Chapter Lead and Principal Data Scientist  - Career Comeback Program 2026 

Chapter Lead and Principal Data Scientist  - Career Comeback Program 2026 

• Thinking about returning to work after a career break? The Career Comeback Program gives experienced professionals the confidence, support and flexibility to restart their careers. 

• Hybrid working with a mixture of working from home and office. 

About our Career Comeback Program:   

Stepping back into your career after a break can feel daunting – that’s exactly what our Career Comeback Program is designed for. It’s a structured, supported pathway for experienced professionals returning to the workforce after an extended career break, offering wrap-around support to help you rebuild confidence, refresh skills and set yourself up to thrive from day one.  

As part of the Program, you can expect: 

• Paid 20-week support Program starting on Monday 27 July 2026, with employment on a permanent contract extending post-program.   

• A structured induction and re-onboarding experience to help you settle in quickly.  

• Personalised career coaching and mentoring for confidence, clarity and momentum. 

• Professional development workshops designed to support your transition back to work. 

• A dedicated program manager and support network (e.g., buddy/alumni connection) to guide you throughout the program. 

If you’ve taken a career break of two years or more, this is your opportunity to return to meaningful work with the structure, support and flexibility to help you thrive. You can read more about our Career Comeback Program here.   

Do work that matters: 

CommBank is leading the world of banking by venturing into new-to-the-world innovations. We're on the cutting edge, embracing AI technologies to reshape how we operate and serve our customers. When you join CommBank, you’re joining a team that values expertise and responsible AI innovation, and you’ll be empowered to lead projects that push the boundaries of what's possible in safe, fast and reliable ways! 

At the heart of the Chief Operations Office (COO), we’re reimagining how we serve customers in operations through the power of transformative AI solutions.  

See yourself in our team: 

 As Chapter Lead and Principal Data Scientist reporting to the Chapter Area Lead of Data Science in COO, you’ll be a hands-on technical leader working in cross-functional squads with engineers and other experts to design and deliver innovative, responsible and high impact AI solutions. You’ll stay at the forefront of emerging technologies, fostering a culture of curiosity, inclusion, and continuous learning in the team, and translating complex ideas into high-impact outcomes for our customers and colleagues. You’ll contribute strongly to guide the team on technically demanding problems across COO as AI continues to evolve. 

If you’re passionate about shaping the future of AI while helping others thrive, we’d love you to lead with us. 

Key responsibilities include: 

• Lead GenAI and Agentic system design and development: Prototype, design, develop, deploy and design monitoring for innovative GenAI and Agentic solutions that reimagine the customer service experience. 

• Develop and implement Machine Learning Models: Prototype, design, develop, deploy and design monitoring for a variety of machine learning models. 

• Expand Data/AI Science Usage: Identify potential AI opportunities across COO for future focus. 

• Drive Continuous Improvement and Business Outcomes: Work closely with operations teams to understand their experience, pioneering adoption and application of transformative AI and Gen AI capabilities and paving the path for how the bank will operate to towards the vision of re-imagined banking and customer service. 

We’re interested in hearing from people who have the following skills: 

We use a broad range of tools, languages, and frameworks, which means our people managers are technology leaders that will lead, manage, empower, and inspire a diverse group of data scientists with various strengths and broad range of skillsets.   

We do not expect you to have managed teams working with all of these skills, but having experience and exposure with leading and technically driving teams that specialise in some of these (or equivalents) will be highly valued.   

Technical Leadership and Coordination: 

• Ability to coordinate effectively across the COO Data Science community to unify efforts and drive collaborative outcomes. 

• Demonstrated capability in driving outcomes that are reusable and can be leveraged across the group. 

• Intellectual curiosity and ability and willingness to learn, experiment and lead new to the world concepts.  

Technical Skills and Tools: 

• Generative AI:  Experience designing and deploying various aspects of Generative AI, including prompt engineering, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), guardrail design, orchestration design, skills, evals frameworks, and tools such as LangChain and LangGraph. 

• Machine Learning: Expertise in the design and construction of machine learning models, including natural language processing, unsupervised clustering and classification algorithms including feature engineering, model selection, hyperparameter tuning, model evaluation, and deployment of models into production environments. 

• Cutting-Edge AI: Work on projects leveraging traditional AI, Generative AI, and agentic AI to pave the path for how banking and broader industry functions in the future. 

• Version Control and CI/CD: Experience with version control and CI/CD pipelines such as GitHub. 

• Tooling: Hands-on experience with data science tools such as Spark, Python, R, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and SQL. 

• Data Engineering: Knowledge of ETL processes and data pipeline construction, ensuring efficient data flow and integration. 

• Deployment: Familiar with Docker for containerization and deployment of applications. 

• Cloud Architecture: Grounded understanding in AWS or Azure Cloud architecture and integration, demonstrating experience in deploying and managing cloud-based solutions. 

Eligibility criteria for Career Comeback Program: 

If this sounds like you and you meet the essential criteria below, APPLY TODAY! 

• Are currently on a career break of 2 years or more.   

• Have permanent Australian working rights at the time of application.  

• Are based in Sydney at the time of application.  

Working with us: 

Whether you’re passionate about customer service, driven by data, or called by creativity, a career here is for you. At CommBank, we advocate and facilitate a culture of inclusion and respect, celebrating all cultures, abilities, genders, expressions of gender and sexual orientation. Read more about our commitment to inclusion and diversity on our career’s website. 

Our people bring their diverse backgrounds and unique perspectives to build a respectful, inclusive and flexible workplace. We are working hard to recruit people who represent the diversity of our customers and our society. If you're excited about this opportunity but you don't meet every single requirement, or your experience doesn't align perfectly, we still want to encourage you to send in your application. You may just be the perfect candidate for this opportunity or another within CommBank. 

At CommBank we will inspire you with work that makes a difference, surround you with talented people that respect and value each other, and empower you to grow professionally and personally. Most of all, making a positive impact for customers, communities and each other is part of our every day. 

We’re determined to make a real difference for Australia’s first peoples. We encourage all interested applicants to apply. If you’re already part of the Commonwealth Bank Group (including BankWest), you’ll need to apply through Sidekick to submit a valid application. We’re keen to support you with the next step in your career. 

APPLY NOW to do your best work and live your best life with us!