CBA marks first sizeable intake of data scientist graduates

Commonwealth Bank of Australia nearly doubled its intake of technology graduates this year with 219 new hires, including a "sizeable" cohort of data scientists.

The bank took on more 75 new data scientists, 124 engineers and 20 cyber security graduates, of which 10 are focused on security engineering.

Executive general manager of HR for operations and technology Jane Adams told iTnews the intake included the "first very sizable cohort of data scientists we've bought on".

The bank had previously targeted "more generic data and analytics graduates", she said, but had this time prioritised specific data science graduates, reflecting a broader data science push at the organisation.

Adams said data science graduates would work with H2O.ai tooling - a no-code machine learning platform that CBA has partnered closely with.

CBA has previously expressed its desire to develop its own data science ‘grandmasters’ - a status term in the Kaggle data science community - as it continues to progress an AI-first approach with its operations.

Adams saw CBA’s H20.ai relationship as "a factor in attracting the data scientists from a graduate perspective."

“It'll give them a more cutting-edge experience while they are working with us,” she said.  

Overall, Adams said there had been "sharp interest" in its graduate program, and that the boosted intake of 219 graduates - compared to 120 last year - would be maintained for the 2024 intake as well, for which applications have already opened.

“Given we've just done such a big increase last year to this year, we're going to hold at this level [for 2024], so that we can stay at about 220," Adams said.

“We want to make sure that we anchor to them in a really good experience, and that we roll them off into really good roles."

Adams said it was likely that the 2025 intake would be larger still.

She said CBA has generally boosted its technology resourcing, meaning “graduate technology resources needed to increase as well”.

After reviewing its graduate program to date, specific intakes of cyber security, engineering and data science were needed to fuel “the three big growth areas [for staff] across the bank".

“Technology is called out in our overall bank strategy, because it is the builder and enabler of customer experiences, it's the builder of customer products, it's the builder of the channel experiences digitally," Adams said.

"Also cyber security is critical for ensuring that our customer's data and information is safe and sound and secure.”

The bank said 38 percent of its graduates are based outside of the Sydney head office including in Perth, as well as in CBA’s recently opened tech hubs located in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. 

The graduates are now undertaking an 18-month learning and development program which covers intensive training, modelling activities, mentorship and rotations.