About Prodigal
At Prodigal, we are building AI Agents for loan servicing and collections. Founded in 2018 by IITB alumni, our journey began with one bold mission: to eradicate the inefficiencies and confusion that have plagued the lending and collections industry for decades. We are backed by Y Combinator, Accel and Menlo Ventures. Today, we stand at the forefront of a seismic shift in the industry, building Agentic AI applications for consumer finance. Powered by our cutting-edge platform, Prodigal’s Intelligence Engine (PIE), we’re creating the next-generation agentic workforce - one that empowers companies to achieve unprecedented levels of operational excellence and intelligence. With over half a billion consumer finance interactions processed and a growing impact on more than 100 leading companies across North America, we’ve established ourselves as the go-to partner for organizations that demand more from their AI solutions. Our unparalleled experience, coupled with our trusted customer relationships, uniquely positions us to build Agentic AI applications that will revolutionize the future of consumer finance. At Prodigal, we are driven by a singular, unrelenting purpose: to transform how consumer finance companies engage with their customers and, in turn, drive successful outcomes for all.
About the Role
We're seeking a Head of Machine Learning to own and scale the ML function at Prodigal. This is the senior-most ML role in the company — partnering directly with the CTO as a peer technical leader, defining the multi-year ML vision, building and leading a world-class team, and translating cutting-edge research into production systems that move the needle for over 100 customers and millions of consumers. You'll set the bar for technical excellence, hire and develop the next generation of ML leaders, and shape what consumer finance intelligence looks like over the next decade. If you've operated at this level before — or are ready to step into it at a company where ML is the engine of the product — we want to talk.
Responsibilities
- Own the ML function end-to-end — vision, roadmap, team, delivery, and measurable business impact across classical ML, NLP, GenAI, and Agentic AI.
- Partner with the CTO as the senior ML leader to set company-wide technical direction and shape the long-term roadmap for Prodigal's Intelligence Engine.
- Build and lead a high-performing ML organization — hire, mentor, and develop ML engineers, applied scientists, and tech leads across multiple pods.
- Translate research into product — drive the application of LLMs, Agentic AI, the modern NLP stack, recommendation systems, and classical ML into production systems serving 100+ customers.
- Set technical standards for model development, deployment, monitoring, evaluation, and experimentation that scale across the org.
- Architect data and ML infrastructure in partnership with the platform and engineering teams to support large-scale training and reliable, low-latency inference.
- Communicate strategy and outcomes clearly to the founders, board, customers, and broader engineering organization.
- Represent Prodigal externally — at conferences, in research collaborations, and as a senior voice in the consumer finance AI community.
- Stay at the frontier of ML and GenAI research, identifying where new techniques unlock product and business advantage.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, GTM, and customer success leaders to ensure ML investment ties directly to revenue, retention, and customer outcomes.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in machine learning and software development at a tech or product company, with 4+ years leading ML teams (managing engineers and/or tech leads).
- Proven track record of shipping ML products in production at scale with measurable business impact.
- Deep technical fluency across classical ML, deep learning, and the modern NLP/LLM stack — you can still go deep in design reviews, not just review at the surface.
- Strong coding skills in Python. Hands-on with PyTorch, scikit-learn, Pandas, and Spark.
- Demonstrated success hiring, mentoring, and growing ML talent — including team leads and senior engineers.
- Strong executive communication and the ability to set technical direction with founders, peers, and the board.
- A bias for outcomes — you connect model work to revenue, engagement, and operational metrics.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience as a founding ML hire, ML lead, or applied science leader at a high-growth AI/ML product company.
- Background in voice AI, conversational AI, speech, NLP on unstructured text, or fintech/lending domains.
- Experience with cloud services (AWS), Databricks, and building scalable, distributed systems.
- Track record of running A/B testing and experimentation programs at scale.
- Patents, publications, or open-source contributions; strong institutional pedigree (IIT, BITS, NIT, IISc).
- Experience scaling an ML org through a hypergrowth phase.
Job Benefits
- GenAI at the core – Lead the ML function at a company where AI isn't a feature, it's the product. Shape groundbreaking work that redefines consumer finance intelligence.
- World-class team - You'll get the chance to learn from (and teach) some of the brightest and most skilled people you'll ever meet. Our team members have been part of BCG, Deloitte, EY, Blackstone, Meta, Amazon and are IIT, IIM, BITS alumnus.
- Continuous education - As relentless seekers of knowledge, we sponsor and support any training materials, books, courses, and exam fees for upskilling yourself in areas related to your role - but that's not where it ends. If you make a good case for some extra learning, we're delighted to foot the tab.
- Food at the office – Meals are on us. We won't let your stomach grumble while you hustle.
- Health insurance - Health always comes first. The health of your family is as important to us as it is to you. We offer insurance coverage for both you and your family.
- Flexible schedule - We're not a "clock in, clock out" company. Morning person? Start work while the world's still sleeping. Night owl? Ramp things up while others are winding down. You're fully trusted to create the right conditions for your own personal peak productivity. We only ask that you be available to your teammates for seamless collaboration.
- Generous leave policy - Take all the time you need to recharge your batteries - no cap on vacation here. Because a rested, relaxed, and refreshed mind is a happy and effective mind.
- Recreation & team activities – We regularly indulge in friendly football, table tennis, cooking sessions, and challenge each other to do those extra push-ups or chug that 4th drink (of course, that's Nimbu Pani).