Lead Data Scientist

About Navi

At Navi, our mission is to simplify finance for a billion people, through technology-first products built at scale.

Founded in 2018 by Sachin Bansal and Ankit Agarwal, Navi has grown rapidly across Loans, UPI, Insurance, Mutual Funds and Digital Gold – building products designed around speed, simplicity and customer experience.

Today, millions of customers use Navi for experiences like instant personal loans, fully digital home loan sanctions within minutes, low-cost mutual funds, instant credit lines in minutes and one of India's fastest-growing UPI platforms.

What makes Navi different is the way we build. We move fast, solve real customer problems and give people the ownership to create meaningful impact early in their journey.

Why Explore a Career at Navi

Where Ownership Creates Real Impact

At Navi, ownership starts early. People here are trusted to solve problems, make decisions and drive outcomes that directly shape the products and experiences used by millions of customers every day.

Where Careers Accelerate

Growth at Navi is driven by impact, not tenure. We strongly believe in promoting from within and creating opportunities for people to take on larger responsibilities as they grow. If you consistently raise the bar, you'll find the space to grow quickly here.

Where Great Talent Builds Together

We take pride in building high talent-density teams where ambitious people learn from one another every day. Working on high-scale business and technology problems creates steep learning curves, fast execution cycles and opportunities to make visible impact throughout your journey.

About the Team

The Data Science team at Navi plays a central role in building intelligent solutions that power our products and drive business impact. We work across key domains such as Lending, Collections, KYC, UPI Growth and Ads recommendation, applying advanced machine learning/deep learning/GenAI techniques to solve high-impact challenges. Our work involves a diverse range of data types—including text, image, and tabular data—and we closely collaborate with cross-functional teams like Product, Business, Engineering, etc. to deliver end-to-end solutions.

About the Role

This role offers the opportunity to lead high-impact data science initiatives that directly shape Navi's strategic business decisions. As a Lead Data Scientist, you will operate at the intersection of advanced machine learning, large-scale data processing, and cross-functional collaboration—building scalable, production-ready solutions that drive significant business value. You will work across multiple business units, tackling Navi's most complex and high-priority challenges, while fostering a culture of technical excellence, continuous innovation, and mentorship within the team. Your contributions will be instrumental in unlocking new opportunities, accelerating growth, and establishing data science as a core strategic asset at Navi.

What You'll Own

• Lead High-Impact Projects: Oversee and manage end-to-end high priority data science projects across domains by breaking down complex problems, planning timelines, allocating resources, and ensuring timely, high-quality delivery of results.
• Mentorship & Team Development: Mentor and coach a team of data scientists, fostering a culture of continuous learning, professional growth, and technical excellence. Guide team members in their project work and support their career advancement.
• POC & SOTA Solution Delivery: Rapidly solve complex problems by designing and executing quick POCs using state-of-the-art (SOTA) approaches, and deliver best-in-class ML solutions that create clear differentiation and business impact.
• Strategic Vision & Innovation: Define the strategic roadmap for the team, set technical direction, and champion the development of data-driven solutions for complex business challenges. Ensure alignment with organizational objectives and foster a culture of innovation.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Build and nurture strong relationships with stakeholders across business, product, and engineering. Identify opportunities, shape strategic initiatives, and drive the successful integration of data science solutions into core business functions.
• Model Quality & Monitoring Excellence: Establish robust metrics and quality standards for evaluating model performance and business impact. Implement and oversee industry-leading systems for model monitoring to ensure reliability, scalability, and long-term value.

What Makes You a Great Fit

• Bachelor's or higher degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or a quantitative field, with a strong research orientation and at least 7 years of relevant experience in data science
• Deep expertise in modern machine learning techniques, mathematical foundations, and hands-on experience with leading ML frameworks (such as scikit-learn, Keras, TensorFlow, PySpark, MLlib, etc.)
• Extensive experience with distributed computing platforms and scalable data processing (e.g. Spark)
• Advanced programming skills, preferably in Python, Scala, or similar languages, with a track record of delivering robust, production-grade solutions
• Proven ability to lead and deliver large-scale machine learning projects end-to-end—from problem definition, data exploration, and modeling, to deployment and production monitoring
• Demonstrated experience in mentoring junior data scientists, including setting technical direction and driving best practices
• Strong business acumen and the ability to translate complex data-driven insights into actionable strategies that create significant business impact
• Skilled in designing, executing, and scaling A/B or multivariate experiments to validate and optimize data science solutions
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with experience collaborating across business, product, and engineering functions
• Proven track record of driving innovation and staying current with the latest advancements in machine learning and data science

The Navi OS

The Navi OS is our Operating System for how we work every day. Success at Navi is defined by living these core values.

• Start with the Customer
• Master the Details
• Act with Urgency
• Own the Outcome
• Build for a Decade - Not a Day
• Win as One

We hire talented individuals who already show these strengths, because those who share these values thrive at Navi and grow with the organisation.

To read more about the Navi OS, visit navi.com/our-values

Life at Navi

Life at Navi is fast-paced, ambitious and deeply collaborative. Beyond work, teams come together through sports, celebrations, offsites, music jams, team outings and many more shared experiences that make the journey exciting and memorable.

We believe people do their best work when they feel supported, through flexible leave policies, strong health and wellness benefits, free financial, legal and medical consultations, ESOPs and a workplace designed for both productivity and well-being.

Whether it's the sports turf, gym, focus zone or nap rooms, the campus is built to make everyday work more enjoyable.

If you'd like to know more about life at Navi, our culture and employee benefits, head to our careers page: navi.com/careers/life-at-navi

If solving meaningful problems, building at scale and growing alongside ambitious teams excites you,

Navi could be the place for you.