Lead Data Scientist / AI/ML Engineer

Job description

**Total Experience range required -10 to 12 years** **Roles \& Responsibilities** * Lead AI Product Pods across Credit Risk, Fraud, and Collections functions. * Build and deploy production-scale Machine Learning systems for lending lifecycle decisioning. * Own complete ML lifecycle including feature engineering, model training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement. * Design scalable distributed ML infrastructure, feature stores, model registries, and MLOps pipelines. * Develop AI solutions for underwriting, portfolio risk monitoring, fraud detection, anomaly detection, and recovery optimization. * Drive model governance, monitoring, explainability, and compliance within BFSI regulatory standards. * Collaborate with Product, Risk, Engineering, Data, and Business teams to deliver AI-driven business outcomes. * Define AI platform architecture, operational excellence, SLAs, and incident management practices. * Build, mentor, and scale high-performing AI Engineering and Data Science teams. **Ideal Candidate** * 10+ years of experience in **Data Science, AI/ML, or AI Engineering**, with hands-on expertise in building and deploying production-grade machine learning systems. * Proven experience developing **AI/ML solutions for Credit Risk, Fraud Risk Management (FRM), Collections \& Recovery**, delivering measurable business impact. * Currently working in a **Lead-level or higher** role (Lead, Principal, Engineering Manager, Associate Director, Director, etc.). * Strong expertise in designing and deploying **large-scale distributed machine learning systems**, including model training, fine-tuning, inference, scalable model serving, and production deployment. * Excellent programming skills in **Python** , with hands-on experience in **Spark, Kafka, Kubernetes, APIs/Microservices, CI/CD pipelines, Feature Stores, Model Registry, and Distributed Computing**. * Experience building and deploying **Credit Risk Models, Fraud Detection Models, Graph ML solutions, Early Warning Systems, Portfolio Monitoring, Collections Optimization, Propensity Models, and Recovery Forecasting**. * Demonstrated experience leading AI/ML teams, owning end-to-end solution delivery, mentoring engineers, collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders, and managing production AI platforms. * Strong understanding of **BFSI governance**, including PII handling, model governance, auditability, compliance, secure-by-design architecture, approval workflows, and model risk management. * **B.Tech/M.Tech** from **Tier 1 institutes** such as **IITs, NITs, or BITS**. * **Age below 37 years.** * Compensation structure will be **75% fixed and 25% variable**, as per company policy. **Preferred Qualifications** * Currently working with a **Product Company, FinTech, Banking, NBFC, or Global Capability Center (GCC)** in roles such as **Lead, Principal, Engineering Manager, Associate Director, or Director**. * Indian professionals currently working overseas (NRIs) who are planning to relocate and settle in India are encouraged to apply. * Experience building **enterprise AI platforms** using **Graph ML, Vector Databases, LLM-enabled decisioning, distributed training frameworks, and large-scale AI infrastructure**.