Customer Operations XOPS - Senior Data Scientist

Job Title: Customer Operations XOPS – Senior Data Scientist
Job Location: GDT Bangalore

ABOUT UNILEVER:
Be part of the world’s most successful, purpose-led business. Work with brands that are well-loved around the world, that improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We promote innovation, big and small, to make our business win and grow; and we believe in business as a force for good. Unleash your curiosity, challenge ideas and disrupt processes; use your energy to make this happen. Our brilliant business leaders and colleagues provide mentorship and inspiration, so you can be at your best. Every day, nine out of ten Indian households use our products to feel good, look good and get more out of life – giving us a unique opportunity to build a brighter future.
Every individual here can bring their purpose to life through their work. Join us and you’ll be surrounded by inspiring leaders and supportive peers. Among them, you’ll channel your purpose, bring fresh ideas to the table, and simply be you. As you work to make a real impact on the business and the world, we’ll work to help you become a better you.

ABOUT GDT (Global Digital and Technology):
Unilever GDT is the global digital and technology engine of Unilever offering business services, technology, and enterprise solutions. GDT serves over 190 locations and through a network of specialized service lines and partners delivers insights and innovations, user experiences and end-to-end seamless delivery making Unilever Purpose Led and Future Fit.
GDT’ purpose unleashes the power of people, experiences, technology, data, and performance to deliver experiences that grow, fuel, and protect Unilever and our stakeholders.
The Data Foundation team plays a critical role in driving Unilever’s Growth and Fuel for Growth, empowering our people to make smarter and faster decisions to unlock value. Our vision is to transform Unilever to become truly Data Intelligent, delivering superior performance through data-driven decisions.

About DF – Context and Vision
Digital technology is transforming business, creating huge amounts of data. Our belief is that those companies that can truly harness data and deploy analytics at scale, will be those that succeed in the future.
Our vision is to elevate data and data use across Unilever, to transform Unilever into a Data-Intelligent enterprise, where every decision and action is powered by the best data and advanced analytics (AI) to deliver on our business goals. It’s about empowering our employees, helping them to make smarter and faster decisions and freeing up their capacity to focus on growth and the decisions that matter. Decisions about our categories, brands, channels, key markets, and our people.
We are helping to lead Unilever into the Future of Work, combining the best of human intelligence and machine, through data-intelligent decision-making.
“We are in the midst of a paradigm shift where the intelligence of machines will complement human ingenuity to do good, do better and smarter” – Sanjiv Mehta, Unilever President, South Asia

Our key objectives as Data Foundation are to:
Set the Unilever data strategy and lay the foundations to maximise the value of our data. Deliver the connected Data Platform to accelerate access to integrated and trusted data at scale across the company for analytics and decisions. Embed core data and analytics capabilities, leading to automation, AI, and Big Data to boost Unilever’s decision intelligence. Lead the Data and Analytics Culture to build a future-fit workforce that values and adopts data-intelligent decision-making across all levels.
We are also passionate about powering our growth with purpose, building a diverse and inclusive team and culture, for example through our #WomenInData program, and continuing to innovate in the use of data and AI to meet our sustainability goals.
This is an exciting new role in the CO XOPS, which is tasked to deliver maximum value from data to drive business and organization performance.

Role Profile
This role is part of the Data Science team within Customer Operations XOPS, driving the development, deployment, and scaling of advanced analytics, mathematical optimization, and AI‑driven solutions. The role focuses on applying Operations Research and Optimization techniques as the primary lever to improve decision‑making and operational efficiency, complemented by advanced Machine Learning, AI, and GenAI capabilities. Forecasting remains an important capability within a broader decision‑intelligence and optimization landscape. The role requires overseeing the full lifecycle of data science projects—from ideation to production and continuous improvement. The successful candidate will collaborate closely with both technical and business teams to translate complex business challenges into actionable data-driven solutions, fostering innovation and measurable impact.

Key Accountabilities
• Lead the design, development, validation, and deployment of mathematical optimization and prescriptive analytics solutions (e.g., linear/non‑linear optimization, mixed integer programming, network optimization) to solve complex business problems.
• Translate business challenges into optimization‑driven decision frameworks, integrating constraints, objectives, and trade‑offs across customer operations.
• Apply advanced Machine Learning, AI, and GenAI/LLM/Agentic AI techniques to enhance optimization solutions, simulate scenarios, automate decision workflows, and augment human decision‑making.
• Good to have skills in developing and maintaining time-series forecasting models.
• Oversee data acquisition, preprocessing, feature engineering, and selection to ensure high-quality inputs for analytics and modelling.
• Apply comprehensive data science knowledge to propose optimal techniques for key business challenges.
• Ensure standardization, modular design, and consistency as per best practices in Data Science and UL standards.
• Engage with stakeholders to design DS solutions, to provide updates, and for continuous improvements, ensuring alignment with business objectives.
• Govern the work of 3rd party vendors where needed to support delivery, while maximising creation of Unilever IP
• Possibly lead a team of up to 5 data scientists, providing career mentorship and line management
• Provide technical guidance to data scientists across D&A, particularly on the projects you lead
• Support the growth of D&A’s data science capability by contributing to activities such as tool and vendor selection, best practice definition, recruitment, and creation of training materials
• Build the reputation of D&A’s data science capability within Unilever and externally, through activities such as community engagement (e.g. Yammer), publications or blogs
• Provide ad-hoc & immediate support to the business when needed (for example Covid-19 crisis support)
• Work collaboratively with the extended team to manage DS resources, dependencies, risk and timeline to deliver the overall project
• Depending on the specific project, the Senior Data Scientist can expect 60-90% of their work to be hands-on prototyping/building solutions, with the remainder spent planning and designing, overseeing and reviewing work of project staff, interfacing with stakeholders and managing team members.

All About You (Experience and qualifications required)
Essential:
• 7+ years of experience in delivering data science solutions and products in multi-vendor environments, with a proven track record of leading large and complex global projects.
• Strong expertise in Mathematical Optimization / Operations Research techniques (linear programming, mixed‑integer optimization, stochastic optimization, simulation, decision science).
• Proven experience applying optimization to real‑world business problems, preferably in customer operations, supply chain, or planning contexts.
• Good proficiency in statistical modelling, machine learning, and deep learning techniques, with hands-on experience in building, scaling, and industrializing data science solutions.
• Demonstrated expertise in Python, R, or similar programming languages for data analysis and model development.
• Deep understanding of the Agile/DevOps/ML development lifecycle, from conception to delivery in Data & Analytics.
• Technical knowledge of cloud-based data and analytics tools and technologies, specifically Azure, Data Lake Store, SQL DW, and Databricks.
• Experience with data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau) and communicating complex findings to non-technical stakeholders.
• Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills to effectively run project communications and manage partner expectations at all levels.
• Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving, and organizational skills, with precise attention to detail.
• Commitment to continuous learning and staying abreast of the latest advancements in Data Science and AI.

Desirable:
• Professional certification in Data Science, Optimization, or AI disciplines is a plus
• Domain expertise in Supply Chain Analytics especially logistics operations.
• Good to have hands‑on exposure to GenAI, LLMs, and/or Agentic AI systems for decision automation, scenario generation, or insight augmentation.

Unilever embraces diversity and encourages applications from people with a disability. We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to provide a positive, barrier-free recruitment journey. Candidates will be asked at the time of their application if any support or reasonable adjustments to complete their application and any subsequent recruitment journey with us at Unilever.

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