Principal Specialist Data Science & Artificial Intelligence

About Ma'aden

Ma'aden, established in 1997, is recognized as one of the fastest-growing mining companies globally and the largest multi-commodity mining and metals company in the Middle East. The company is instrumental in developing the mining industry to become a key pillar of Saudi Arabia’s economy by building a world-class, integrated mining value chain.

Role Overview

The Principal Specialist, Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, will lead advanced data science and analytics initiatives within the Agentic AI department in Riyadh. This full-time role focuses on translating complex business problems into scalable analytical solutions, AI-enabled insights, predictive models, and decision intelligence products. The specialist will contribute to building enterprise capabilities that leverage trusted data, machine learning, automation, and agentic AI concepts to enhance productivity, operational performance, and business decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

• Translate business priorities and operational challenges into clear data science problem statements, analytical approaches, and measurable outcomes.
• Design and deliver predictive, prescriptive, diagnostic, and exploratory analytics solutions to support decision-making across business and operational domains.
• Develop machine learning models, statistical analyses, simulations, optimization approaches, and advanced analytics products using enterprise data assets.
• Support the development of agentic AI use cases by defining data, model, workflow, evaluation, and decision-support requirements.
• Collaborate with AI engineers, platform teams, data engineers, and business stakeholders to embed analytics and machine learning into autonomous or semi-autonomous workflows.
• Create reusable analytical assets, data science patterns, feature logic, model components, and decision intelligence products.
• Partner with data platform, governance, and architecture teams to ensure data products are trusted, well-documented, reusable, and operationally maintainable.
• Apply appropriate data science governance practices for model validation, performance monitoring, bias checks, versioning, deployment readiness, and lifecycle management.
• Provide expert guidance to analysts, data scientists, engineers, and business teams on analytical methods, model design, evaluation, and adoption.
• Advise stakeholders on the realistic capabilities of analytics or AI, required data readiness, implementation complexity, and expected value.

Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in data science and artificial intelligence.
• Demonstrated ability to translate business problems into analytical solutions and deliver measurable outcomes.
• Proficiency in developing and deploying machine learning models and advanced analytics products.
• Experience with data governance practices, model validation, and performance monitoring.
• Strong communication skills to convey insights, risks, and recommendations to diverse stakeholders.

Success Factors

Success in this role is defined by the effective translation of business problems into clear data science use cases and measurable value outcomes. It involves delivering predictive, prescriptive, and decision intelligence solutions with strong technical quality and practical business relevance. Additionally, supporting Agentic AI use cases with trusted data, robust models, and appropriate human oversight is crucial. The ideal candidate will ensure that analytics and AI products are reusable, documented, governed, monitored, and compliant with responsible AI expectations, while providing clear insights and recommendations that enhance productivity and performance.