Sometimes we forget the humans behind the tech in our ever busy world. DSF is fortunate enough to know some incredible tech leaders across the world and has the privilege of hearing them present at our events. That being said, our Speaker Spotlight sets the stage to get to know our speakers on a more personal level and connect them with our growing community. Read the mini interview below!
A bit about Mohammed:
Mohammed is a Senior Data Science Lead specialising in fraud and victim prevention at Wise. He leads a team building ML capabilities that protect millions of customers from fraud, scams, and account takeovers every day. His mission: making customers feel safe.
How did you start out in your tech career?
I started out as a software developer, but found my true calling through a side project in damage protection insurance. I became fascinated by investigating whether a damaged screen was accidental or deliberate, and that curiosity pulled me into fraud and crime prevention. What began as a fun problem quickly became a profession I wanted to master.
What are the signs of success in your field?
If you work in crime prevention, you must think like a combat scientist: not just building solutions, but understanding how fraud works, staying two steps ahead, and designing controls carefully so you don’t push good customers away. Success shows when you can balance effectiveness, customer experience, and business impact all at once.
What is the best and worst thing about your job role?
One of the best parts of being a DS lead is getting a bird’s-eye view of what’s being built across and within the teams around you. It’s incredibly rewarding to see the direct impact your work has on customers. The hardest part is not always being able to go deep on individual contributor work ; and having to make decisions where the wrong call could negatively affect real people.
What can you advise someone just starting out to be successful?
Find a strong mentor. There are now countless courses, learning materials, and LLM tools available, but the key is knowing your goal: do you want to become a domain expert, branch into another area, or improve your job prospects? Once you know that, choose a mentor accordingly, keep practising with real-world-style projects, and build a portfolio that shows what you can do.
How do you switch off?
Switching off for me means spending quality time with family ;whether that’s a road trip or going out for dinner. Occasionally I also enjoy tinkering with smart home automations, which gives me a fun way to stay curious outside of work.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Take it easy. The real value isn’t in learning everything it’s in understanding how things work at a high level and then going deep in one specialisation. Don’t keep chasing another balloon when you already have one in your hand.
What is next for you?
I want to keep learning especially around how to use LLMs effectively in practice. I also want to deepen my understanding of regulation and the ethics of data usage, because those topics are becoming more important every year.
If you could do anything now, career-wise or personally what would you do? Why?
I’d try to find a way to increase secure data sharing across financial institutions around the world. There’s huge untapped value in improving collaboration — especially when it comes to trust, fraud prevention, and better customer protection.
What are your top 5 predictions in tech for the next 5 years?
- AI will move from experimentation into everyday operational decision-making across most industries.
- The biggest AI winners will be companies that can productionise, govern, and monitor models well — not just build them.
- Data privacy, regulation, and responsible AI will become board-level priorities rather than technical side topics.
- Fraud prevention will become more behavioural, adaptive, and real-time — especially in financial services.
- Human judgement will matter even more as automation grows, because the best results will come from combining domain expertise with machine intelligence.
Thank you to all our wonderful speakers for taking part in our Speaker Spotlight!
Want to become a DSF Speaker? Apply here!