[Hiring] Director - AI/ML @phData

Role Description

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.

Key Responsibilities

• Client Delivery:
  • 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.
• Collaboration & Leadership:
  • 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.
• Practice & Firm Contribution:
  • 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.
• Additional Responsibilities (Senior / Lead / Principal Roles):
  • 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.

Qualifications

• 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.

Requirements

• 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.

Benefits

• Remote-First Workplace
• Medical Insurance for Self & Family
• Medical Insurance for Parents
• Term Life & Personal Accident
• Wellness Allowance
• Broadband Reimbursement
• Continuous learning and growth opportunities to enhance your skills and expertise
• Other benefits include paid certifications, professional development allowance, and bonuses for creating company-approved content