Jobs at Circle Asia (Now Hiring) — 8 open

About The Role

As the Head of Data at Circle, you own the Data & Analytics Division — the horizontal function that turns raw events into the analysis, scorecards and dashboards that every other team relies on. You will report to the Chief Risk Officer and be the strategic architect behind our data warehouse, data pipelines, machine-learning capability and business intelligence. Your mission is to build the data foundation that lets Circle scale: a trusted single source of truth, fast and reliable pipelines, sharp models, and self-serve analytics that put answers in the hands of decision-makers. You will grow the team — Data Engineers, Data Scientists and BI Analysts — and balance the "Grit" of building from scratch with the "Execution" of a seasoned data leader.

Key Responsibilities

•      Data Strategy & Roadmap: Define and own the 12–36 month data strategy for Circle — data warehouse architecture, data platform choices, ML infrastructure, and the analytics layer. Translate business priorities into a sequenced delivery plan and defend trade-offs at the executive table.

•      Data Warehouse & Pipelines: Own the design, build and operation of Circle's data warehouse and ingestion pipelines from Pismo, the credit decision engine (Scienaptic), Visa risk systems (VRM, VCAS), CIC bureau, KCI scoring, app analytics, marketing platforms and finance systems. Ensure data is timely, complete, traceable and reconciled.

•      Data Science & Modelling: Own the machine-learning function — credit scorecards, fraud models, customer lifecycle models, marketing response models, and any other predictive capability the business needs. Set the modelling standards, validation discipline and production deployment process. Partner with the Head of Credit Risk and Head of Fraud to deliver the models that power their functions.

•      Business Intelligence: Own Circle's BI capability — dashboards, executive reporting, regulatory reporting inputs, and the self-serve analytics layer. Establish reporting standards, metric definitions, and the cadence of operational and management reviews.

•      Data Governance & Quality: Establish the data governance framework — data ownership, metric definitions, data quality monitoring, lineage, and access controls. Ensure compliance with the State Bank of Vietnam regulations on data, personal data protection law, and partner-bank requirements.

•      Analytics for Decisions: Be the company's go-to thought partner on data-driven decisions. Lead deep-dive analyses on portfolio performance, customer behaviour, unit economics and growth experiments. Turn fuzzy executive questions into clear, well-evidenced answers.

•      Cross-functional Partnership: Partner with Risk on credit and fraud models, Product on feature analytics and A/B testing, Marketing on acquisition and CRM analytics, Operations on servicing metrics, and Finance on portfolio P&L and provisioning. Make Data & Analytics indispensable to every function.

•      AI Capability Build-out: Lead Circle's adoption of AI and large language models as analytical and operational tools — for internal productivity, customer experience and risk decisions. Identify the use cases, evaluate the platforms, and embed AI workflows into how the team works and how the company decides.

•      Team Leadership: Build and grow the Data & Analytics Division — Data Engineers (warehouse and pipelines), Data Scientists (scorecards and ML), and BI Analysts (reporting). Set the technical bar, coach on craft, and grow the bench for future hires (Chief Data & Analytics Officer track, Data Science Manager, BI Manager).

•      Vendor & Platform Strategy: Lead vendor selection and commercial negotiation for the data stack — warehouse, ETL/orchestration, BI tools, ML platforms and AI services. Balance cost, capability and time-to-value.

Requirements

Key Requirements

•      At least 8 years of professional experience in data engineering, data science, analytics leadership or a hybrid data role in banking, consumer finance, high-growth fintech or technology, with at least 3 years leading a data team end-to-end.

•      Proven track record of building or scaling a data function — from data warehouse and pipelines through ML deployment and BI delivery — in a high-growth or regulated environment.

•      Strong technical foundation: advanced SQL, hands-on experience with at least one cloud data warehouse (BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks), and working knowledge of modern data stack tools (dbt, Airflow, Looker, Tableau, Power BI or equivalents).

•      Solid grounding in machine learning and statistics — credit scoring methodology, classification, time-series, anomaly detection — with the ability to assess and improve work done by Data Scientists on the team.

•      Experience supporting credit risk, fraud or financial analytics use cases. Familiarity with credit bureau data, transaction data, and core banking / card processing data is a strong advantage.

•      Strong programming skills in Python or R; comfortable reading code and reviewing pull requests from the team.

•      Excellent communication and stakeholder management — you will present to C-level executives, the board and partner banks. Bilingual in Vietnamese and English (Professional level) is non-negotiable.

•      Experience leading or coaching small teams (3–8 people) and growing them through hiring.

•      Hands-on proficiency with AI productivity tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and similar) for analysis, code generation, document drafting, and team productivity. You should already be using AI in your day-to-day work and have a clear vision for how AI can multiply data team output and embed AI capability across the company.

Benefits

Why Join Us

•      Build the Data Foundation: You inherit a fresh launch and shape the data architecture, ML capability and analytics culture that will govern Circle for years. Few roles in Vietnam offer this level of greenfield ownership.

•      Modern Stack, Real Stakes: Cloud-native data warehouse, modern orchestration, Pismo data feeds, Visa risk data, CIC bureau, app and product telemetry — a data estate that's genuinely fun to build on.

•      Cross-functional Influence: Data sits at the centre of every decision at Circle — credit, fraud, growth, product, finance. Your work is read at the top of the company every week.

Benefits

•      A cool startup working environment

•      5 days working week with flexibility on demand

•      20 days annual leave

•      Macbooks to deliver work in style

•      Tailored learning and development opportunities to help you fast track your career

•      Health & wellness benefits