Staff Data Scientist
Swiggy · Bengaluru, KA, in ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Staff
- Category
- Data science
- Experience
- 8+ years
- Company size
- 1000+
Swiggy · Bengaluru, KA, in ·
Staff-level Data Scientist at Swiggy (Bengaluru) who architecturally leads AI systems for Search, Recommendations, Ads and Discount Optimization on the food delivery platform. The role demands deep ML/DL and GenAI/LLM expertise (transformers, ranking, RAG, bandits/RL), strong system design for low-latency production ML, and mentoring of senior scientists/engineers, with 8-12 years of experience.
About the Role
As a Staff Data Scientist, you will architect and lead efficient solutions across key domains such as Recommendation, Search, Ads, and Discount Optimization. You will mentor cross-functional teams, review technical architectures and maintain a high standard for holistic solution design. Driving innovation, you will foster a culture of adopting (SOTA) models. Leveraging deep expertise in ML, DL and advancements like GenAI/LLMs, you will guide teams in acquiring new skills and integrating evolving paradigms into production systems.
You will operate as a senior technical leader for the Food charter: shaping problem formulation, influencing product roadmaps, and ensuring our AI systems are robust, low-latency, and business-outcome driven
What You’ll Do
Own and drive the technical roadmap for AI systems across Search, Recommendations, Ads and Discounting, from problem framing to production rollout and post-launch iteration.
Architect end-to-end ML/AI pipelines (data, models, orchestration, evaluation, monitoring) that meet strict constraints on latency, scale, cost and reliability.
Evaluate and introduce SOTA techniques (retrieval/ranking, bandits/RL, causal uplift, GenAI/agents) in a pragmatic, production-ready manner.
Partner with Product and Business to define success metrics, set up robust experimentation, and tie AI investments clearly to business KPIs and ROI.
Provide architectural and design reviews for high-stakes ML systems across the Food charter; set and enforce engineering and MLOps best practices.
Mentor and uplevel Senior/Lead Data Scientists and MLEs; act as a thought partner to leadership on build-vs-buy, platform strategy and multi-year bets.
Represent Swiggy AI in internal and external forums (tech talks, blogs, publications, conferences) and help build the brand for Food AI.
Skills & Experience
Core Technical Skills
Deep expertise in classical ML, representation learning and modern deep learning (e.g., transformers, two-tower/rec models, ranking architectures).
Architectural & Strategic Skills
Ability to design AI-first systems end-to-end: data contracts, feature pipelines, serving architecture, feedback loops and continuous learning.
Comfort evaluating open-source vs proprietary models/tools, with clear reasoning on cost, risk, scalability and maintainability.
Experience with orchestration / agent frameworks (e.g., LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen) and concepts like ontology layers, graph knowledge bases and multi-agent workflows.
Strong product thinking: can connect model capabilities to customer journeys and business KPIs, and influence roadmaps accordingly.
Leadership & Collaboration
Demonstrated experience as a tech lead / staff-level IC, influencing multiple pods or domains.
Ability to mentor and coach senior DS/MLEs, drive technical standards, and create a high-bar culture for experimentation and measurement.
Excellent written and verbal communication; can simplify complex ideas for non-experts and build alignment across Product, Engineering and Business stakeholders.
Bias for action, ownership and comfort working in an ambiguous, fast-paced environment.
Why Join Swiggy?
Opportunity to work on impactful and challenging projects in the AI domain.
Chance to build innovative solutions at scale, directly impacting millions of users.
Collaborative work culture fostering learning, growth, and innovation.
8–12 years of experience in AI/Data Science, with a strong track record of shipping and scaling ML/DL systems in production.
Visit our tech blogs to learn more about some of the challenges we deal with:
The Swiggy Delivery Challenge Part One
How AI at Swiggy is Transforming Convenience
Decoding Food Intelligence at Swiggy
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by the law.