The Government Technology Agency (GovTech) is the lead agency driving Singapore’s Smart Nation initiatives and public sector digital transformation. As the Centre of Excellence for Infocomm Technology and Smart Systems (ICT & SS), GovTech develops the Singapore Government’s capabilities in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Application Development, Smart City Technology, Digital Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity.
At GovTech, we offer you a purposeful career to make lives better. We empower our people to master their craft through continuous and robust learning and development opportunities all year round. Our GovTechies embody our Agile, Bold and Collaborative values to deliver impactful solutions.
GovTech aims to transform the delivery of Government digital services by taking an "outside-in" view, putting citizens and businesses at the heart of everything we do.
Play a part in Singapore’s vision to build a Smart Nation and embark on your meaningful journey to build tech for public good. Join us to advance our mission and shape your future with us today!
Learn more about GovTech at tech.gov.sg.
About the Team
The AI Innovation team is part of GovTech's AI Practice. We stay at the forefront of artificial intelligence research and help product teams adopt cutting-edge technologies to improve operational outcomes across government and deliver tech for public good.
What You'll Do
As a Data Scientist in the AI Innovation team, you will:
- Project/product scoping: Identify and prioritise opportunities for high-impact and technically challenging application of AI to transform strategic domains and functions across the Government. You will also need to scope out AI projects/products with clear deliverables through conversations with relevant stakeholders.
- Project delivery/product development: Drive AI transformation in the selected problem spaces by identifying and researching relevant AI techniques, conduct experiments, and deliver sound solutions through proof-of-concepts. You will also need to collaborate with relevant stakeholders and engineering teams to ensure seamless transition of successful prototypes into production-ready solutions.
- Knowledge sharing: Share knowledge of emerging or advanced AI techniques and how they are applied in real-world use cases. You will share such knowledge to the whole-of-government AI community through avenues such as presentations, technical workshops, and blog posts.
- Examples of ongoing projects/products include working with the Cyber Security Group to develop an AI-assisted penetration-testing system, and working with the Responsible AI team to develop context-aware, automated approach to LLM safety testing.
What We're Looking For
Essential Requirements
- Practical Experience: Proven track record applying data science, machine learning and AI to solve real-world problems
- Technical Proficiency: Strong programming skills in Python, Java, or Rust, with willingness to learn additional languages
- AI Expertise: Deep understanding of:
- Traditional ML algorithms (e.g. logistic regression, random forests)
- Deep learning techniques (e.g. RNN, LSTM)
- Open-source LLM architectures (GPT-OSS, Llama, Gemma, Deepseek),
and a strong technical intuition to learn and adapt new concepts in AI to tangible outcomes.
Preferred Experience
- Frameworks: PyTorch, TensorFlow, vLLM, HuggingFace Transformers, Text-Generation Inference
- Generative AI: Prompt engineering, RAG, LLM fine-tuning, agentic AI applications
- Research Methods: Experimental design, preprocessing, model selection and evaluation
What Does It Take to Succeed in This Role
Taking Ownership
You must be comfortable with working independently and setting your own direction to achieve your projects’ goals. This will often require you to be deeply involved end-to-end, from engaging potential users to identify their problem statements, performing the technical work to develop the prototype, engaging users iteratively to refine it, and presenting the final outcome to key stakeholders. While this role is highly hands-on and technical, it is NOT a pure engineering role with explicit technical requirements laid out for you to implement. Though you will not work alone, you are expected to tackle open-ended problems in AI that require you to get involved at all stages of implementation.
Willingness to Learn
You must be passionate about learning new things in this rapidly-changing field of Artificial Intelligence. In this role, you need to be constantly updated on the latest developments in the field and apply them to government use cases, and the only way to do so is through continuous learning via reading and practicing.
Able to Deal with Uncertainty
Things change fast around here! As we are the go-to team for the latest in AI technologies, we often receive requests from senior leadership to look into potentially useful developing areas. When such situations arise, we might have to drop things in-progress and pick up new things. Furthermore, when the results of proof-of-concepts with users are not promising, we might have to drop the projects and move on to new things. Being able to assess which areas to invest your limited bandwidth is essential in this role.
Effective Communication
Apart from being able to understand technical concepts innately, you must also be able to explain them to audiences of different expertise levels, as we often talk to public service officers and stakeholders whose understanding of AI concepts span a wide spectrum. You should be comfortable explaining complex AI concepts like multi-agent system, fine-tuning, and attention to a layman audience.
What We Offer
- Total Rewards: Competitive, holistic benefits package based on a total rewards approach
- Work-Life Balance: Leave benefits and employee wellness programs
- Professional Growth: Continuous learning and development opportunities
- Meaningful Impact: Shape Singapore's Smart Nation vision and build technology for public good
Learn more about life inside GovTech at go.gov.sg/GovTechCareers.
Stay connected with us on social media at go.gov.sg/ConnectWithGovTech
Please note the following:
1. By submitting my application, I hereby give my consent to GovTech and relevant Government agencies to:
a. Obtain and verify information from or with any source (including third parties) as may be deemed appropriate by GovTech and relevant Government agencies for the purposes of assessing my application for employment.
b. Share my personal data set out in this application form and any other personal data subsequently provided by me in connection with my application for employment with other Government agencies for the purposes of recruitment and review of recruitment practices, and for such personal data to be also used as part of de-identified and aggregated data for reporting purposes.
2. I declare that all the information given by me in this application for employment and any additional documents attached hereto are true to the best of my knowledge and that I have not wilfully suppressed any material fact. I accept that if any of the information given by me in this application is in any way false or incorrect, my application may be rejected, any offer of employment may be withdrawn or my employment with the Service may be terminated summarily or I may be dismissed from the Service.