AI products while fostering a strong product culture, technical excellence, and responsible AI adoption.

As a Senior Manager affiliated to the Data Science discipline, you will lead cross-functional initiatives that cut across strategy, execution, governance, and knowledge development, ensuring that the AI Factory operates at the highest standards of efficiency, transparency, and innovation.

Why Join Us?

This is a unique opportunity to shape how AI products are built, governed, and delivered at scale within a global financial institution. You will work at the intersection of technology, governance, and innovation, driving initiatives that directly impact millions of users and position BBVA as a leader in AI development.

About the job:

This role will act as both a strategic leader and operational enabler, ensuring that discipline-wide priorities are executed effectively and measured against clear outcomes. You will coordinate with Product, Data, and Engineering leads, mentor discipline owners, and guide teams to achieve consistency, reusability, and compliance across the organization. You will also lead the community of practice (CoP) for BBVA AI Factory's large pool of Data Scientists, fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing, and preventing knowledge silos.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Execution

• Strategic Delivery: Provide direction and oversight of delivery initiatives, ensuring discipline goals are aligned with the AI Factory strategy and accelerating time to value.

• Fostering Reusability: Encourage reuse of analytical components and solutions, supporting teams in identifying synergies across programs.

• Problem-Solving: Actively remove blockages and address trade-offs so teams can progress smoothly and remain focused on value creation.

• Milestone Tracking: Keep close track of commitments and delivery dates, ensuring transparency on priorities and resource allocation.

• Team Support: Ensure teams are well equipped with the guidance, tools, and processes needed to achieve their goals effectively.

Ways of Working

• Promote adoption of agile practices and tooling (e.g., Jira) to improve visibility, standardisation, and tracking of work across teams.

• Ensure consistent application of WoW (Ways of Working) guidelines for models and engines across all products.

Recruitment & Continuous Improvement

• Lead and enhance recruitment processes for internal and external profiles, improving efficiency and quality, while managing relationships with third-party providers to ensure effective collaboration and delivery.

• Contribute to process improvements in onboarding, mentoring, and internal guidelines.

Knowledge & Talent Development

• Lead the community of practice for Data Scientists within BBVA AI Factory, encouraging collaboration, cross-team initiatives, and non-essential but enriching activities to build culture and expertise.

• Define and promote training initiatives aligned with business needs to ensure teams stay updated with the newest trends and state-of-the-art technologies, complemented by workshops and knowledge-sharing activities.

• Lead internal dissemination through meetups, experimentation forums, and community-building to prevent knowledge silos.

• Drive external dissemination via blogs, conferences, scientific papers, and open-source contributions to strengthen BBVA's presence in the global AI ecosystem.

Governance & Regulation

• Facilitate peer reviews to ensure to keep updated the model inventory.

• Champion Responsible AI practices, ensuring all deployed AI systems comply with the EU AI Act and BBVA model Governance Framework

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 8+ years of experience in leadership roles across technology, analytics, or AI-driven organizations.

• Proven track record of delivering organizational or discipline-wide transformation goals.

• Experience aligning governance, compliance, and innovation in complex environments.

Skills

• Strategic Vision: Ability to translate broad organizational goals into concrete, measurable actions.

• Leadership: Skilled in leading through influence, coaching, and building high-performing, multidisciplinary teams.

• Community Leadership: Experience building and leading communities of practice, fostering collaboration and preventing silos.

• Process Excellence: Strong knowledge of agile frameworks, product lifecycle management, and process optimization.

• Technical Acumen: Familiarity with AI/ML model lifecycle, data product development, and model governance practices.

• Communication: Exceptional ability to influence stakeholders at all levels, from technical teams to executive leadership.

Education

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Business, or related fields.

• Training or certifications in product management, agile practices, or governance frameworks are highly valued.

Skills:

Client Orientation, Empathy, Ethics, Innovation, Proactive Thinking