Lead Data Scientist

Role: Lead Data Scientist

Location: Gurgaon

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.