Technical Lead, Data Science - Aera Technology

Job Title: Technical Lead, Data Science
Job Location: Pune, India
Job Listing URL: https://jobs.lever.co/aeratechnology/b7963e98-a9be-49ac-b494-072101a9ad8b
Job Description: Aera Technology is the Decision Intelligence company. We deliver innovation and services that enable enterprises to operate sustainably, intelligently, and efficiently. Our platform, Aera Decision Cloud™, integrates with your existing systems to digitize, augment, and automate decisions in real time. Aera helps enterprises around the world transform decision making – delivering millions of recommendations that have resulted in significant revenue gains and cost savings for some of the world’s best-known brands.

We are seeking a Tech Lead Data Scientist to drive the successful implementation of high-impact ML solutions for our enterprise customers. This is a critical role focused squarely on solving complex customer problems by applying advanced Data Science techniques during implementation projects. You will be expected to rapidly understand, analyze, and diagnose client-specific issues, providing quick, robust analytical insights and technical resolutions. While your focus is on customer implementation delivery and support, you will serve as a key feedback loop, working closely with the internal Data Science Product team to influence future tooling and features. Furthermore, you will lead and mentor a small team of data scientists, setting the standard for technical excellence, timely execution, and the integration of cutting-edge ML and AI into customer environments.

Responsibilities
Data Science Customer Success & Problem Solving: Act as the senior technical point of contact, driving successful outcomes by identifying, scoping, and leading data science projects that directly address high-value customer problems. Measure and report on the business impact (ROI, efficiency gains) of deployed models. Ensure rigorous testing and validation of all new data science features and model deployments.
Technical Design & Implementation: Design, implement, monitor, and maintain scalable, production-grade Data Science systems. Research and evaluate the latest in Machine Learning, Generative AI, and advanced statistical models for new feature development. Actively scout, evaluate, and implement the latest advancements in Data Science, Machine Learning (MLOps, LLMs/Generative AI), and AI to maintain Aera’s technical edge.
Data Science Customer Support: Maintain a zero-tolerance policy for delayed customer resolution related to Data Science models and pipelines, working closely with Support, Customer Success and Product teams to resolve issues and implement robust, long-term solutions.
Team Leadership and Mentoring: Directly lead and mentor a small, high-impact team (2-3 members) including Data Scientists, Senior Data Scientists, and Interns, setting technical standards, guiding project execution, and fostering individual career growth.
Contribution to Product: Translate customer feedback and cutting-edge research into actionable product features and technical specifications for the engineering and product teams. Serve as the Tech Lead liaison to the Product Team, actively contributing to and shaping the roadmap and future direction of Aera Decision Cloud’s Data Science and ML capabilities.
About You
We are looking for a hybrid leader—someone who is deeply technical, customer-obsessed, and passionate about mentoring others.
Customer Obsession: First and foremost, you are someone who is obsessed about solving customer problems and delivering tangible business value using Data Science, understanding the criticality of timely resolution and deployment.
Technical Foundation: Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related quantitative field with a focus on Machine Learning/Deep Learning/AI.
Experience: 7+ years of progressive professional experience as a Data Scientist or Machine Learning Engineer, ideally in a B2B SaaS or product development setting.
Modern ML/AI Expertise: Proven, hands-on experience designing, developing, and deploying systems utilizing the latest advancements in AI (e.g., MLOps practices, Generative AI, vector databases, or transformer models).
Production Deployment: Strong experience with the full ML lifecycle, including translating research models into scalable, production-ready services using modern software development practices.
Exceptional proficiency in SQL and Python; able to write high-quality, high-performance, and maintainable code.
Experience with distributed systems and ML frameworks such as Dask, Ray, or Spark.
Familiarity with production ML services like Kubeflow, Sagemaker, or similar cloud-native MLOps tools is a significant advantage.
Leadership: Demonstrated experience in leading projects, setting technical direction, and mentoring or supervising junior data professionals. Experience leading teams or performing hiring is a strong plus.