Principal Data Scientist

i2c Inc; Lahore; On-site; PKR 16,680,567 - 23,630,803; Full time

Job summary

i2c Inc in Lahore, Pakistan is seeking an experienced data science leader to guide technical strategy for its fraud suite. The role requires defining roadmaps, leading a talented team of data scientists, and innovating model features.

The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of ML experience, strong executive presence, and deep knowledge in fraud/risk domains, demonstrating success in production models at scale. Proficiency in Python and SQL is essential.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of data science / ML experience with a strong record of production models.
• Experience leading teams of ~20 data scientists and resolving conflicts.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to influence clients and management.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical roadmap and architecture for the fraud suite.
• Lead an organization of ~20, setting standards and growing talent.
• Own complex client escalations and drive systemic improvements.
• Champion model innovation and evaluate emerging techniques.
• Engage directly with executives and clients to present results.

Skills

Python

Advanced SQL

Machine Learning Theory

Deep Learning

NLP

Fraud/Risk Problem Domains

Data Engineering

MLOps Tools

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Spark

Airflow

Git

Matplotlib

Plotly

Job description

• Define the technical roadmap and architecture for the full fraud suite: transaction fraud detection, 3DS friction reduction, enrolment fraud, merchant fraud, cardholder risk scoring, CSR-quality NLP scoring, the internal RAG chatbot, and the agentic digital-CSR system.
• Lead an organization of ~20, including senior data scientists - set standards, grow talent, align teams on priorities, and resolve both internal and external conflicts.
• Own the most complex client escalations: when banks report missed fraud or false declines, lead the root‑cause analysis, drive systemic pipeline improvements, and discover new features that raise precision and recall across the suite.
• Champion feature and model innovation - set the bar for hypothesis‑driven EDA, evaluate emerging techniques (deep learning, LLMs, RAG, agentic AI), and decide where to invest.
• Engage executives and clients directly - represent the data science function to senior management and banking partners, present results and strategy, and address concerns with credibility.
• Establish platform and MLOps standards for scale, reproducibility, monitoring, and reliability across all teams.
• De‑risk delivery: balance technical excellence with business outcomes, timelines, and regulatory/compliance expectations in a financial‑services context.

We are looking for

• Experience: 10+ years of data science / ML experience with a strong record of production models at scale.

Skills

• Deep expertise in Python and advanced SQL, plus strong command of ML/DL theory / MLand practice (imbalanced classification, calibration, interpretability).
• Demonstrated success architecting end‑to‑end ML systems and setting technical strategy.
• Proven ability to lead ~20 people, including senior Data Scientists, and to resolve internal and external conflicts.
• Excellent executive presence - able to influence management and clients and translate technical work into business value.
• Strong grasp of fraud/risk or payments problem domains.

Nice‑to‑have (bonus)

• Production experience with LLMs, RAG, and Agentic AI systems (e.g., internal knowledge chatbots, digital CSR agents).
• Hands‑on depth in deep learning, XGBoost, and NLP.
• Direct experience in issuer processing / card payments - authorizations, 3DS, enrolment, merchant risk, chargebacks.
• Track record of published work and thought leadership in fraud, risk, or applied ML.
• Experience with Data Engineeringand MLOps tools (like Docker/Kubernetes, Spark, Airflow), Git, and visualization tools (matplotlib/plotly).