Expert Data Scientist

Ciklum; Chennai District; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 8,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Udemy access

Language courses

Internal mobility

Company-paid certifications

Mental health support

Job summary

Ciklum in India is seeking an Expert Data Scientist to join our cross-functional team on a full-time basis in India. The Expert Data Scientist defines modeling strategy, evaluation frameworks, and governance across the AI/ML portfolio, mentoring senior data scientists and delivering measurable business impact.

You will lead multiple 45-day agile cycles, drive AWS-based platform architecture and MLOps, and ensure cost efficiency, governance, and regulatory alignment across projects.

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in data science, statistics, CS, OR, or equivalent.
• 10+ years delivering data science/ML solutions with leadership at portfolio level.
• Proven track record selecting modeling approaches across statistical, ML, optimization, simulation, GenAI.
• Defining evaluation metrics tied to KPIs and measurable outcomes.
• Hands-on and architectural experience with AWS AI/ML platforms and MLOps at scale.
• Ownership of agile, versioned delivery cycles across teams/products.
• Balancing performance, explainability, compliance, and cost in regulated environments.
• Experience designing synthetic data strategies and offline experiments.
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Define evaluation-driven development standards across evaluation metrics, data usage, and validation methodologies.
• Oversee multiple concurrent workstreams delivered through 45-day agile cycles; ensure measurable value.
• Lead cost-management and performance-optimization strategies for data/ML workloads.
• Set architectural and MLOps direction for AWS-based AI/ML platforms; govern deployments.
• Represent DS function in audits, regulatory reviews, and executive reporting.

Skills

Data Science leadership

MLOps on AWS

Evaluation metrics design

Model governance

Cross-functional leadership

Agile delivery

Regulatory compliance

Synthetic data strategies

Executive communication

Mentoring data scientists

Education

Master's/PhD in Data Science or related field

Tools

AWS

GenAI tooling

Job description

Ciklum is looking for an Expert Data Scientist to join our team full-time in India.

We are a custom product engineering company that supports both multinational organizations and scaling startups to solve their most complex business challenges. With a global team of over 4,000 highly skilled developers, consultants, analysts and product owners, we engineer technology that redefines industries and shapes the way people live.

About the role:

As an Expert Data Scientist, become a part of a cross-functional development team engineering experiences of tomorrow. The Expert/Principal Data Scientist is a senior technical leader responsible for setting the standard for evaluation-driven development across the organization's AI/ML and analytics portfolio. This person defines modeling strategy, evaluation frameworks, and delivery governance across multiple 45-day release cycles, and is accountable for demonstrating measurable business impact at a portfolio level while mentoring senior and mid-level data scientists.

Responsibilities:

• Evaluation-Driven Development Strategy & Standards
  • Define and champion the organization's evaluation-driven development framework: standards for selecting modeling approaches (statistical, ML, optimization, simulation, GenAI), evaluation metric design, and validation methodology
  • Establish enterprise guidelines for aligning evaluation metrics to business and process outcomes, ensuring consistency across teams and products
  • Set standards for the use of synthetic data, historical data, and real-world/controlled validation across the model lifecycle, including approval gates before production rollout
  • Own the definition of "measurable improvement" for the portfolio ensuring every release is backed by a rigorous before/after comparison against business KPIs
• Delivery Leadership
  • Oversee and be accountable for multiple concurrent workstreams delivered through 45-day versioned agile cycles, ensuring the portfolio consistently ships incremental, measurable value
  • Act as the escalation point for delivery risk, technical trade-offs, and cross-team dependencies across release cycles
  • Partner with product and engineering leadership to prioritize the roadmap based on expected business impact vs. delivery cost/risk
• Platform, MLOps & Cost
  • Set architectural and MLOps direction for AI/ML platforms and analytics products on AWS, including model deployment patterns, monitoring, and automated governance
  • Own cost-management and performance-optimization strategy for data and ML workloads at scale, setting budgets and efficiency targets across teams
  • Define enterprise approach to synthetic data generation, offline experimentation, and controlled real-world validation, including tooling selection
• Governance & Compliance
  • Own the framework for balancing model performance, explainability, regulatory compliance, and cost across the portfolio, including escalation criteria for high-risk models
  • Represent the data science function in audits, regulatory reviews, and executive reporting on model governance and business impact
• Leadership
  • Mentor Senior Data Scientists and review their evaluation frameworks, modeling choices, and delivery outcomes
  • Drive adoption of best practices in evaluation-driven development across the organization

Requirements:

• Master's or PhD in Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, Operations Research, or related field (or equivalent demonstrated experience)
• 10+ years of experience delivering data science/ML/analytics solutions, including leadership of technical strategy at a portfolio or platform level
• Proven track record of selecting and justifying modeling approaches across statistical, ML, optimization, simulation, and GenAI paradigms based on business context
• Deep experience defining evaluation metrics tied to business and process KPIs, and demonstrating measurable outcomes from delivered models
• Extensive hands‑on and architectural experience with AWS AI/ML platforms and MLOps practices at scale
• Demonstrated ownership of agile, versioned delivery cycles across multiple teams or products
• Strong track record balancing model performance, explainability, compliance, and cost trade‑offs, including in regulated environments
• Experience designing synthetic data strategies, offline experimentation frameworks, and controlled real‑world validation programs
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills

Desirable:

• Experience presenting model governance and impact metrics to executive or regulatory audiences
• Publications, patents, or public speaking in applied ML/AI evaluation methodology
• Experience building or scaling MLOps platforms from the ground up

What’s in it for you?

• Strong community: Work alongside top professionals in a friendly, open‑door environment
• Growth focus: Take on large‑scale projects with a global impact and expand your expertise
• Tailored learning: Boost your skills with internal events (meetups, conferences, workshops), Udemy access, language courses, and company‑paid certifications
• Endless opportunities: Explore diverse domains through internal mobility, finding the best fit to gain hands‑on experience with cutting‑edge technologies
• Care: We’ve got you covered with company‑paid medical insurance, mental health support, and financial & legal consultations

About us:

At Ciklum, we are always exploring innovations, empowering each other to achieve more, and engineering solutions that matter. With us, you’ll work with cutting‑edge technologies, contribute to impactful projects, and be part of a One Team culture that values collaboration and progress.

India is a strategic innovation hub for Ciklum, with growing teams in Chennai and Pune leading advancements in EdgeTech, AR/VR, IoT, and beyond. Join us to collaborate on game‑changing solutions and take your career to the next level.

Explore, empower, engineer with Ciklum!