Westlake Chemical offers you the potential to enrich your work life and career experience in an entrepreneurial environment. We work together to enhance peoples’ lives through our products and presence in the communities in which we operate. Westlake Chemical is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any characteristics protected by applicable legislation.
If you are an active Westlake Chemical employee (or an employee of any Westlake Chemical affiliates), please do not apply here. Please go to your Workday homepage and click on the “Careers” worklet and view “Westlake Career Opportunities”.
Summary
Westlake Chemical Corporation is creating a Digital Innovation Organization as a part of its initiative to accelerate digitization across the enterprise. Manager – Data Science will be a part of the Digital Innovation Organization and will report to Director – Digital Innovation Technology Enablement. The Data Science team is planned to start with a team of 3 resources and may scale up to a team of 6 resources in one year.
By Digital or Digitization, Westlake means a combination of technologies, tools, methods, approaches etc. that will enable Westlake to re-architect business processes and business models to achieve superior financial returns or meet the organizations strategic objectives in areas such as safety, sustainability etc. Digital technologies may include, but not limited to, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning/Data Science, Robotics, IoT, Big Data, Blockchain, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, Social Media/Collaboration, Mobility etc.
Manager – Data Science is primarily responsible for building up the Data and Data Science teams including developing outsourcing/insourcing strategy and for developing citizen Data Scientists. Manager – Data Science is responsible for the delivery of Data Science and Digital initiatives prioritized by the Digital Council. Manager – Data Science is responsible for providing subject matter expertise in on Data and Data Science subject areas across the enterprise. Manager-Data Science is responsible for facilitating the enterprise Data and Data Science strategy including strategy to manage enterprise data and the strategy to architect Data Science/Machine Learning platforms to build Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics applications. Manager- Data Science is responsible for defining the strategy to determine build versus buy decision for AI/Analytics applications. Digital applications may be dependent on data and analytics and Manager – Data Science has to collaborate closely with other members of the Digital Innovation Organization to enable data and analytics in digital applications. The success of delivering Data Science initiatives may be dependent on collaboration with Information Systems, Information Technology, Continuous Improvement, Change Management and external partners. Therefore, the Manager will be responsible collaborate closely with these departments to deliver Data Science solutions and initiatives.
Duties And Responsibilities
May include, but are not limited to, the following:
Performance management and development of the Data Science Team
- Developing a multi-year plan for starting-up, ramping-up and scaling-up the Data and Data Science team in alignment with the Digital strategy. Including the roles, responsibilities, and skills required for such an organization.
- Managing the performance of the Data and Data Science team. Identifying development needs and a plan to develop the skills of the organization to meet evolving needs.
Digitization Strategy
- Assist Director – Digital Innovation Technology Enablement in developing a vision and a strategic roadmap for the Data Science Program. The strategic roadmap may include (but not limited to):
- Strategy to start-up, ramp-up and scale-up Data Science capabilities in the organization, including strategies to scale solutions from pilot to production.
- Strategy for enterprise data management including strategy to alleviate challenges associated with accessing data from complex, disparate, and sometimes sparse data sets
- Strategies for staffing & resourcing including outsourcing and developing citizen data scientists
- Strategies to scan technology landscape for relevant Data Science technologies and AI applications
Data Science Program Management
- Monitoring and reporting the progress of Data Science Initiatives prioritized by the Digital Council
- Delivering and executing Data Science initiatives including complete life cycle of a data science project: plan, source, make, deliver and manage change
- Managing cross-functional teams including outsourcing partners and citizen data scientists to deliver artificial intelligence and advanced analytic solutions
- Developing Data Science Project Management methodologies and project standards using agile & CRISP-DM methodologies
- Coordinating and collaborating with Information Systems, Information Technology, Continuous Improvement and Change Management functions to deliver Data Science initiatives.
Business Architecture
- Assisting the architecture of digitalized business process and business models in collaboration with business organizations and functional departments by applying Artificial Intelligence & Advanced Analytics. This may include (but not limited to): “no touch” customer orders, supply chain control towers, digital twins etc.
Digital Capability Development
- Executing digital, data and data science literacy and education programs
Communication
- Communicating data & data science related strategy, vision, progresses, successes and awareness to various stakeholders and the enterprise
- Responsible for managing the Data Science Team of 1 or more direct reports.
- Additional responsibilities as assigned.
- Complies with all company policies and procedures.
- Fully supports Company goals of continuous improvement and operational excellence at strategic and tactical levels including reviewing area of responsibility for improvement opportunities to initiate projects or communicate ideas to management as well as active participation on project teams.
Education, Experience And Qualifications
- Minimum 8 years of data science experience.
- Masters in Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics or Data Science. PhD preferred.
- Proven record of leading successful enterprise level Data Science initiatives in large companies
- A proven record of establishing data management and data science programs at an enterprise level.
- Background in manufacturing (process industry preferred).
- Demonstrated experience in the use of one or more analytics software languages (e.g. Python, R, Matlab), distributed computational frameworks (Hadoop, MapReduce, Spark), big data environments (Databricks, Cloudera, AWS EMR), machine learning packages (Tensorflow, Pytorch, Theano etc.) and data engineering frameworks (Hive, SQL, Impala)
- Basic knowledge of physics-based applications (from Aspentech, Aviva, Yokogawa) is preferred.
- Experience in three or more of the following areas will be a plus: natural language processing, computer vision, time series analysis, deep learning, neural networks, and statistical modeling.
- Demonstrated expertise in mathematical modeling and in the development and application of descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics to deliver insights from structured, unstructured and semi-structured data sets with a particular focus on use cases pertaining to chemical industry.
- Experience in productionizing machine learning models and have good understanding of ML model life cycle.
- Good understanding of distributed computing and efficient algorithm design.
- Familiarity with Machine Learning as applied to industrial operational data and ability to recognize inconsistencies in data or interpretation; resolves or recommends action to resolve.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit; stand; walk; use hands to touch, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stoop, kneel, or crouch. The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate as normally based in an office. Some of the work may be required in the operating units which can require usage of required PPE including safety glasses, hearing protection, etc. May also result in exposure to outside elements and may require usage of stairs and elevators. Up to 50% travel, including air travel or auto travel may occasionally be required.
Westlake Chemical is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any characteristics protected by applicable legislation.
If you are an active Westlake Chemical employee (or an employee of any Westlake Chemical affiliates), please do not apply here. Please go to your Workday homepage and click on the “Careers” worklet and view “Westlake Career Opportunities”.
