Growing with Grab: A Wider Scope of Data to Empower Lives

A desire to create a more tangible impact through data spurred data scientist Arpit Goel to switch business units in his data-driven roles with Grab. After working as a Senior Data Scientist at Grab Financial Group for 1.5 years, Arpit, who joined Grab in April 2019, set himself up for a new challenge as one of the pioneering members in the Data Science team at GrabAds in September 2020. 

The New Delhi native, who moved to Singapore in 2019 says: “As a data scientist, I always strive on working with bigger data so that I can create a greater impact through my work.”

With the massive amount of data to work with in GrabAds, the transition was a perfect opportunity for Arpit. Joining the GrabAds team, which was then in its infancy, broadened his spectrum of job responsibilities. He was promoted to Lead Data Scientist in GrabAds within a year.

After years of working in US based MNC’s in the B2B field, Arpit was looking to gain experience working with domains that are more human-centric. He also relishes the move to Singapore with the job opportunity at Grab. He says: “I wanted to explore living in another country and experience the different cultures in Singapore.”

“I am enjoying my role at Grab. There are new things to learn and contribute in my role every day, he adds.

Tell us more about your current role 

As a Senior Data Scientist with GrabAds, I work on machine learning projects, which involve hypothesising and identifying potential opportunities or product features that can benefit our advertisers and users. I do a lot of hands-on work such as building machine learning models, from implementing to integrating it with the Grab product.

After my promotion, I have a much wider role in our multiple v-teams. Each v-team is a cross functional independent entity, which decides and executes on the direction of the product feature. My teams have been charted with the responsibility of forecasting and audience needs. I received more responsibilities through a wider job scope and have more freedom to make decisions independently. 

Why did you decide to switch to a new team in Grab?

As a Data Scientist, I always strive to work with bigger data so that I can create greater impact through my work.

GrabAds was a perfect opportunity as the team works with a massive amount of data – at least 100 times more data than some other teams. GrabAds was pretty young at that time, so joining at its infancy gave me a wider spectrum of job responsibilities. 

What was the biggest challenge that you faced with the change in business verticals?

It felt like starting out in a new company, as the new role was a complete change in domain. I had to adapt from a pure data science role to one that requires a blend of data science and engineering knowledge. 

My manager supported me throughout my learning journey in GrabAds. I attended trainings, and received certifications on engineering systems and ad domains. My manager also gave me reading materials on AdTech and Engineering systems for my own learning, giving me the freedom to read and ideate with product features to develop. Getting a great amount of trust from my manager to hone my skills helped set me up for success in the new team.

How did your previous manager react when you wanted to move to a different team?

Initially, I was afraid of how I should bring this up with my previous manager, and had expected some resistance from him. I even listed down a couple of points before the call to inform him about my decision. 

But seeing how motivated I was to take on a new challenge, he was supportive of my decision. We worked out a transition plan to ensure a smooth handover and transition into my new team, which took less than two months.

How was your onboarding experience to a new team?

Even though it wasn’t the best time to join a new team because we were working remotely and my onboarding was completely virtual, my manager organised a get-together once restrictions eased and I got to meet everyone face-to-face.

What are the benefits of participating in Grab’s Internal Mobility Programme?

There are very big benefits of moving internally, as you already know how to navigate within a company. If you have questions, you know exactly who to reach out to

There’s also a shorter learning curve. After I made the switch in roles at Grab, I was already contributing to my new team after a week.

We strongly believe in the career growth and life-long learning of our Grabbers. Interested in joining us? Check out our open roles here!