Head of AI & Engineering
Join AnthemXT
You will work with the commercial team to define implementation pathways for our cutting-edge AI products for new and existing clients. Your role will be to work with client and internal teams to identify the most impactful use cases for our products and guide clients through the steps needed to work with our products
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Type: Full Time, Permanent
Working Pattern: Hybrid, minimum three days per week in the BCLC office in Vancouver
Travel: 2x per year to London expected, Some World Lottery Association conferences
About AnthemXT
AnthemXT's aim is to build operational, and commercial applications of data and AI products that improve player experiences, with a prioritisation of real-time activities where possible.
Best practice AI governance will be implemented through AnthemXT’s product development and implementation lifecycles.
See more FAQs below...
About the role
This is a truly exciting opportunity to lead the technical function of AnthemXT – a product R&D innovation hub, as well as assume overall responsibility for the outputs of this hub.
In this role, you will act as a day-to-day tech lead, working hands-on and providing technical oversight to others.
In addition, you will act as the strategic lead of this lab, ensuring the objectives of the BCLC<>Anthem collaboration committee are understood and delivered.
What You’ll Do
- This role is envisaged to split 50/50 hands-on and management/leadership
- Work with the collaboration committee to understand the hub roadmap objectives
- Work with the product manager to agree product objectives against this roadmap and create technical designs to deliver
- Manage the development of a range of machine learning models via the full lifecycle process {business understanding, feature engineering, prototyping, training, evaluation}
- Ensure models are deployed within the agreed software pattern
- Consider the Ethics of AI and how AnthemXT’s approach to building and running models can be considered best practice
- Partner with Future Anthem technical leaders to ensure that the Anthemetrics platform security matches the required safety and compliance protocols of BCLC
- Create presentations which tell the story of these models, utilizing visualizations, suitable for consumption by non-technical audiences
- Provide technical advice on potential approaches within refinement sessions
- Work collaboratively with the collaboration committee and Future Anthem team
- Work within a DataOps framework
- Recruit and line manage other data scientists and engineers
About you
- You are comfortable working with a degree of ambiguity and can demonstrate the ability to change and adapt as the hub’s priorities evolve
- You have technical management and leadership experience
- You have a degree in mathematics, statistics, computer science, engineering or similar (Masters or PHD an advantage)
- You have a strong understanding of supervised and unsupervised learning
- Strong experience in developing ML models in a fully Spark environment
- Understanding of CI/CD and Software Engineering principles for Data Science
- Experienced in using version control software (e.g. Git, Azure DevOps, etc.)
- You are skilled in hiring, mentoring, and developing data scientists and engineers
- You are comfortable switching between management and hands-on technical tasks
- You have sound interpersonal skills and enjoy collaborating with others
- You have excellent verbal & written communication and presentation skills, with a well-structured and analytical approach
- You are comfortable presenting to large groups, including internal and external stakeholders, sometimes in a public-facing capacity or event
- You are highly commercially aware, particularly in prioritising time
Apply below
We look forward to seeing your application
Frequently asked questions
Why are BCLC and Future Anthem creating an AI & Data Innovation Hub?
The collective goal of this collaboration is to assemble a high-performing, Vancouver-based team specialising in next-gen AI and data solutions within an inclusive operating structure that fosters innovation, speed-of-delivery, and best-in-class AI governance for the benefit of BCLC players, employees and stakeholders.
Who is BCLC?
BCLC is a social purpose company based in British Columbia, Canada that is committed to delivering win-wins for the greater good while providing lottery, casino and sports gambling entertainment in a way that serves the best interests of its players, the province and society. Last year, BCLC generated more than $1.5 billion in net income to benefit provincial and community programs, including health care, education and charities across British Columbia, Canada.
Who is Future Anthem?
Future Anthem humanises data with their all-in-one product, Amplifier AI, to personalise the player experience for everyone. Utilizing quick-to-deploy modules across the entire player journey, Future Anthem harnesses real-time machine learning to onboard and retain customers responsibly. Future Anthem is trusted by the world’s leading gambling operators and studios. Anthem was selected for the highly coveted Tech Nation Applied AI 3.0 Growth Programme in the UK, and is a recipient of several industry awards, including Data & AI Partner of the Year at the EGR B2B Awards.
More information is available at: https://www.futureanthem.com.
AnthemXT Goals
The objective of AnthemXT is to:
- Develop AI & data products that are designed to improve customer experience and central operations for initial use by BCLC within its operations.
- Undertake data-driven R&D in areas of interest such as sustainable play, player health, omni-channel, marketing, game design, jackpots, etc., and develop AI-driven products that can be marketed commercially.
About the technology
Anthemetrics is the gambling industry’s first data science platform designed to work across gaming, sports, and lottery to improve player experience with real-time AI. Its goal is to securely transform the world of online gambling with the latest technology advancements in AI, Cloud, and Data Science.
Built for scale, Anthemetrics ingests billions of gambling transactions across thousands of online games and players to transform, process, store, and manage data that delivers player predictions and behaviours in real time and in-session.
Truly Big Data – Billions of transactions processed in real-time
Best in Class Tech – Databricks, Kafka, Delta Lake, Cloud Native
True Data Science – Product development ways of working delivering data products through a DevOps process adapted for data science {IDE driven, CI/CD, unit tests, guardrails}.
How will the Hub be staffed?
The Canadian Future Anthem team engaged in the Hub will be employed by AnthemXT - a Vancouver based team of data professionals that innovate with AI, operating as a specialized subsidiary of Future Anthem in partnership with BCLC. The team will build AI and data products that are designed to improve player experiences.
Whilst the AnthemXT team will operate with a degree of independence, its success will align with the long-term goals of BCLC and with Future Anthem's overarching mission, values, and culture.
What team will be hired?
The plan is to initially hire a total of nine data and product professionals to the team, including a mix of data engineers, data scientists, product and delivery leads.
Where will the AnthemXT team be based?
The AnthemXT team will be based in the Vancouver offices of BCLC.
How do you plan to address team diversity?
Diversity and inclusion are always top of the agenda. Starting with recruitment, we aim to reflect a variety of perspectives and experiences by implementing inclusive hiring practices, such as a diverse hiring team. Our approach includes training on diversity, equity, and inclusion to promote an inclusive workplace culture and psychological safety. By embedding diversity into every aspect of our operations, we strive to create a workplace where every team member feels valued and empowered, driving innovation and excellence in all our initiatives.
Who will manage the AnthemXT team?
The AnthemXT team will be managed locally by a leader hired and based in Vancouver. The Innovation Hub leader will report to the Future Anthem Chief Data & Product Officer, Chris Conroy.
What are the ethical implications of AI for BCLC?
Best practice AI governance will be implemented through AnthemXT’s product development and implementation lifecycles, focusing on the principles of trust, equity, fairness, data governance, human agency, inclusive growth, oversight and monitoring practices, and well-being of stakeholders, including:
- Consistent monitoring of product reliability
- Performance management of both AI models and impacts on players
- Robustness and reliability, safety and security, transparency and explainability of operations, player experience and player protection, performance accuracy, adequacy, and validity
- Guidelines, checklists, and protocols to ensure transparency of use of AI
- Ensuring transparency and fairness in the AI algorithms
- Ensuring our AI models are well documented
What products will the Innovation Hub build?
The Innovation Hub shall aim to build innovative, operational, and commercial applications of data and AI products for use by BCLC. The goal of the products will be to improve player experiences, with a prioritisation of real-time activities where possible. The products will aim to cover all product categories – lottery, instant, casino, sports, poker, and bingo and will transverse land-based and online activities where possible.
Will the Innovation Hub have any other objectives?
Data-driven research will form an important part of the development of the products, and the Innovation Hub will provision for a recurring programme of research and development as defined by BCLC through the Steering Committee. The research will be designed to provide a data-first approach that can be leveraged to manage external stakeholders (e.g., regulators, lobby groups etc.)
Who is on the steering committee?
The Steering Committee includes:
- Mark Goldberg (Chief Information Officer, BCLC)
- Dan Beebe (Chief Operating Officer, BCLC)
- Chris Conroy (Chief Data & Product Officer, Future Anthem)
- AnthemXT Innovation Hub Leader (to be appointed)
How will the technology work?
Future Anthem will deploy an independent version of its real-time AI platform to the Hub, giving access to best-in-class technology from the outset. Whilst this will remain a discrete resource of the Hub, it will continue to benefit from all ongoing upgrades to Anthem’s core platform.
How will the Innovation Hub get data from BCLC?
Through existing work with Future Anthem, the Hub will leverage existing gaming data with PlayNow and other gaming data that Future Anthem has to build new AI data capabilities for BCLC. This will grow and develop as the roadmap evolves.
What are the first products that the Innovation Hub will build?
The initial products for the Hub will be decided by the Steering Committee based on the expertise of Future Anthem and the priorities of BCLC.
How will BCLC employees engage with the Hub?
BCLC employees may propose initiatives for the Hub to work on, which will be technically assessed, with the Steering Committee deciding on the approved roadmap and resourcing. Over time, BCLC employees will be seconded into the Innovation Hub to learn and assist in the development and creation of AI capabilities built within the Innovation Hub for BCLC.