AVP, Data Science & AI (Pune)

Synchrony; Pune District; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Synchrony seeks an AVP, Data Science & AI to lead a team of data scientists, shaping strategic AI bets across the organization. You will define AI use-case requirements, evaluate feasibility, and drive scalable, responsible AI adoption at scale.

You will guide data architecture, semantic layers, and governance, partnering with engineering, data, and platform teams to deliver impact across large datasets and business processes.

Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, AI, Engineering or related field with 6+ years delivering ML/AI solutions or 8+ years in lieu of a degree.
• Hands-on GenAI delivery including workflow automations, RAG, agentic AI orchestration and tooling.
• Experience deploying AI solutions on cloud platforms with secure access and monitoring.

Responsibilities

• Define prioritized AI use cases with measurable business outcomes and governance.
• Lead end-to-end readiness assessments across data, platform, and controls.
• Prototype and scale GenAI solutions and drive production-ready designs.
• Coordinate cross-functional delivery and executive reporting.

Skills

GenAI

Leadership

ML & AI

AWS/Azure/GCP

Data Architecture

SQL/SAS/Python

Education

Bachelor's/Master's in CS/AI/Engineering

Tools

Spark

Airflow

dbt

Kafka

Langchain

Job description

Role Title: AVP, Data Science & AI (L11)

Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) is a leading consumer financing company that has been at the heart of American commerce and opportunity for nearly a century. Synchrony delivers credit and banking products that empower tens of millions of consumers to improve their financial lives and access what matters most. Leveraging innovative solutions that are shaping the future of retail commerce, Synchrony supports the growth and success of some of the nation's most respected brands, alongside hundreds of thousands of small and midsize businesses, including health and wellness providers. Committed to excellence in service and culture, Synchrony is proud to be named as #3 as a Great Place to Work in India and is honored to be ranked the #1 Best Company to Work For in the U.S. by Fortune magazine and Great Place to Work. For more information, visit www.synchrony.com.

Organizational Overview

This role is part of enterprise-focused Data Science & AI team responsible for enabling and accelerating strategic AI bets across the organization. These bets focus on improving the efficiency of internal business processes and workflows, while strengthening foundational data and platform capabilities.

Role Summary/Purpose

The AVP, Data Science & AI is a leadership role with people management responsibilities in the Data Science & AI team, part of Analytics in India , rolling up to Growth organisation. This role is responsible for enabling and evaluating strategic Generative AI and Agentic AI priorities across the organization and plays a critical leadership role in advancing foundational capability readiness.

The AVP will lead a team of data scientists and operate at the intersection of business strategy, AI solutions, data architecture and engineering, enterprise platforms, controls, and agile program execution. Key responsibilities include defining AI use-case requirements, evaluating feasibility and business value, and assessing readiness across data, platform, architecture, and control dimensions.

This role requires a blend of collaborative and transformational leadership, strong people management capabilities, and hands-on expertise in AI/ML prototyping, data evaluation, and capability assessment to help drive scalable, responsible, and impactful AI adoption across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

Build

• Define prioritized AI use cases with clear business outcomes and measurable success metrics.
• Prototype GenAI solutions (workflow automation, RAG, MCP, agentic orchestration) and drive production-ready AI & ML solution designs and handoff.

Assess & Evaluate

• Lead end-to-end readiness assessments (architecture/semantic layer, platform/tooling, governance/controls, operational integration).
• Build and run an AI evaluation harness (golden datasets, automated metrics for quality/groundedness, safety, latency, cost) with benchmarking, regression tests, and release gates.

Data & Architecture

• Support technical, data, and integration requirements; guide scalable AI data architecture patterns
• Consult on semantic layer design, metadata strategy, and data integration/lineage standards.

Stakeholder/Cross functional Management

• Coordinate cross-functional delivery across business, enterprise AI program, engineering, data, and platform teams; align dependencies and milestones.
• Drive agile governance and executive reporting (backlog/Jira-Kanban hygiene, status/risk management, roadmap and leadership updates).

Required Skills & Knowledge

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, AI/Data Science, Engineering, Economics or such related fields with 6+ years of handson experience in delivering ML & AI solutions or 8+ years of relevant experience in lieu of a degree.
• Handson experience in delivering GenAI solutions involving workflow automations (Copilot/n8n/Zapier/Make), RAG, MCP, Agentic AI Orchestration (using Langchain/LangGraph/CrewAI/AutoGen/AWS Strands)
• Experience building and operationalizing agentic AI in AWS (AgentCore/Bedrock), Azure (OpenAI Service), or GCP (Vertex AI) including secure tool/data access, guardrails, and monitoring/evaluation.
• Experience using tools such as SQL, SAS/Python, Spark/Scala/Hive, with demonstrated ability to apply Machine Learning techniques and efficiently work with complex, large-scale datasets.
• Strong expertise in semantic layers, enterprise data architecture, and data engineering, with proven proficiency in tools and frameworks such as Apache Spark, Airflow, Kafka, dbt, and Scala.
• 3+ years of team and project management experience leading cross-functional teams and initiatives, partnering with business and technology stakeholders, and synthesizing outcomes into executive-ready insights and recommendations.

Desired Skills & Knowledge

• Experience in the US banking, financial services, and credit card industry.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in .