Role:

Lead Data Scientist

About the Role:

We are looking for a hands-on Lead Data Scientist to drive demand forecasting and inventory optimization for a fast-growing quick-commerce business. The role involves building scalable ML solutions to improve demand prediction, inventory availability, replenishment planning and operational efficiency across a network of dark stores.

You will lead a small team of data scientists while remaining hands-on with model development and solving complex business problems.

Key Responsibilities:

- Own the end-to-end demand forecasting and inventory optimization roadmap.

- Develop ML models for time-series forecasting, replenishment planning and inventory management.

- Reduce stockouts, excess inventory, shrinkage and wastage across product categories.

- Optimize safety stock, inventory levels and Days of Inventory (DOI), including perishable and slow-moving products.

- Lead, mentor and review the work of data scientists and analytics professionals.

- Work hands-on with Python, advanced SQL, pandas and Spark/PySpark.

- Design experiments and monitor model performance after production deployment.

- Collaborate with Operations, Finance, Product and Engineering teams to translate business challenges into analytical solutions.

- Explore LLMs and agentic AI for workflow automation and decision-making.

Mandatory Skills:

- 7+ years of experience in Data Science, Machine Learning or Applied Analytics.

- 2+ years of experience leading or mentoring data scientists or analysts.

- Strong expertise in Python, advanced SQL, pandas and Spark/PySpark.

- Proven experience building and deploying production ML models, including time-series forecasting.

- Experience in demand forecasting, inventory optimization, replenishment or supply chain analytics.

- Strong understanding of statistical analysis, experimentation and model evaluation.

- Excellent problem-solving, communication and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Experience in quick commerce, e-commerce, grocery, food delivery, retail or supply chain analytics.

- Exposure to perishable inventory, shrinkage reduction, intermittent demand and safety stock optimization.

- Knowledge of multi-warehouse operations, inventory transfers and purchase order optimization.

- Experience with mathematical optimization, Operations Research, LLMs or agentic AI.