Adda247 - Head of Data Science - Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning

Role Overview :

We are building an AI-first education platform where AI directly improves how students learn, get guidance, and succeed.

We are looking for a Head of Data Science / AI / ML who can innovate fast, ship reliably, and stay cost-conscious while scaling. This role is about real-world AI, not research labs or vanity demos.

You will own AI systems that impact millions of studentsfrom voice counsellors and personalized learning to student profiling and success predictionwhile ensuring every model, API call, and infra decision justifies its cost.

What You Will Own :

- The end-to-end AI charter across Adda Education

- Applied, production-grade AI systems that scale sustainably

- Balancing innovation, accuracy, speed, and costalways

Key Responsibilities :

1. AI Strategy with Cost Discipline :

- Define an AI-first roadmap grounded in measurable student and business outcomes

- Evaluate AI ideas not just for capability, but for ROI and long-term cost sustainability

- Make pragmatic build vs buy decisions across models, infra, and tooling

- Avoid over-engineering; ship what works and iterate fast

2. Student Profiling & Personalization at Scale :

- Build robust, explainable student profiles using academic, behavioral, and engagement data

- Drive personalization systems across content, practice, assessments, and study plans

- Ensure models scale to millions of learners without runaway infra or API costs

3. AI Counsellors & Voice Systems :

- Lead development of AI-powered counsellors, including :

1. Voice-based AI guidance

2. Conversational support systems

3. Motivation and intervention engines

- Optimize NLP, speech, and LLM usage for latency, reliability, and cost efficiency

- Blend AI guidance with human counsellor workflows where needed

4. Applied ML & Production Deployment

- Own the full ML lifecycle :

1. Problem framing

2.Feature engineering

3. Model training and evaluation

4. Deployment, monitoring, and retraining

- Implement systems for :

1. Model performance tracking

2. Drift and bias detection

3. Cost and usage monitoring

- Favor simple, robust models where they outperform complex ones

5. Innovation with a Grind Mindset

- Constantly explore new models, techniques, and architectures

- Rapidly prototype, test, discard, and iterate

- Personally stay hands-on when stakes are high or timelines are tight

- Push teams to deliver working systems, not endless experiments

6. Leadership & Culture

- Build and lead teams across data science, ML engineering, and applied AI

- Set expectations around :

1. Ownership

2. Delivery

3. Cost awareness

- Create a culture where shipping, learning, and accountability matter more than perfection

Who This Role Is For :

- Someone who loves building under constraints

- Comfortable saying this is too expensive and finding a smarter alternative

- Energized by fast execution and continuous iteration

- Believes AI should be useful, scalable, and sustainable

Required Experience & Skills :

- 10+ years in data science, ML, or applied AI roles

- Proven experience deploying AI systems at scale

- Strong expertise in :

1. ML, NLP, recommender systems

2. LLM-based architectures and agents

3. Speech / voice systems (preferred)

- Experience optimizing AI infra, inference costs, and model efficiency

- Strong collaboration skills with product and engineering teams

How Success Will Be Measured :

- Students see measurable improvement in outcomes and engagement

- AI systems are reliable, scalable, and cost-controlled

- Personalization becomes a core platform advantage

- Teams ship faster with better technical and cost discipline

Why This Role Is Hardand Worth It :

- High expectations, real-world constraints, no academic buffers

- Decisions you make affect millions of students

- Opportunity to build meaningful AI, not experimental demos

- Direct ownership and visibility at the leadership level