Director - AI/ML

We are looking for a Director of AI/ML to join our Machine Learning & AI practice team. In this role, you will build and lead phData’s India-based Agentic Delivery Center from the ground up, transforming bespoke client needs into scalable AI/ML platforms, agentic solutions, and accelerators. You will collaborate closely with global leadership, founding engineers, and cross-functional delivery teams to define architectural standards, scale a high-performing engineering organization, and ensure delivery excellence for our most strategic customers. You will serve as both a hands-on principal architect and senior consulting leader, aligning technical execution to clear business value and outcomes.

• Own and drive the design and delivery of production-grade agentic AI/ML solutions and platforms for global enterprise clients.
• Translate complex business requirements into opinionated, prescriptive architectures and implementation plans that leverage modern agentic stacks, LLMs, and cloud-native AI/ML platforms.
• Lead Zero-to-One delivery for the India Agentic Delivery Center, taking engagements from initial discovery through to production-ready agents and closed-loop intelligence workflows.
• Ensure engagements are delivered on time, within scope, and with measurable business value for clients, including under fixed-price and outcome-based commercial models.
• Communicate the business value, ROI, and risks of agentic solutions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executive and C-level audiences.

• Collaborate with cross-functional partners including global leadership, forward-deployed US-based engineers, data engineering, analytics, partner, and marketing teams to deliver successful client engagements.
• Partner with the Global Leadership team to prioritize agentic solutions and accelerators based on market demand, key technology stacks (e.g., Snowflake, AWS), and phData’s strategic roadmap.
• Provide technical and strategic leadership during client workshops, discovery sessions, architecture reviews, and delivery governance forums.
• Serve as the primary point of escalation for India-based delivery, resolving technical issues, client misalignments, and performance concerns with urgency and ownership.
• Ensure high quality in deliverables through engineering best practices, including robust SDLC processes, code reviews, documentation, testing, and production-readiness standards.

• Architect and stand up the foundational India Agentic Delivery Center, designing delivery models, operating mechanisms, and integrations with the broader consulting organization.
• Recruit, onboard, and develop an elite team of architects and engineers, setting a high technical bar and ensuring consistent performance management and calibration.
• Drive the development of reusable accelerators, modular agentic codebases, and solution templates that can be applied across clients and industries.
• Contribute to internal initiatives such as IP development, capability management, partner engagement, and thought leadership aligned to AI/ML and agentic architectures.
• Represent phData with professionalism in all interactions, communicating clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders and acting as the face of the India agentic team with clients.

• →Act as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders and C-suite executives, shaping AI/ML and agentic roadmaps, influencing strategic decisions, and guiding long-term transformation initiatives.
• →Mentor and coach architects and engineers, fostering a culture of extreme ownership, high performance, continuous learning, and feedback.
• →Help define and refine global practice standards, technical bars, and delivery frameworks for agentic AI/ML solutions, ensuring alignment across regions.
• →Drive strategic growth of the Agentic Delivery Center by identifying new opportunities, informing go-to-market strategies, and partnering with alliances and marketing on field-facing assets.

You are a high-performance, hands-on technical leader and client-focused consultant who thrives in Zero-to-One environments and takes extreme ownership of outcomes. You are comfortable building and scaling engineering teams from the ground up, setting clear technical and performance standards, and making decisive hiring and coaching decisions. You enjoy solving complex problems at the intersection of AI/ML, agents, and cloud platforms, and you communicate business value and risk with clarity to senior stakeholders. You are energized by working in a distributed, global organization and collaborating across time zones to deliver transformative results for clients.

• 14–18 years of experience in the IT industry, preferably within IT services or consulting organizations.
• 8+ years as a hands-on architect with a proven track record of designing and implementing production-grade AI/ML platforms and solutions.
• 5+ years of leadership experience in a Zero-to-One environment, building and scaling high-performing engineering teams from the ground up.
• 3+ years of consulting leadership experience, including leading projects, maintaining client relationships, and aligning technical solutions to business value.
• Demonstrated experience delivering complex technical projects under fixed-price or outcome-based commercial models, with a focus on project margins and delivery efficiency.

Technical / Functional Skills

• Deep technical understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs), agentic architectures, and retrieval frameworks, including building modular solutions and accelerators reusable across clients.
• Hands-on experience with LLM orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex) and the broader agentic stack beyond standard GenAI chat applications.
• Deep expertise in cloud-native AI/ML platforms (e.g., AWS SageMaker, Bedrock, GCP Vertex AI, Azure ML, AI Studio, Databricks) and building robust, automated data and ML pipelines.
• Proven experience deploying and maintaining machine learning models in production environments with an emphasis on scalability, reliability, monitoring, and lifecycle management.
• Demonstrated expertise using agentic AI and assisted development tooling and methodologies to accelerate delivery while ensuring quality and alignment of deliverables.
• End-to-end ownership of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), including design, development, testing, deployment, observability, and incident response for AI/ML solutions.

• Experience delivering projects for external or internal clients in a professional services or consulting environment.
• Ability to break down complex AI/ML and agentic challenges into structured, actionable workstreams and drive them through to successful completion.
• Demonstrated experience navigating complex, multi-stakeholder client environments, including US-based enterprises, and influencing senior and C-level stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, including the ability to clearly articulate technical concepts, trade-offs, and business value.

• Proven track record of building, leading, and collaborating with distributed, cross-functional engineering teams across regions.
• Demonstrated ability to take extreme ownership of delivery outcomes, manage multiple priorities, and resolve high-pressure escalations with composure and rigor.
• Commitment to cultivating a high-performance, feedback-driven culture centered on accountability, continuous improvement, and delivery excellence.

• 4-year Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).

• Master’s or PhD in Data Science, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field.
• Experience leading internal practice initiatives such as capability management, partner engagement (e.g., AWS, Google, Azure), or marketing activities (e.g., writing whitepapers, blogs, or case studies).
• Active contributions to the open-source community or a portfolio of relevant side projects demonstrating a passion for staying at the forefront of AI and agentic technologies.
• Industry expertise in one or more of Health sciences, Retail, or Manufacturing.
• Prior experience working in global or remote teams and partnering across US, LATAM, and India.

This role is based in India (with a primary presence in Bangalore) and operates primarily in India Standard Time (IST), with regular collaboration overlap with US-based stakeholders.

• We are a remote-first company, and you should be comfortable working with a distributed global team.
• Some flexibility may be required to collaborate across time zones with colleagues and clients.
• Client needs may occasionally require flexibility in working hours to support key milestones, workshops, or escalations.

• Impactful Work: Partner with leading organizations on meaningful data & AI initiatives.
• Collaborative Culture: Work with a supportive, high-performing global team that values transparency, autonomy, and continuous improvement.
• Growth Opportunities: Access to challenging projects, mentorship, and structured development pathways.
• Values-Driven: We prioritize doing the right thing for our clients, our teams, and our community.