Gen AI Data Scientist Delivery Lead

Company Description

BLEND360 is an award-winning, new breed Data Science Solutions Company focused on powering exceptional results to our Fortune 500 clients. We are a fast-growing company—born at the intersection of advanced analytics, data and technology.

Job Description

Seasoned delivery leader (10+ years) to oversee multiple cross-functional, cloud-based, and GenAI-influenced pods supporting AI platforms, research, and operational support. This role operates at the program level, translating strategic goals into coordinated delivery across agile pods. The ideal candidate combines deep engineering and application delivery expertise, a strong understanding of Generative AI, and excellent cross-functional leadership skills to ensure client objectives are met efficiently and with high technical integrity.

Key Responsibilities:

Program & Portfolio Leadership

• Drive complex, high-impact initiatives across multiple agile pods (AI, Research, Operational)
• Lead program-level planning and tracking, including dependencies, deliverables, and milestone reviews
• Orchestrate Scrum of Scrums to manage inter-pod coordination and technical alignment

Executive & Stakeholder Engagement

• Provide transparent updates via dashboards, strategic briefings, and executive summaries
• Proactively escalate risks, blockers, and resourcing gaps to client stakeholders and internal leadership

Engineering & Application Delivery Expertise

• Ensure technical execution aligns with enterprise standards and best practices for scalable software

AI & GenAI Fluency

• Understand core GenAI/LLM concepts and guide their application across AI pods (e.g., retrieval systems, orchestration layers, and ML pipelines)
• Partner with client, product and science leads to ensure technical feasibility of AI-driven features
• Support integration of GenAI models with enterprise-scale applications and APIs

Agile Governance & Coaching

• Standardize agile practices across pods, while supporting flexibility for domain-specific needs
• Coach Scrum Masters and support Product Owners in backlog prioritization and sprint delivery

Capacity, Onboarding & Scaling

• Partner with client and engineering leads to forecast headcount and skills across pods and keep stakeholders informed of needs.

Vendor & Financial Oversight

• Assist with program spend reporting across pods

Risk, Quality & Compliance

• Maintain program-level risk registers and drive mitigation strategies
• Collaborate with security and compliance leads to embed required controls from day one

Tooling & Automation

• Oversee the use of tools like Jira Align, Azure DevOps, or similar to synthesize pod-level delivery
• Provide program-level reporting

Qualifications

What You Bring to the Table

✓ Proven Program Leadership

• 10+ years driving large-scale, complex software delivery across multiple agile pods or programs

• Skilled at translating strategic vision into integrated delivery roadmaps that create business value

✓ Cross-Functional Collaboration at Scale

• Demonstrated ability to align product, engineering, data science, and business teams across cloud-based and AI-centric portfolios

• Expertise in leading through influence—comfortable navigating client-side matrixed organizations

✓ Technical Depth in Software & Systems Delivery

• Strong engineering foundation with hands-on experience guiding cloud-native architecture and enterprise-scale application delivery

• Familiar with integration patterns, APIs, DevOps practices, and delivery metrics that matter

✓ AI/GenAI Fluency

• Solid understanding of GenAI and LLM-based systems, including RAG workflows, orchestration layers, and ML infrastructure

• Ability to partner with product and science teams to translate ideas into scalable, compliant, and secure GenAI solutions

✓ Agile Champion

• Deep expertise in agile frameworks (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban) and experience standing up and scaling agile delivery across pods

• Strong coaching muscle—trusted mentor to Scrum Masters and Product Owners alike

✓ Executive-Ready Communication

• Confident communicator with a track record of building trusted relationships at the VP/C-level

• Skilled in distilling complexity into clear, actionable insights—via dashboards, briefings, and issue escalations

✓ Operational & Financial Oversight

• Experience managing program budgets, vendor contracts, and spend reporting across multiple teams

• Familiarity with tools like Jira Align, Azure DevOps, or comparable portfolio management systems

✓ Risk & Compliance Mindset

• Knows how to balance speed with control—proactively identifies and mitigates delivery, security, and compliance risks

• Experience embedding secure-by-design and responsible AI practices from day one

✓ Capacity Planning & Team Scaling

• Able to anticipate and shape future team needs based on evolving delivery goals and technical complexity

• Skilled in onboarding, ramping, and sustaining high-performing cross-functional pods