Senior Associate AI & Data Science

NPCI; Mumbai; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,800,000; Full time

Job summary

NPCI in Mumbai invites experienced ML/AI engineer to join a fast-paced team building generation AI and financial security systems. You will work on hands-on development, model deployment, and scalable pipelines.

You will collaborate with architects, handle ML/DL fundamentals, transformers, LLMs, and modern GenAI tools, ensuring production-grade reliability across high-throughput financial data. The role offers growth and impact in India's digital payments.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience in Classic ML and/or modern GenAI (LLMs/Agents).
• 3+ years in relevant fields with production systems exposure.
• Strong collaboration across cross-functional teams and ability to learn fast.

Responsibilities

• Model development: build, train, evaluate ML/GenAI models from dev to production.
• Pipelines: implement data and inference pipelines for reliability and latency.
• Collaboration: work with senior architects to align with business goals.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

ML Fundamentals

LLMs

Transformers

SQL

Spark

Kafka

Flink

Pandas

NumPy

Git

REST APIs

Docker

Kubernetes

MLflow

LangChain

LangGraph

Cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Tools

LangChain

LangGraph

Hugging Face Transformers

MLflow

Docker

Kubernetes

Spark

Flink

REST/gRPC

Git

Job description

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) | Full Time

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is a pivotal institution in India's digital payments ecosystem, established by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). It operates under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, and is incorporated as a “Not for Profit” company under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956 (now Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013). NPCI is dedicated to building world-class digital payment infrastructure through innovative and efficient retail payment platforms. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, NPCI is committed to fostering an inclusive workplace culture, with zero tolerance for discrimination based on race, ethnicity, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation, including support for the LGBTQ+ community.

Our Culture

TheNPCIWAY –OurGuidingPrinciples

At NPCI, we foster a culture of Inclusion, Innovation, and a High-Performance Workplace .

The NPCIWAY isnotjustaframework - it’sasharedcommitmentbyevery individual to align with our evolving business needs, dynamic market conditions, and workforce expectations.

FiveTenetsoftheNPCIWAY

• ForwardThinkingMind-Set
• CustomerFirst
• LeadWith Purpose
• PassiontoDeliver
• AllSucceedTogether

Employee Perks and Benefits

Insurance&Wellness:

• ComprehensiveCoverage :Medical,accidental,andlifeinsurance.
• Employee Assistance Program : Onsite medical center, financial/legal counselling, mental wellness.
• AnnualWellnessBouquet :Holisticwellbeingsupport

Family &Childcare:

• ParentalLeave :Inclusivematernityandpaternityleave.
• Nanny at home Support: Assistance for Working Parents

Mobility&Lifestyle:

• MobilityBenefits :Relocation,transfers,andtravelsupport.
• HomeLoanInterestSupport :Upto50%reimbursement*
• MobileReimbursement :Newhandsetevery2years.
• CarLease,SalaryAdvance,SubsidizedMeals.
• Reward&RecognitionProgram.
• TechnologyInnovation: PatentsandIPRightspolicy.

RetirementPlanning:

• ProvidentFund(PF) and Gratuity Contributions .

Why Join Us

At NPCI, you’ll be part of a purpose-driven organization shaping the future of digital payments in India and beyond. NPCI offers a unique opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects that directly impact millions. We foster a culture of innovation, inclusion, and high performance, where every individual is empowered to lead with purpose and deliver with passion. With a strong focus on employee wellbeing, continuous learning, and collaborative success, NPCI is more than just a workplace - it’s a platform to grow, contribute, and make a meaningful difference.

1. Hands-On Execution (The "What")- Model Development: Build, train, and evaluate ML and GenAI models, taking them from experimentation to production with guidance from senior engineers.- Pipelines: Implement and maintain data and inference pipelines, ensuring they meet reliability and latency targets.- Collaboration: Work closely with senior architects and engineers, contributing to code reviews and learning production best practices.

2. Predictive AI & Scale (The "Fast")- Fraud at Scale: Contribute to our Fraud Risk Management (FRM) system, building features and models for streaming inference using Flink/Spark.- Feature Store: Help build and maintain features that serve both high-velocity transactional data and dense vector embeddings.- Optimization: Profile and optimize model serving to improve throughput on our GPU clusters.

3. Generative & Agentic AI (The "Smart")- AI Agents: Support the development of AI Agents that navigate banking interfaces, execute refunds, and detect social engineering attacks.- LLM Fine-Tuning: Assist in fine-tuning SLMs (Small Language Models) on secured financial data for edge deployment.- Safety Guardrails: Implement guardrails and evaluations that prevent hallucination in critical financial advice.

The Ideal Candidate Profile

You are a hands-on builder.

• You love to code, you are curious about how things work end-to-end, and you are eager to grow into a scale-veteran engineer.
• Essential Experience (3+ Years)- Dual Exposure: Hands-on experience in Classic ML AND/OR Modern GenAI (LLMs/Agents).
• Bonus if you have shipped either type of system to production.
• Scale Curiosity: Experience working with production systems and a strong desire to understand high-throughput, distributed computing.
• Deep Learning Fundamentals: Solid grasp of ML/DL fundamentals and the underlying math.
• Familiarity with Transformers or GNNs is a plus.
• Collaboration: Comfortable working in cross-functional teams and aligning your work with business goals.

Must-Have Skills-

• Programming: Strong proficiency in Python and solid software engineering fundamentals (clean code, version control with Git, testing).
• Core ML: Hands-on experience building, training, and evaluating ML models using scikit-learn, XGBoost/LightGBM, and PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• GenAI / LLMs: Practical experience with LLMs – prompt engineering, RAG, fine-tuning, and frameworks such as LangChain/LangGraph and Hugging FaceTransformers.
• Data Handling: Strong SQL and data wrangling skills (Pandas/NumPy); experience working with large datasets.
• Big Data / Pipelines: Working experience with Spark or Kafka/Flink for building data and inference pipelines.
• Deployment: Experience containerizing and deploying models (Docker), exposing them via REST/gRPC APIs, and basic familiarity with Kubernetes.
• MLOps: Exposure to experiment tracking and model lifecycle tools (MLflow) and CI/CD for ML.
• Cloud: Hands-on with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Fundamentals: Solid grasp of statistics, probability, and deep learning concepts (including Transformer architecture).
• Communication: Ability to clearly document work and collaborate within cross-functional teams.

Technical Stack

- GenAI: vLLM, LangGraph, DeepSpeed, Unsloth.

- Cloud/Infra: Working knowledge of GPU/TPU usage and cost awareness.The Package

The Package

Growth: Learn directly from Principal Architects and senior engineers shaping the nation's AI.

Resources: Access to state-of-the-ary compute infrastructure and proprietary datasets that are unique in the world.

Legacy: The opportunity to say, "I helped build the AI that powers the Indian Economy."