Senior Principal Data Scientist

About the role

Are you a strategic thinker with a passion for solving large-scale problems using data? Do you enjoy mentoring high-performing teams and building ML systems that directly impact millions of users? We're looking for a Senior Principal Data Scientist to lead a team of skilled data scientists in building intelligent systems that power Meesho’s next phase of growth.

In this role, you’ll own the data science roadmap for a key business charter, guiding the team through ambiguity and complexity to deliver production-grade ML solutions. You’ll work closely with product, tech, and business leaders to translate complex challenges into scalable, measurable, and impactful outcomes. As a people and technical leader, you’ll ensure model efficiency, system reliability, and scientific excellence while fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

What You Will Do:
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Lead, grow, and mentor a high-performing team of data scientists.

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Own all data science systems and models in your charter — from strategy to deployment and monitoring.

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Collaborate with senior product, engineering, and business leaders to define and prioritize impactful DS initiatives.

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Drive platformization, system architecture decisions, and ML lifecycle improvements across the charter.

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Ensure model scalability, performance, and cost efficiency, while upholding best practices in experimentation and statistical rigor.

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Guide the team in reading and implementing state-of-the-art research, and facilitate build vs. buy decisions.

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Lead RCA for critical production issues and improve system observability, documentation, and service uptime.

What You Will Need:
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Master’s degree (PhD preferred) in Machine Learning, Statistics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field.

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10+ years of experience in Data Science or Analytics, with at least 2–3 years of people management experience.

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Proven track record of building and deploying ML models in production at scale.

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Experience managing teams of 10+ data scientists and delivering across cross-functional charters.

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Deep expertise in ML algorithms, experimental design, and performance monitoring.

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Strong coding skills (Python, SQL) and familiarity with Big Data technologies like Spark, Hive, or Redshift.

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Ability to translate business needs into technical solutions, prioritize roadmaps, and estimate effort accurately.

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Strong communication and stakeholder management skills with a bias for action and clarity in execution.

Bonus Points For

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Experience leading ML initiatives in B2C or e-commerce settings.

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Contributions to internal tools, open-source libraries, or research publications.

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Experience in personalization, recommendations, ranking, or supply chain ML problems.

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Strong understanding of ML system performance trade-offs — latency, cost, and throughput.