Staff/Senior Data Scientist (Cybersecurity)

[What the role is]

GovTech is the lead agency driving Singapore's Smart Nation initiatives and public sector digital transformation. As the Centre of Excellence for Infocomm Technology and Smart Systems (ICT & SS), GovTech develops the Singapore Government's capabilities in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Application Development, Smart City Technology, Digital Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity.

At GovTech, we offer you a purposeful career to make lives better where we empower our people to master their craft through robust learning and development opportunities all year round.

Play a part in Singapore's vision to build a Smart Nation and embark on your meaningful journey to build tech for public good. Join us to advance our mission and shape your future with us today!

Learn more about GovTech at tech.gov.sg.

The Cyber Security Group (CSG) is the cybersecurity arm of GovTech.
CSG is committed to create a digital government that is safe and secure. CSG delivers technical and operational capabilities to counteract cyber threats, provides thought leadership on transformative cybersecurity governance and policies and to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of government agencies in a manner that is sustainable, pragmatic, and effective.

This is a new role focused on building agentic AI workflows to enhance cybersecurity operations. You will work at the intersection of AI, data engineering, automation, and cyber defense-collaborating with colleagues in Cybersecurity Engineering, Incident Response, Detection Engineering, and Threat Hunting teams.

[What you will be working on]

At the Cyber Defence Ops and Intel (CDOI) Division of GovTech's Cybersecurity Group (CSG), we are committed to create a digital government that is safe and secure. CSG delivers technical and operational capabilities to counteract cyber threats, provides thought leadership on transformative cybersecurity governance and policies and to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of government agencies in a manner that is sustainable, pragmatic, and effective.

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Data Scientist to join our cybersecurity team, focusing on leading the development of agentic Security Operations Center (SOC) initiatives to enhance our cybersecurity operations. In this role, you will leverage advanced data science techniques and machine learning models to identify security threats, mitigate risks, and protect critical assets. You will collaborate closely with business stakeholders, cybersecurity experts, and engineers to deliver actionable insights and production-ready solutions.

The Opportunity

At GovTech, we are committed to building secure and innovative digital solutions for Singapore. As a Data Scientist in our Cybersecurity Group (CSG), you will help drive the adoption of state-of-the-art AI/ML models and frameworks such as LangChain-to strengthen our nation's cyber defense. Your role is to advise management on a broad range of technology, strategy, and policy issues associated with AI pertinent to the realm of Cybersecurity. You will lead the team to work on initiatives leveraging on foundational models and multi-agent orchestration frameworks to develop, deploy, and optimize AI-powered security products and workflows. Your focus will be on productizing AI capabilities for internal and external stakeholders, creating efficient, explainable, and secure agentic workflows.

Experience with cloud platforms as well as developing robust, low-latency, high-accuracy AI solutions, will be highly valued.

Key Responsibilities

• Engage with various stakeholders and cybersecurity teams to deeply understand evolving challenges related to unauthorized privileged access and identify opportunities for data-driven solutions.

• Design, develop, and deploy advanced machine learning models and analytical techniques to detect anomalous behavior and potential security breaches.

• Continuously monitor and evaluate model performance iterate to improve detection accuracy and reduce false positives.

• Collaborate with engineering teams to build scalable and reliable production systems that operationalize detection models.

• Lead, mentor, and support the engineering team, fostering their technical growth and development.

• Communicate complex findings and insights clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, driving data-informed decision-making.

• Lead project planning and timeline management to ensure timely delivery of analytics solutions.

[What we are looking for]

Required Skills & Experience

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field. PhD preferred.
• Proven experience (typically 5+ years) in data science or machine learning roles, preferably within cybersecurity or fraud detection domains.
• Strong expertise in anomaly detection, behavioral analytics, and classification models.
• Hands-on experience with Python, R, or similar programming languages and relevant ML libraries (e.g., scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch).
• Experience using Jupyter is a plus.
• Familiarity with cybersecurity concepts, especially in security monitoring, threat detection and response.
• Experience working with large-scale datasets, data pipelines, and cloud environments.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into business terms.
• Leadership experience, with a track record of managing projects and mentoring team members.

Preferred/Bonus

• Knowledge of SIEM tools and their data outputs.
• Experience with unsupervised learning techniques and graph analytics, as well as expertise in prompt engineering for Large Language Models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems.
• Strong problem-solving mindset with a passion for continuous learning.

Soft Skills & Mindset

• Creative problem-solver-able to think out of the box and develop innovative solutions to complex challenges.
• Willing to be bold-not afraid to take smart risks and propose unconventional approaches.
• Effective communicator-comfortable explaining technical concepts across the team.
• Collaborative team player-enjoys working with multidisciplinary stakeholders.
• Adaptable and open-minded-comfortable with fast-paced change and new technologies.

Our Values

• Agile: We're unafraid to disrupt our way of working and are always brainstorming new possibilities.
• Bold: We take smart risks and make tough decisions even when there are uncertainties.
• Collaborative: Rallying our greatest assets-our GovTechies-we embark on new and innovative projects.

Application

If you are excited to be at the frontier of cybersecurity and AI automation, apply now and be part of our mission to safeguard Singapore's digital future.

If you are passionate about applying data science to protect organizations from critical security threats and want to lead and mentor a talented team, we would love to hear from you!

Read about the work we do here:

GovTech is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive workplace that values diverse voices and perspectives, as we believe it is key to innovation.

Our employee benefits are based on a total rewards approach, offering a holistic and market-competitive suite of perks.

We champion flexible work arrangements (subject to your job role) and trust you to manage your time to deliver your best.

Learn more about life inside GovTech at go.gov.sg/GovTechCareers.