Lead AI Engineer

The Company: A leader in innovative solutions, committed to excellence and customer satisfaction.

Egon Zehnder (www.egonzehnder.com) is trusted advisor to many of the world’s most respected organizations and a leading Executive Search firm, with more than 600+ consultants and 69 offices in 41 countries spanning Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Our clients range from the largest corporations to emerging growth companies, government and regulatory bodies, and major educational and cultural institutions. The firm is a private partnership which allows us to operate independent of any outside interests.

As a result of this unique culture, Egon Zehnder has the highest professional staff retention rate for a global firm in our profession. We have a blue-chip client base across all industries and operate at the Board and senior management level.

Knowledge Centre India (KCI)

We are part of Digital-IT team established 17 years ago in Gurgaon, India to provide technology support and rollout digital initiatives to 60 plus global offices. Digital IT has six key pillars – Collaboration Technology; Functional Technology; Digital Technology; Security & Architecture; Infrastructure & Services, Digital Success to support business and to take lead on digital transformation initiatives with the total strength of 150+ team members across the globe.

We are looking for a highly skilled and intellectually curious Data Scientist with 10+ years of experience in applying advanced machine learning and AI techniques to solve complex business problems. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in Classical Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Generative AI (GenAI), along with strong hands-on coding skills and a proven track record of delivering impactful data science solutions. This role requires a blend of technical excellence, business acumen, and collaborative mindset and potential to lead a technical team.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy ML models using classical algorithms (e.g., regression, decision trees, ensemble methods) and deep learning architectures (CNNs, RNNs, Transformers).
• Build NLP solutions for tasks such as text classification, entity recognition, summarization, and conversational AI.
• Develop and fine-tune GenAI models for use cases like content generation, code synthesis, and personalization.
• Architect and implement Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems for enhanced contextual AI applications.
• Collaborate with data engineers to build scalable data pipelines and feature stores.
• Perform advanced feature engineering and selection to improve model accuracy and robustness.
• Work with large-scale structured and unstructured datasets using distributed computing frameworks.
• Translate business problems into data science solutions and communicate findings to stakeholders.
• Present insights and recommendations through compelling storytelling and visualization.
• Mentor junior data scientists and contribute to internal knowledge sharing and innovation.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, and AI.
• Strong academic background in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or related field (Master’s or PhD preferred).
• Proficiency in Python, SQL, and ML libraries (scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Hugging Face).
• Experience with NLP and GenAI tools (e.g., Azure AI Foundry, Azure AI studio, GPT, LLaMA, LangChain).
• Hands-on experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems and vector databases.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure preferred, AWS/GCP acceptable) and MLOps tools (MLflow, Airflow, Kubeflow).
• Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms, and software engineering principles.
• Experience with Aure, Azure Copilot Studio, Azure Cognitive Services
• Experience with Azure AI Foundry would be a strong added advantage

Preferred Skills

• Exposure to LLM fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and GenAI safety frameworks.
• Experience in domains such as consulting, finance, healthcare, retail, or enterprise SaaS.
• Contributions to open-source projects, publications, or patents in AI/ML.

Soft Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in cross-functional teams.
• Passion for continuous learning and innovation.

Benefits

EZ Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

Egon Zehnder aims for a diverse workplace and strives to continuously lead with our firm values. We respect personal values of every individual irrespective of race, national or social origin, gender, religion, political or other opinion, disability, age and sexual orientation as warranted by basic rights enshrined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. We believe diversity of our firm is central to the success and enables us to deliver better solutions for our clients.

Egon Zehnder is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Egon Zehnder provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, citizenship status, age, national origin, disability, or any other legally protected status and to affirmatively seek to advance the principles of equal employment opportunity.