Lead Data Scientist

EXL (NASDAQ: EXLS) is a global analytics and digital solutions company that partners with clients to improve business outcomes and unlock growth. Bringing together deep domain expertise with robust data, powerful analytics, cloud, and AI, we create agile, scalable solutions and execute complex operations for the world’s leading corporations in industries including insurance, healthcare, banking and financial services, media, and retail, among others. Focused on creating value from data for driving faster decision-making and transforming operating models, EXL was founded on the core values of innovation, collaboration, excellence, integrity and respect. Headquartered in New York, our team is over 40,000 strong, with more than 50 offices spanning six continents. For information, visit For the past 20 years, EXL has worked as a strategic partner and won awards in its approach to helping its clients solve business challenges such as digital transformation, improving customer experience, streamlining business operations, taking products to market faster, improving corporate finance, building models to become compliant more quickly with new regulations, turning volumes of data into business opportunities, creating new channels for growth and better adapting to change. The business operates within four business units: Insurance, Health, Analytics, and Emerging businesses. Job Description: Job Summary This role will serve as a trusted advisor to business stakeholders, translating complex business challenges into data-driven solutions that deliver measurable value. The ideal candidate will possess a strong blend of business acumen, analytics expertise, AI knowledge, and leadership capabilities. They will oversee cross-functional projects, manage stakeholder relationships, and guide teams in the design, implementation, and optimization of analytics and AI-driven solutions. Responsibilities Partner with business leaders to identify opportunities where data, analytics, and AI can improve decision-making and operational efficiency. Develop analytics roadmaps aligned with business objectives and strategic priorities. Provide thought leadership on emerging trends in analytics, machine learning, generative AI, and data-driven transformation. Translate business requirements into actionable analytics and AI use cases. Data Analytics & Insights Lead the development of dashboards, reports, and KPI frameworks to monitor business performance. Oversee exploratory data analysis and advanced analytics initiatives to uncover actionable insights. Ensure data quality, governance, and consistency across reporting environments. Drive adoption of self-service analytics capabilities. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Identify, evaluate, and implement AI, machine learning, and generative AI / large language model (LLM) solutions to address business challenges. Lead proof-of-concepts and pilot programs for predictive analytics, automation, NLP, recommendation systems, and generative AI applications, including LLM-powered chatbots, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and content generation. Collaborate with technical teams to operationalize AI, machine learning, and LLM models, including prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and ongoing performance monitoring. Establish best practices for responsible AI and generative AI usage, including governance, data privacy, model risk, and compliance. Stakeholder Management Serve as a trusted advisor to senior business leaders and executives. Present complex analytical findings and AI recommendations in a clear, business-focused manner. Facilitate workshops and strategy sessions to align stakeholders on priorities and solutions. Influence decision-making through data-driven insights. Lead and mentor analytics professionals, data scientists, and consultants. Manage project delivery timelines, resource allocation, and stakeholder expectations. Foster a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and collaboration. Support recruitment, training, and development of team members. Required Qualifications 5+ years in data analytics, business intelligence, data science, AI consulting, or related fields. Strong hands-on experience with AWS (or a comparable cloud platform such as Azure or Google Cloud). Strong SQL skills and solid Python programming. Practical knowledge of machine learning, including Generative AI and LLMs. Hands-on experience designing and delivering Decision Intelligence systems: build, integration, deployment, and ongoing monitoring. Demonstrated experience building AI/BI chatbot solutions: natural language querying over business data, governed data connections, and iterative refinement. Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills. Qualifications Preferred Qualifications Experience delivering consulting engagements in media, publishing, digital content, advertising, or consumer-facing industries. Familiarity with modern data architectures, data lakes, and data warehouses. Experience with AI frameworks and tools such as OpenAI APIs, LangChain, MLflow, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar technologies. Professional certifications in cloud technologies, analytics, or AI. Strategic Thinking Data-Driven Decision Making Executive Communication Stakeholder Management Project & Program Management Problem Solving & Innovation Success Measures Delivery of high-impact analytics and AI initiatives. Improved business performance through data-driven insights. Successful adoption of AI-enabled solutions. Strong stakeholder satisfaction and engagement. Development of scalable analytics capabilities and best practices. What we offer EXL Analytics offers an exciting, fast paced and innovative environment, which brings together a group of sharp and entrepreneurial professionals who are eager to influence business decisions. From your very first day, you get an opportunity to work closely with highly experienced, world class analytics consultants. You can expect to learn many aspects of businesses that our clients engage in. You will also learn effective teamwork and time-management skills - key aspects for personal and professional growth Analytics requires different skill sets at different levels within the organization. At EXL Analytics, we invest heavily in training you in all aspects of analytics as well as in leading analytical tools and techniques. We provide guidance/ coaching to every employee through our mentoring program wherein every junior level employee is assigned a senior level professional as advisors The experience at EXL Analytics sets the stage for further growth and development in our company and beyond The posted range is the hiring range for this role — a subset of the broader range available to employees over time — and reflects base salary across our national hiring scale. Final offers are based on several factors, including the candidate's skills and experience, internal pay equity, work location, market conditions for the role, and the specific scope and responsibilities of the position. The top of the range is reserved for candidates who notably exceed the requirements; the lower end applies to those with less experience or fewer preferred qualifications. For positions based in higher-cost zones (e.g., California, New York, New Jersey), actual compensation may exceed the posted range; your recruiter will share specifics during the process. #J-18808-Ljbffr