Sabre is one of the leading software and technology firm that serves a wide range of travel companies, including airlines, travel agencies, hoteliers, and other suppliers. The company offers retail distribution and fulfilment solutions that help its customers operate more efficiently and drive revenue, alongside personalised traveller experiences.

Sabre’s technology platform currently manages more than $268 billion worth of global travel spending annually. Based in Texas, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries worldwide. The company has set up its global development centres (GCC) in Bengaluru. It is responsible for developing industry-leading solutions for the travel business. The team practises lean startup thinking, and the GCC in Bengaluru has been consistently featured in the ‘Great Place To Work’ rankings. 

At Sabre, data science is an integral part of product algorithms and the consulting business. Data scientists solve business problems where there are no readily available solutions. They help the company deliver better value to their customers, improve product and service offerings, identify key market trends, generate consumer insights, and reduce time-to-market. Besides this, data science also helps them harness the power of data to derive insights that define strategic organisational decisions. 

“Our data science teams focus on creating new algorithms or enhancing existing ones, which increase product value, solve new business scenarios, and provide deep insights with recommendations,” said Bala Srinivasan, director of operations research at Sabre Bengaluru GCC. 

Some of the key areas that Sabre data science teams get involved with include evaluating revenue performance, recommending actions using opportunity algorithms, evaluating opportunities for increasing airlines share in the marketplace, improving profitability, analysing and comparing strategic pricing decisions, and recommending price optimisation. 

A few other aspects of the business that this team supports include: 

• Enabling customer segmentation, pricing elasticity, evaluating airline shopping data/engine, developing price testing framework, etc.
• Building learning models in the areas of ticket and ancillary sales, understanding customer willingness to pay, and recommending actions for airlines to improve sales
• Learning and applying concepts of offer/order management and continuous dynamic pricing to significantly expand opportunities for engaging with travellers through multiple touchpoints and creating personalised offers accounting for individual preferences and market context 
• Enabling choice ranking, live experimentation of prices/retail choices, and deep behavioural insights of travellers using AI/ML

Team structure 

The Sabre data science team consists of 50+ data scientists who are focused on the airline solutions side of their business. Besides this, the development teams also look to use data science within their product context when the scope is adequately managed. 

“When the scope is larger and involves core data science areas like prediction, recommendation, forecasting, optimisation, personalisation, and classification, etc., our team of data scientists steps in. This approach also allows development teams to understand the importance of data science applications within the purview of their project/product,” added Srinivasan.

Sabre’s data science team is segregated into the following groups – Sabre Labs (product roadmap and new features), Professional Services (custom development, PoCs/MVP) and product engineering teams (based on project needs or product features). 

The team told AIM that they are currently expanding their team and actively hiring data scientists across various experiential levels worldwide. 

Interview process

At Sabre, the company believes that every role is critical, and the hiring process remains the same across the organisation. Srinivasan said that their data science team looks for candidates who have in-depth knowledge and considerable experience working with statistical models and machine learning algorithms. Also, they evaluate their analytical acumen and try to gauge their passion for discovering insights hidden in large data sets. 

Here are the three steps that they follow during the interview process: 

• Step 1: Pre-interview screening to check fitment for the role 
• Step 2: Technical interview with analysts of candidate’s problem-solving skills 
• Step 3: Interview with data science leadership to assess skills and culture match 

Team Sabre said that a talent acquisition partner would guide the candidate through the process for a seamless experience. 

Do’s and don’ts 

Based on their experience, some of the pitfalls that candidates can avoid during the interview process at Sabre include: 

• Be honest about the skill sets that you possess because the organisation is relying on you to deliver on those promises.
• Having no understanding of the business impact your work has helped create in your previous roles is a cardinal sin. Make sure you go back and relook at the work that you have done.
• The interviewers want to hear about your past, but they also want to hear what you could bring to the table if you’re hired.
• Your responses cannot focus only on technical aspects or on real-life applications; ensure you weave both together.
• Organisations are looking for people who are aspiring to go above and beyond. Hence, it’s important to showcase your problem-solving skills through your responses.

Work culture 

“Since our inception, Sabre Bengaluru GCC has been at the forefront of technology transformation and believes in investing in developing employees who can think for the customer,” said Srinivasan.  

Internal innovation platforms such as BlitzCode (annual hackathon), Solve!t (engineering best practices sharing forum), Big Pitch (business idea pitching), Skill+ (gamified learning), Winglets (engineering community engagement) and Women in Technology (L&D for women technologists), have allowed Sabre team members (employees) to think differently, keeping the travel industry’s issues in mind.

Over the years, the centre has set the bar high among its industry peers by creating platforms that allow employees to thrive in an innovation-fueled environment. The team said that a strategic approach is taken to harness the collective capabilities and creative mindsets of interns, middle management, and senior leaders. Using interactive and engaging initiatives and incentives to drive creative thinking, the centre has grown to become a valued partner across the organisation. 

In addition to this, their data science team has the opportunity to work on state-of-the-art technology that is powered by decision science. 

Expectations 

“We believe that each new member in the team adds tremendous value, in some form, by their experience. Similarly, the data scientists hired as part of our team bring several new perspectives which must be explored,” said Srinivasan. 

Here are some of the role-based expectations from candidates:

• Work with subject matter experts and professionals from airlines to identify opportunities for using data to deliver insights and actionable predictions of customer behaviour and operations performance
• Assess the accuracy and effectiveness of new data sources, data gathering and forecasting techniques 
• Develop custom data algorithms and models to apply to datasets and run proof of concepts studies 
• Design market sampling framework and incorporate obtained feedback into predictive and prescriptive methodologies 
• Collaborate market sampling framework and incorporate obtained feedback into predictive and prescriptive methodologies 
• Collaborate with software engineers to test and implement production-quality code for forecasting and data analytics models
• Develop tools and processes to monitor and analyse data accuracy and models’ performance

Some of the broad KPIs that they use internationally to measure the performance of their data science teams include – agility, accuracy, reusability, codification. 

Why should you join Sabre? 

Sabre offers one of the largest global distribution systems in the world, working with thousands of airlines and travel agents across 160 countries. They also power mobile apps, airport check-in kiosks, online travel sites, airlines and hotel reservation networks, aircraft and crew scheduling systems, travel agent terminals, etc. 

Every day, millions of employees and customers interact with their technology, enabling business travellers to close the deal, delivering cargo shipments to factories and stores, and giving excited travellers the family vacations and honeymoons of a lifetime – all while making the experience/journey easier, faster, safer and more personal! 

Sabre’s Bengaluru GCC began operations in 2005. Initially, a handful of employees worked on some key projects in partnership with counterparts from the US. Over time, the centre grew in numbers, technology, and expertise. Today, Sabre Bengaluru GCC is a peer capability centre for product development, knowledge creation, and innovative solutions that help resolve customer pain points. 

Some of the ways the centre fosters a culture of innovation is by promoting co-creation across all levels, building communities of practice, and offering platforms like hackathons and idea incubators to create production-ready solutions.  

The differentiating factor for Sabre, when compared to other employers, is the fact that it offers to their team members the following opportunities – 

• Solve challenging business problems using advanced algorithms, statistical and econometric analysis, big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence
• Be part of the travel revolution to bring advanced & prescriptive analytics to the industry, and have the opportunity to innovate and deliver value to the customers
• Application of expert-level statistical analysis, data modelling, and predictive analysis on strategic and operational challenges in the airline business
• Learn business algorithms to translate questions into data analysis and models, define suitable KPIs, and present results to internal and external clients, sales and growth team
• Combine statistical analysis and machine learning techniques, leveraging huge volumes of competitive data and a broad range of consumer insights, to identify key market and consumer trends

Are you ready? 

“Be bold, make smart choices,” said Srinivasan, “Sabre offers great learning and growth opportunities for all team members. If you strive to put your best foot forward, the sky’s the limit.” 

Further, he said their organisation is a great place to work, and it will provide you countless opportunities to learn, practice, and apply your ideas. “We are pioneers in the travel technology space, and you will have the chance to drive bottom-line business and help shape the future of travel,” concluded Srinivasan. 

Check out data science jobs at Sabre here.