The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has nearly doubled its technology graduate program and prioritized data science graduates, including 75 new data scientists, 124 engineers, and 20 cyber security graduates. CBA has partnered with H2O.ai, a no-code machine learning platform, for its data science program. The bank has expressed its desire to develop its own data science “grandmasters,” a status term in the Kaggle data science community. Graduates are now undertaking an 18-month learning and development program, which includes intensive training, modelling activities, mentorship, and rotations. CBA has boosted its technology resourcing, with technology being a significant growth area for staff across the bank, and is focusing on specific intakes of cyber security, engineering, and data science to fuel “the three big growth areas across the bank.”
Commonwealth Bank of Australia doubles its technology graduate program and prioritizes data science graduates
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has nearly doubled its technology graduate program with a record round of 219 new hires this year. Among them are 75 new data scientists, marking the first “very sizable cohort of data scientists” at CBA, according to Jane Adams, the executive general manager of HR for operations and technology.
Previously, the bank had prioritized “more generic data and analytics graduates,” but it is now focusing on specific data science graduates to reflect a broader data science push within the organization. CBA has expressed its desire to develop its own data science “grandmasters,” a status term in the Kaggle data science community.
The data science graduates will work with H2O.ai, a no-code machine learning platform that CBA has partnered closely with. Adams believes that CBA’s H2O.ai relationship was “a factor in attracting the data scientists from a graduate perspective,” and that it will give them a more cutting-edge experience while working with the bank.
In addition to the data scientists, CBA also hired 124 engineers and 20 cyber security graduates, with 10 of them focused on security engineering. According to Adams, the boosted intake of 219 graduates compared to 120 last year will be maintained for the 2024 intake as well, for which applications have already opened. She said that there had been “sharp interest” in the graduate program and that the 2025 intake would likely be larger still.
Technology is a significant growth area for staff across the bank, and CBA has generally boosted its technology resourcing. In reviewing its graduate program to date, specific intakes of cyber security, engineering, and data science were needed to fuel “the three big growth areas across the bank.” As Adams said, “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. Also, cyber security is critical for ensuring that our customer’s data and information is safe and sound and secure.”
CBA’s Graduates Based Outside of Sydney
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has announced that 38% of its graduates are based outside of the Sydney head office. Graduates are located in Perth, as well as in CBA’s recently opened tech hubs in Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane. These graduates are now participating in an 18-month learning and development program, which includes intensive training, modelling activities, mentorship, and rotations.
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