Data Scientist Principal

Blackbaud India; Hyderabad; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Blackbaud India seeks a strategic Principal Data Scientist to design and elevate decision intelligence at enterprise scale. You will combine AI expertise with business logic to create production‑ready, trusted intelligence and guide how predictions and explanations are generated and governed.

You’ll partner across data, platform, and business teams to drive responsible, AI‑powered solutions that help organizations move faster with confidence and embed intelligence into products and workflows.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in analytics, ML, or AI systems in production.
• Expertise in predictive modeling and decision systems, including generative AI basics.
• Experience with Python and modern ML/AI workflows.
• Ability to influence technical direction across teams to drive responsible AI adoption.

Responsibilities

• Lead design of enterprise decision intelligence systems combining models, rules, and generative AI.
• Establish scalable decision modeling patterns for recommendations, risk scoring, and summarization.
• Transform contextual data into interpretable, decision‑ready outputs.
• Guide development of production‑grade ML/AI solutions with grounding and testability.
• Create evaluation frameworks for decision quality and drift monitoring.
• Collaborate with data, architecture, and platform teams to ensure observability and scalability.
• Lead root‑cause analysis of model failures and drive systemic improvements.

Skills

Predictive modeling

Decision systems

Generative AI

Python

Cross‑functional influence

Production ML/AI

Enterprise scale systems

Tools

Python

Job description

Job Description:

About The Role

• We’re looking for a strategically minded and AI‑expert Principal Data Scientist to design and elevate how Blackbaud delivers decision intelligence at enterprise scale. In this role, you will combine strategic thinking with deep AI expertise to transform how predictive models, business logic, and generative AI come together into trusted, production‑ready intelligence.
• You’ll partner across data, platform, and business teams to shape how decisions are generated, explained, and governed—fueling responsible, AI‑powered solutions that help organizations move faster with confidence. This role plays a critical leadership role in Blackbaud’s evolution into an AI‑native company, advancing how intelligence is embedded into products and decision workflows.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the design of enterprise decision intelligence systems that combine predictive models, business rules, and generative AI into clear, actionable outputs
• Establish scalable decision modeling patterns that support recommendations, prioritization, risk scoring, anomaly detection, and summarization across the business
• Define how contextual data is transformed into decision‑ready intelligence that is interpretable, explainable, and aligned to enterprise meaning
• Guide the development of production‑grade machine learning and generative AI solutions, ensuring outputs are grounded, testable, and reliable
• Build and evolve evaluation frameworks that measure decision quality, including accuracy, calibration, drift, groundedness, and consistency over time
• Partner cross‑functionally with data, architecture, and platform teams to ensure decision systems are observable, scalable, and aligned to enterprise standards
• Lead root‑cause analysis of decision or model failures and translate insights into systemic improvements across teams

What You’ll Bring

• 8 or more years of experience delivering applied analytics, machine learning, or AI systems in production environments
• Expertise in predictive modeling and decision systems, including evaluation, monitoring, drift detection, and thresholding strategies. Strong understanding of generative AI systems, including grounding techniques, structured outputs, and common failure modes.
• Experience working with Python and modern machine learning or AI development workflows.
• Proven ability to influence technical direction and partner across teams to drive adoption of scalable, responsible AI practices

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Blackbaud powers social impact through purpose‑driven technology and responsible AI. Guided by our Intelligence for Good® vision, we’re building a culture where innovation, trust, and human expertise come together to help organizations make a greater difference in the world.

Blackbaud is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining an inclusive work environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, or veteran status or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law.