Principal Machine Learning Scientist

Role Description: Principal Machine Learning Scientist(IC) – AdTech

About the Team:

Nykaa's AdTech Data Science team is at the forefront of building intelligent, ML-powered advertising products including Sponsored Products, Display Ads, and Creative Personalization. We aim to serve highly relevant, personalized ads to millions of users while maximizing advertiser success through scalable, automated systems. In this Principal IC role, you will be a hands-on technical leader—driving the development of foundational ML models and systems that fuel our ad platform. You'll work closely with product, engineering, and business teams to define and solve high-impact problems in advertising science.

What Are We Looking For?

Education:

- Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, or a related technical field from a reputable institution.

Experience:

- 10+ years of experience building production-grade ML systems, with 5+ years specifically in AdTech, performance marketing, or large-scale recommender systems.
- Proven track record of delivering impactful ML innovations as a senior individual contributor, from ideation to deployment.
- Deep expertise in one or more of the following domains:
- CTR/CVR prediction, bidding dynamics, bid/budget optimization
- Multi-objective learning, campaign automation, target ROAS modeling
- Generative AI for creative optimization, personalization, or agentic workflows

Technical Skills:

- Advanced understanding of ML algorithms, reinforcement learning, Bayesian optimization, multi-armed bandits, and game theory as applied to digital advertising.
- Fluency in Python and ML frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, XGBoost, and libraries like LightGBM, Scikit-learn.
- Expertise in large-scale data processing with PySpark, SQL etc...
- Experience with real-time inference, latency-sensitive model serving, and model monitoring in production environments.
- Strong command of A/B testing design, incrementality measurement, and online experimentation in AdTech systems.

Soft Skills:

- Passion for solving ambiguous, complex problems with scientific rigor and business impact.
- Deep ownership mentality and the ability to independently scope and drive projects end-to-end.
- Clear, concise communication of complex technical concepts to cross-functional stakeholders.
- Collaborative mindset with a track record of influencing product direction through technical thought leadership.

Responsibilities:

ML Development & Deployment:

- Design and develop cutting-edge models for predicting ad outcomes, bidding decisions, budget pacing, and SKU/ad selection.
- Build intelligent automation systems for campaign management that adapt in real-time to advertiser and platform feedback.
- Develop generative models to optimize ad creatives and improve user engagement across formats.

System Architecture & Optimization:

- Own the architecture of core components like model pipelines, simulation frameworks, and personalization layers within the ad platform.
- Drive research into long-term value modeling, multi-touch attribution, and campaign lifecycle optimization.

Cross-Functional Impact:

- Collaborate with Product and Engineering to design features that are ML-first and measurable.
- Act as the primary technical stakeholder for experimentation, metrics design, and long-term roadmap planning.

Thought Leadership & Innovation:

- Explore and prototype novel approaches using Reinforcement Learning, RLHF, contrastive learning, or LLMs for advertiser assistance or campaign agents.
- Publish internal whitepapers or contribute to external publications and IP generation when applicable.

Why Join Nykaa AdTech?

- Be a key technical architect behind Nykaa's growing AdTech ecosystem.
- Work on cutting-edge problems that intersect ML, economics, personalization, and creative optimization.
- Shape the future of advertising in India's leading beauty and lifestyle platform—with a strong focus on user delight and advertiser success.

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