Vice President - Data Science - FinTech

Role Overview:

As VP of Analytics & AI, you will be responsible for:

- Building and maintaining the highest quality of AI, ML, and data science standards in the company.

- Hiring, grooming, and leading an elite team of AI, ML, and data science professionals, creating an environment that attracts and retains top talent.

- Developing AI & ML models on alternate data sources to solve real-world BFSI problems such as fraud detection, credit underwriting, risk assessment, and compliance monitoring.

- Creating Explainable AI (XAI) solutions that ensure transparency, fairness, and regulatory compliance, addressing the growing challenges posed by AI-driven decision-making in financial services.

Your goal is to establish the company as the industry benchmark for AI-driven financial intelligence while solving some of the most complex challenges faced by banks, NBFCs, and fintech companies.

Key Responsibilities:

1. AI, ML & Data Science Excellence

- Define and implement best-in-class AI & ML practices, ensuring models are scalable, robust, and highly accurate.

- Stay ahead of the curve in algorithm development, deep learning, NLP, and AI advancements in the financial industry.

- Drive high-impact AI research that translates into commercially successful and deployable solutions.

- Ensure data governance, model reliability, and bias-free AI in all analytics initiatives.

2. Leadership & Team Growth

- Hire, train, and mentor a world-class analytics team, developing the next generation of AI & ML leaders.

- Create a culture of innovation, collaboration, and problem-solving within the analytics & function.

- Drive knowledge-sharing initiatives and ensure the team stays updated with cutting-edge AI research and techniques.

- Develop structured career progression plans for data scientists and AI engineers, ensuring they are continuously challenged and growing.

3. Building AI Models on Alternate Data

- Develop AI models that unlock the value of non-traditional data sources-DPI, telco data, social data, geospatial data, and transaction history.

- Solve real-world BFSI problems, including fraud detection, credit risk profiling, identity verification, and transaction intelligence.

- Optimize AI models for high accuracy, scalability, and real-time decisioning in financial workflows.

4. Explainable AI & Regulatory Compliance

- Ensure all AI-driven decisions are fully explainable, auditable, and transparent to meet bank and regulatory compliance requirements.

- Develop Explainable AI (XAI) models that enhance trust with banks, NBFCs, and regulatory authorities like RBI, NPCI, UIDAI.

- Work closely with compliance, legal, and risk teams to ensure AI-driven solutions adhere to global and Indian regulatory frameworks.

Key Qualifications

- 10+ years of experience in Data Science, AI, ML, or Analytics Leadership, preferably in BFSI, Fintech, or Risk Management.

- Deep expertise in machine learning, deep learning, NLP, alternative data analytics, and risk modeling.

- Strong track record of building and deploying AI models at scale in real-world business environments.

- Experience in leading and scaling high-performance data science teams.

- Prior experience in developing Explainable AI (XAI) frameworks is a strong plus.

- Deep understanding of regulatory challenges around AI & ML in financial services.

- Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills-ability to interact with CXOs, regulators, and financial decision-makers.

- Experience in hiring, coaching, and grooming AI & ML professionals at different career stages.

- Passion for solving hard problems in AI-driven financial intelligence.