Data Science Manager

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.

SUMMARY

Westlake Chemical Corporation Digital Office operates at the heart of the strategic direction of our business. The Digital Office team drives digital transformation across the enterprise entire portfolio to achieve growth through leapfrogging customer experience and operational excellence.

As a member of the Digital Office, the Manager - Data Science will play a pivotal role in architecting applications to orchestrate a data driven enterprise and develop end-to-end analytics solutions that provide actionable insights in real-time automating manufacturing and routine business process decisions. 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, and business processes improvements and transformations. Digital technologies may include, and not limited to, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning/Data Science, Robotics, AutoBots, IoT, Big Data, Blockchain, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, Social Media/Collaboration, and Mobility.

The Manager - Data Science is primarily responsible for building up the Data and Data Science teams including developing outsourcing/insourcing strategies and for developing citizen Data Scientists. Other responsibilities include:

• Delivery of Data Science and Digital initiatives prioritized by the Digital Roadmap
• Providing subject matter expertise in on Data and Data Science subject areas across the enterprise
• 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
• Defining strategies to determine build versus buy decision for digital tools/applications
• Collaborate closely with other members of the Digital Office to enable data and analytics in digital applications.

The success of delivering digital solutions for Data Science initiatives depends on collaboration with other parts of the enterprise such as Information Technology, Manufacturing, Order Management, Sales, and external partners.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

May include, but are not limited to, the following:

Science Program Management

• Deliver and execute Data Science initiatives that are defined by the business units and functional units' digital programs collectively the enterprise digital portfolio, following best practices of Project Management
• Develop Data Science Project Management methodologies and project standards using Agile and Cross-Industry Process for Data Mining (CRISP-DM) methodologies
• Identify how data science and Artificial Intelligence can be applied to improve, optimize, and expand Westlake Chemical's infrastructure across a variety of business and functional domains, with emphasis on long-term and Digital Roadmap
• Manage cross-functional teams including outsourcing partners and citizen data scientists to deliver Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytic solutions
• Ensure coordination of projects across the digital portfolio to maximize impact and avoid duplication and overlaps
• Collaborate cross-functional with business units such as Vinyls and Olefins and functional units such as Information Systems and Information Technology to deliver Data Science initiatives and to assist in developing the architecture of digital business processes. This may include augmented reality, predictive and prescriptive maintenance, no-touch order management, platform economy, digital avatar
• Monitor and report progress of Data Science Initiatives prioritized by the Digital Roadmap.

Development and Performance Management of the Data Science Team

• Develop a multi-year plan for starting and scaling-up the Data Science team in alignment with the Digital Roadmap, including the roles, responsibilities, and skills required for such an organization
• Educate continuously the Data Science team to become subject matter experts in the latest Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence purposely applied to Westlake Chemical's data and business processes
• Managing the performance of the Data Science team. Identifying development needs and a plan to develop the skills of the organization to meet evolving needs.

Digital Technology Science

• Assist Digital Office in developing a vision and a strategic roadmap for the Data Science Program. This may include and is not limited to:
• Develop strategies to grow Data Science capabilities of the organization, including strategies for staffing, resourcing, outsourcing, and developing citizen data scientists
• Develop strategies for enterprise data storage, accessibility, quality, queries, and management including methodologies to resolve challenges associated with accessing data from complex, disparate, and sometimes sparse data sets
• Develop strategies to operationalize digital solutions from a minimum viable product/process (MVP) pilot to a fully adopted and implemented product/process
• Scan technology landscape for relevant Data Science technologies and Artificial Intelligence applications
• Develop strategies to develop Digital Literacy of the enterprise through data and data science education programs.

Communication

• Communicate data & data science related strategy, vision, progresses, successes and awareness to various stakeholders internal and external.
• Supervisory responsible for the Data Science Team. A planned initial organization structure holds: 1 or more Data Scientist and 1 or more Data Analyst
• 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.
• 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)
• 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 machine learning model life cycle
• Good understanding of distributed computing and efficient algorithm design.
• Familiarity with machine learning as applied to industrial operational data, e-commerce data, customer order fulfillment data, and ability to recognize inconsistencies in data or interpretation; resolves or recommends action to resolve
• Experience in helping to establish product requirements, gather data, design experiments, create models, build software and analytics tools, and communicate findings
• Basic knowledge of physics-based applications (from Aspentech, Aviva, Yokogawa) is preferred
• Background in manufacturing process industry preferred

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".