R&D – Lead Data Scientist

Our Purpose

We work to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. We cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences enable us to be a better team – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation and delivers better business results.

Title and Summary

R&D – Lead Data Scientist

R&D – Lead Data Scientist

Who is Mastercard?
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential.
Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

Overview
Mastercard is looking for a talented Lead Data Scientist to join the Mastercard Foundry Research and Development team in our Pune office. In this role you will be part of a highly agile team building exiting and innovative products delivered at scale to global markets.
Our team is built on a foundation of research and development, mining innovation internally, innovating new product lines with emerging technology, managing new products from inception to market validation and engaging strategically with start-ups to shape the future of commerce with and for our customers. At Mastercard you will help define the future of commerce globally.
This team will have a diverse focus both in terms of geography and variety of technology challenges driving hard to bring innovative payment solutions to market.

Role
This role involves working with a team of talented developers to develop high performance AI solutions.
• Responsible for the analysis, design, and development of AI solutions using ML, DL and NLP tools and techniques as per use case
• Research on new AI frameworks and technologies and apply the same to the development of POCs, Prototypes, Products and capabilities as applicable
• Use latest small and large language models (SLMs and LLMs) for building AI based solutions for relevant use cases
• Contribute to the requirements for new applications and customizations, adhering to standards, processes, and best practices
• Applies technical capabilities within own discipline to coach and develop junior employees
• Group-wide and external public speaking and other communications conveying domain level directions
• Work with cross functional teams spread across geographies on new product innovation and R&D initiatives
• Work on publishing Research papers and filing IDFs and Patents for solution concepts in the field of AI
Skills
• Proficiency with Python and related ecosystem of Data Science tools and packages including pandas, numpy, sklearn, keras, torch, transformers, spacy and genism
• Well versed with various Machine Learning, Deep Learning and NLP concepts and models for both supervised and unsupervised learning
• Working knowledge of Python based API based frameworks like FastAPI and comfortable working with JSON objects
• Expertise in Prompt engineering and working with both external API based LLMs like GPT family and self-hosted models like Llama, dbrx, gemma and Mistral
• Expertise in creating and executing optimized SQL queries and creating stored procedures
• Expertise in creating AI solution architectures and pipelines
• Experience creating basic python based user interfaces using frameworks like streamlit
• Experience in code configuration management with frameworks like github and bitbucket
• Good working knowledge of pyspark
• Experience working with Unix commands for accessing various systems and databases and deploying and managing services / APIs
• Working knowledge of cloud platforms like Azure and using Cloud Native services
• Working knowledge of Databricks is good to have
• Working knowledge of MLOps tools like MLflow is good to have
• Experience with a UI framework such as Angular or React is a plus
• Experience with dashboarding tools like PowerBI is a plus

All About You
The ideal candidate for this position should:

• Possess at least 7 years of relevant work experience in the field of Data Science
• Loves creating innovative solutions to problems in a collaborative fun environment
• Advanced knowledge and understanding of modern software engineering concepts and methodologies
• Passionate about code quality and coding best practices
• Show initiative and demonstrate a willingness to take on challenging opportunities
• Excellent communication (verbal and written) and strong collaboration skills
• Must be driven, highly motivated and a strong team-player
• Interested in mentoring and helping grow the skills of the next generation of Data Scientists
• Ability to lead projects managing timelines, documentation and solution delivery as an individual contributor or leading small teams
• Ability to work independently without constant supervision; Proficient in solving problems and taking decisions independently

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must:

• Abide by Mastercard’s security policies and practices;

• Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed;

• Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and

• Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines.