Manager I, Data Scientist

Kroll; Mumbai; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Kroll is seeking a Data Science Manager in Mumbai to lead and grow our enterprise data science function. You will shape how data science is practised, own ML/AI roadmaps, and develop talent to bring initiatives to life across fintech product development, automation, BI, data governance, and generative AI.

You will lead data scientists partnering with engineering, product, and business stakeholders, delivering measurable business outcomes and ensuring responsible AI practices across the ML

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in a quantitative field (MS/PhD).
• 7+ years of applied data science or ML; 2+ years in people leadership.
• Proven production ML delivery with measurable business impact.
• Strong Python skills and modern ML stack fluency.
• Hands-on Databricks, Spark/PySpark, and Azure platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of data scientists across levels.
• Own end-to-end data science roadmap and communicate impact to leadership.
• Partner with product, engineering, and business to define problems and scoping ML solutions.
• Provide technical oversight across the ML lifecycle from framing to deployment.
• Establish and uphold code quality, governance, and responsible AI practices.
• Drive ML infrastructure adoption on Databricks and Azure, including MLOps.
• Champion generative AI initiatives with rigorous evaluation and responsible deployment.
• Recruit and retain data science talent and manage performance.
• Represent data science to internal and external stakeholders clearly.

Skills

Data science

Machine learning

Python

NLP/GenAI

Communication to leadership

Education

MS or PhD in CS/Statistics/Data Science

Tools

Databricks

Spark/PySpark

Azure OpenAI Service

Azure AI Foundry

Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions

MLflow

Docker

Kubernetes

Python ML stack (scikit-learn, TensorFlow/PyTorch)

Job description

Kroll is hiring a Data Science Manager to lead and grow our data science function within the Enterprise Data Group.

This role sits at the intersection of technical leadership and strategic delivery — you will shape how data science is practised across the team, own the roadmap for ML and AI initiatives, and develop the talent responsible for bringing those initiatives to life.

Our program spans fintech product development, digital transformation, process automation with machine learning, business intelligence, data governance, and generative AI.

You will lead a team of data scientists who partner with engineering, product, and business stakeholders — including professionals from the world's largest financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, and government bodies.

At Kroll, your work will help deliver clarity to our clients' most complex governance, risk, and transparency challenges.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of junior, intermediate, and senior data scientists — setting technical direction, enabling individual development, and cultivating a high-performance team culture
• Own the end-to-end data science roadmap: prioritise initiatives, manage delivery, and communicate progress and impact to senior leadership and clients
• Partner with product, engineering, and business stakeholders to define problems, scope ML solutions, and translate data science capabilities into measurable business outcomes
• Provide technical oversight across the full ML lifecycle — from problem framing and data validation through model design, experimentation, production deployment, and monitoring
• Establish and uphold team standards around code quality, experimentation rigour, model governance, and responsible AI practices
• Drive adoption and evolution of ML infrastructure on Databricks and Azure (Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, AKS), including MLOps practices such as CI/CD, model versioning, and drift detection
• Champion LLM and generative AI initiatives — including RAG architecture, prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and agentic frameworks — ensuring they are evaluated rigorously and deployed responsibly
• Recruit and retain top data science talent; lead hiring, onboarding, and performance management processes
• Represent data science internally and externally, communicating technical concepts and tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences

Requirements

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in computer science, statistics, mathematics, data science, or a related quantitative field
• 7+ years of applied data science or machine learning experience, including at least 2 years in a people management or technical lead capacity
• Proven track record of delivering ML solutions to production and driving measurable business impact
• Strong Python skills and fluency with the modern ML stack (scikit-learn, PyTorch or TensorFlow, Hugging Face Transformers, pandas)
• Hands-on experience with Databricks (notebooks, jobs, MLflow, Unity Catalog) and Spark/PySpark
• Production experience on Azure — ideally including Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI Service, and Azure Data Lake
• Breadth across ML domains: traditional/statistical ML, deep learning, NLP, and LLM/GenAI applications, including hands-on experience with prompt engineering, RAG, embeddings, and agentic workflows
• Experience establishing MLOps practices including CI/CD, model monitoring, drift detection, and model versioning
• Excellent communication skills — able to translate complex technical work into clear business narrative for senior leadership and clients
• Strong judgment in prioritisation, tradeoffs, and managing competing stakeholder demands

Preferred

• Experience in financial services, risk, compliance, or regulatory domains
• Hands-on experience with agentic AI frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel), LLM evaluation tooling, and production deployment of GenAI applications
• Knowledge of responsible AI principles, including fairness, explainability, and data privacy
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions