Role Overview :

We are looking for a Lead Data Scientist / Applied AI Lead to lead Battery Smart's Data Science, Machine Learning and Applied AI charter.

This is a mid-level leadership role responsible for managing a team of Data Scientists / Analytics professionals while remaining hands-on with critical business problems and AI initiatives.

The role will own the Data Science roadmap, drive production-grade ML and AI solutions, and partner with Product, Engineering, Operations and Leadership to translate complex business problems into scalable, data driven solutions.

Key Responsibilities :

- Own end-to-end data science and machine learning solutions across demand forecasting, fraud detection, underwriting, driver behavior analysis, and network optimization.

- Design, build, deploy, and monitor time-series, geospatial, statistical, and real-time predictive models in production.

- Lead Applied AI and GenAI initiatives, including :

1. LLM-based applications.

2. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines.

3. Embeddings, agent workflows, and decision-support systems.

4. Use cases such as call transcript analysis, ops intelligence, and automated insights.

- Drive Computer Vision use cases, including face recognition, OCR, misuse/fraud detection, and asset monitoring.

- Take complete ownership of projects - from problem definition and data acquisition to deployment and performance tracking.

- Mentor and guide junior analysts and data scientists, setting high standards for problem-solving, code quality, and execution.

- Work closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, and Leadership to translate ambiguous business problems into scalable AI-driven solutions.

Qualifications & Skills :

- 7+ years of strong hands-on experience in Python and SQL (PySpark preferred).

- Proven experience in building ML models from scratch, including time-series forecasting, geospatial models, statistical modeling, and deep learning.

- Practical, production-level experience with LLMs, RAG architectures, and modern AI tooling.

- Hands-on exposure to Computer Vision models such as object detection, OCR, and facial recognition.

- Experience deploying and maintaining models using Docker and cloud environments (Kubernetes exposure is a plus).

- Strong understanding of real-time data processing frameworks and ML pipelines.

- Demonstrated ability to solve complex, ambiguous problems in a fast-scaling startup environment.

- Strong ownership mindset with experience leading and mentoring teams and collaborating cross functionally.

- Experience working with IoT and geospatial data is a plus.

Why this role :

- This is not a research-only role - you will build, deploy, and scale AI systems that directly impact revenue, assets, and operational efficiency.

- Opportunity to own high-impact AI systems end-to-end in one of India's fastest-growing EV infrastructure companies.

- Play a key role in shaping Battery Smart's data science and applied AI culture, while mentoring future leaders in the team.