---
title: "Nilay B. - Director, Data Science, ML & AI Engineering | India Site Lead | Tal"
description: "Meet Nilay B., Director, AI Engineering, Data Science & ML | Enterprise GenAI Architecture | RAG / MCP / Agentic Systems | IIT Bombay based in India. AI stack includes claude, cursor, and github copilot."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/nilay-badavne/share-image"
---

# Nilay B\. on Tal

## Headline

Director, AI Engineering, Data Science & ML \| Enterprise GenAI Architecture \| RAG / MCP / Agentic Systems \| IIT Bombay

## About

AI and Data Science leader with 15\+ years across FinTech, e\-Commerce, and Hospitality \- Europe, India, Asia, and the GCC\. \- Direct a production GenAI portfolio of enterprise applications on AWS Bedrock \(RAG, agentic workflows, MCP\) at C2FO, a global working\-capital platform \- Built and led the data science and pricing function for OYO's international markets, including UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman \- Direct a specialist team of 11 AI/ML and MLOps engineers; India Site Lead for a 50\+ FTE Product & Technology center \- Core member, Enterprise AI Transformation \(adoption, tooling standardization, governance\) — proposing a two\-pillar org structure \(Applied AI / AI Platform Engineering\) and forward\-deployed engineering \(FDE\) delivery model as the execution mechanism B\.Tech \+ M\.Tech, IIT Bombay\. MBA, ESADE Business School\. Two granted patents in speech recognition\.

## Location

India

## AI stack

claude

cursor

github copilot

hugging face

langchain

LiteLLM

## Work experience

Director, Data Science, ML & AI Engineering \| India Site Lead at C2FO, Feb 2022 \- Present · 4 yrs 7 mos, India, In Jan 2025, took ownership of the MLOps function and merged it with Data Science into a single unified team spanning Machine Learning, Applied AI, and the associated engineering Proposing a two\-pillar org structure — Applied AI and AI Platform Engineering — under a single leadership charter Direct a production GenAI portfolio of five enterprise applications on AWS Bedrock, spanning RAG architecture, agentic workflows, and Model Context Protocol implementations Contributed to an experimentation framework that drove a 300% increase in successful GenAI/ML experiments \(21 launched\) across the Science and Pricing org in 2023 India Site Lead for a 50\+ FTE Product & Technology center; direct a specialist team of 11 AI/ML and MLOps engineers across US, India, and EMEA workstreams Core team member, Enterprise AI Transformation initiative — enterprise\-wide AI adoption, tooling standardization, and governance

Head of Data Science at Quince, Aug 2021 \- Aug 2022 · 1 yr 1 mo, India, Recruited and led a centralized data science, analytics, and ML engineering team, establishing data\-driven strategy across every business vertical Directed a similarity\-based product discovery engine and a frequently\-purchased\-together optimization model, delivering conversion lifts of 6–12% and AOV increases of 18–40%

OYO — Director, Global Pricing Excellence & Data Science at OYO, Aug 2019 \- Aug 2021 · 2 yrs 1 mo, Gurugram, Haryana, India, \- Built and scaled a data science team of eight from zero in two months to own pricing strategy for international markets, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman \- Served as pricing subject\-matter expert for OYO China, providing algorithmic and technical direction to a separate regional team \- Directed ML initiatives across occupancy prediction, property segmentation, and price\-elasticity estimation, driving a 6% improvement in revenue per available room \(RevPAR\) \- Directed a price\-matching classification and calibration system delivering a further 8% RevPAR improvement \- Designed a self\-adapting post\-COVID revenue recovery framework, keeping dynamic pricing adjustments revenue\-accretive through extreme market volatility

Head of Insights and Experimentation at eDreams ODIGEO, 2017 \- 2019 · 2 yrs, Barcelona Area, Spain, \- Led and managed Strategic Insights and Product Insights/Experimentation teams \- Supported C and C\-1 level decision\-makers on topics such as Conversion Optimization, A/B Testing, Business and Product Insights \- Cross collaboration with the UX Research, Pricing, IT, and Content \(Supplier\) teams to identify drivers of conversion and identify opportunities to improve the user experience as well as improve the business metrics

Team Leader, Business Intelligence and Strategy at Jumia Group, 2015 \- 2017 · 2 yrs, Paris Area, France, \- Product/Project management \- Agile/Scrum methods; cross functional stakeholder and team management; product strategy \- Analytics and reporting \- investor \+ financial, marketing, and operational data; google analytics; daily/weekly report automation \- Data Science and advanced analytics \- data mining and machine learning algorithms; product popularity algorithm, product search algorithm, recommendation engine; regression analysis, funnel analysis \- Tools \- SQL, R/Python, Excel\-VBA, Tableau/QlikView

## Education

Dual Degree \(B\.Tech \+ M\.Tech\), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

Master of Business Administration \(MBA\), Esade

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/nilay-badavne)

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