principal data scientist int-0413

Intellectica is recruiting an experienced and highly skilled Principal Data Scientist on behalf of a newly established AI & Machine Learning startup, which will be integrated into a leading group of companies operating in the aerospace, defense, and high-technology sector. This startup aims to develop cutting-edge AI-driven solutions tailored to the aerospace and defense industry. This role reports directly to the CTO and plays a central role in defining and executing the company’s data science strategy.

Key activities and responsibilities of this role include:

• Architecting innovative data science solutions that ensure scalability, robustness, and reliability across diverse domains

• Leading product-level modeling strategies end-to-end, from research and prototyping to production deployment and monitoring

• Defining and promoting best practices across the data science lifecycle, aligned with the company’s MLOps operating model

• Coaching and mentoring senior data scientists, fostering skill development and consistency across teams

• Collaborating with ML and Site Reliability Engineers to shape the AI infrastructure roadmap and technology portfolio

• Advising on business development strategy, identifying market opportunities where AI offers a competitive edge

• Translating complex operational challenges into data-driven solutions for public sector clients and partners

• Driving exploration and adoption of emerging technologies such as distributed LLM inference, foundational model fine-tuning, and simulation-based ML

• Contributing to the development of Verification & Validation methods for AI in safety- and mission-critical contexts

• Ensuring secure and responsible use of AI across all projects

• Representing the company in external conferences, expert panels, and consortia, leading thought leadership in defense-focused AI

Professional experience & qualifications of a successful candidate:

• PhD or equivalent graduate degree in Data Science, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Statistics, Informatics, or a related quantitative field

• Minimum 8 years of experience in advanced data science and machine learning, with a strong track record of production-level solution delivery

• Deep proficiency in Python and its ML ecosystem (e.g., Pandas, NumPy, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face)

• Expertise in full ML workflows including data engineering, model design, training, deployment, and lifecycle management

• Proven experience with large-scale or distributed ML systems (e.g., Ray, PyTorch Lightning, Horovod)

• Demonstrated proficiency in at least two of the following: large language models, computer vision, multimodal learning, generative AI

• Hands-on experience integrating ML models into operational systems with real-time performance monitoring

• Familiarity with cloud-native and high-performance computing environments (AWS, Azure, GCP, or on-prem HPC)

• Experience with computer vision algorithms (e.g., R-CNN, YOLO)

• Proficient in Greek and English

Core competencies of a successful candidate:

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to engage effectively with internal and external stakeholders across all levels

• Strategic thinker with ability to align research with mission needs

• Inspiring leader and mentor across data science teams

• Fast and creative prototype builder

• Decisive in ambiguous, high-stakes situations

• Resilient and adaptable in dynamic environments

• Collaborative and alignment-driven across teams and partners