Digital & Technology - Lead Data Scientist

Position Title

Lead Data Scientist

Function/Group

Digital and Technology

Location

Mumbai, Pune

Shift Timing

  Regular

Role Reports to

 Sr Manager- Data Science

Remote/Hybrid/in-Office

 Hybrid

ABOUT GENERAL MILLS

We make food the world loves: 100 brands. In 100 countries. Across six continents. With iconic brands like Cheerios, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Nature Valley, and Häagen-Dazs, we've been serving up food the world loves for 155 years (and counting). Each of our brands has a unique story to tell.

How we make our food is as important as the food we make. Our values are baked into our legacy and continue to accelerate

us into the future as an innovative force for good. General Mills was founded in 1866 when Cadwallader Washburn boldly bought the largest flour mill west of the Mississippi. That pioneering spirit lives on today through our leadership team who upholds a vision of relentless innovation while being a force for good. For more details check out

General Mills India Center (GIC) is our global capability center in Mumbai that works as an extension of our global organization delivering business value, service excellence and growth, while standing for good for our planet and people.

With our team of 1800+ professionals, we deliver superior value across the areas of Supply chain (SC) , Digital & Technology (D&T)  Innovation, Technology & Quality (ITQ), Consumer and Market Intelligence (CMI), Sales Strategy & Intelligence (SSI) , Global Shared Services (GSS) , Finance Shared Services (FSS) and Human Resources Shared Services (HRSS).For more details check out

We advocate for advancing equity and inclusion to create more equitable workplaces and a better tomorrow.

JOB OVERVIEW

Function Overview

The Digital and Technology team at General Mills stands as the largest and foremost unit, dedicated to exploring the latest trends and innovations in technology while leading the adoption of cutting-edge technologies across the organization. Collaborating closely with global business teams, the focus is on understanding business models and identifying opportunities to leverage technology for increased efficiency and disruption. The team's expertise spans a wide range of areas, including AI/ML, Data Science, IoT, NLP, Cloud, Infrastructure, RPA and Automation, Digital Transformation, Cyber Security, Blockchain, SAP S4 HANA and Enterprise Architecture. The MillsWorks initiative embodies an delivery model, where business and technology teams operate cohesively in pods with a unified mission to deliver value for the company. Employees working on significant technology projects are recognized as Digital Transformation change agents.  

The team places a strong emphasis on service partnerships and employee engagement with a commitment to advancing equity and supporting communities. In fostering an inclusive culture, the team values individuals passionate about learning and growing with technology, exemplified by the "Work with Heart" philosophy, emphasizing results over facetime. Those intrigued by the prospect of contributing to the digital transformation journey of a Fortune 500 company are encouraged to explore more details about the function through a provided Link.

Purpose of the role

General Mills, Digital and Technology India, is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to join our dynamic and innovative Data Science team. As a Lead Data Scientist, you will play a crucial role in shaping our AI and machine learning strategies, managing model development projects, AI technical explorations and mentoring our talented team of data scientists. The ideal candidate will have expertise in AI platforms, ML modelling techniques, development life cycle, GCP Vertex AI, and a proven track record of successful AI solution delivery.

AI and ML strategy:

·       Develop and implement AI and ML strategies aligned with business objectives.

·       Stay abreast of industry trends and emerging technologies to ensure our strategies remain cutting-edge.

·       Constructively challenge the other data scientists on approach

·       Utilize and provide expertise in leading AI platforms, frameworks, and libraries.

·       Evaluate and recommend new tools and technologies to enhance our machine learning capabilities.

·       Exposure to Generative and Agentic AI solutions ecosystem.

Lead the AI solutions deliver:

· Partners with business stakeholders to deliver value add insights and intelligent solutions through ML and AI. Collaborates with ML engineers and systems engineers to ensure the models are deployed in a scaled and optimized way. Additionally ensure support the post-production to ensure model performance degrades are proactively managed.

· Is considered an expert in at least one of functional areas; brings together business knowledge, resources, people, and technology to create more effective solutions

Model development and Explorations:

·       Lead and contribute to the development of machine learning models from ideation to production deployment.

·       Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform's Vertex AI for building, deploying, and managing machine learning models.

·       Oversee the entire development life cycle of AI solutions including MLOps practices, ensuring high-quality and scalable deliverables.

·       Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate machine learning solutions into existing products or processes.

·       Lead explorations for AI techniques, platforms and tools.

Team Management:

·       Mentor and development of a team of 4-5 data scientists.

·       Team Collaboration and Communication.

·       Own development of the resources and career progression

·       Guide Project Prioritization and Resource Allocation.

·       Collaborate with global partners to evolve ways of working

AI Literacy and Mentorship to broader organization:

· Mentor and guide a team of data scientists in approach for AI solution delivery.

· Foster a collaborative and innovative team environment.

· Contribute to the overall effort to educate stakeholders on AI practices.

· Closely collaborates with the stakeholders on projects and data science leaders to ensure practices are developed and enhanced to support accelerated analytic development and maintainability.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

·       Tier1 + 5+yrs experience OR 8+ years in providing data science solutions with overall 12+yrs of Industry experience 

·       Bachelor's degree in computer science/Statistics/Applied Mathematics from Tier 1 institute

·       Proven skills in leading implementations of AI solutions

·       Experience in managing team

·       Experienced in providing technical mentorship

·       Technical Concepts- MLOps, Containerization, Data Lineage and Visualization

·       Experience working with an Agile development methodology featuring sprints, point estimation and daily stand-ups

·       Excellent stakeholder management skills and storytelling skills

·       Expert level

· AI solutions architecture

· Supervised ML algorithms, optimization, and performance tuning

· Google Cloud Platform – Vertex AI, BQ, Composer, Cloud Storage; Open to other cloud experience – Azure, AWS

· ML supervised algorithms

· CPG domain either on Commercial or supply chain

· Python, SQL

·       Intermediate Level

·       Generative AI / Agentic AI

·       MLOps

·       GCP cloud architecture/ Any other cloud

·       Alation

·       Deep Learning

·       Basic Level

·       Container, GKE

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

·       Publications or contributions to the data science and AI community.

·       Certifications in AI, machine learning, or related fields.

We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day. We look for people who want to bring their best — bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one other and grow together. Because becoming the undisputed leader in food means surrounding ourselves with people who are hungry for what's next.