Lead Data Scientist - (Singapore Based)
Lead a team of data scientists building ML models for travel search ranking, pricing, and personalization using Python, PySpark, and large-scale infrastructure in Singapore.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Singapore
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Lead
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Data science
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Strong DS fundamentals: Modeling, statistics, experimentation and causal inference.
- Hands-on experience building LLM systems: RAG, tool use, agent orchestration, context and memory, with an evaluation-first approach.
- Problem-solving mindset: Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with comfort operating in open-ended problem spaces where requirements evolve.
- Deep LLM experience is valuable: but exceptional DS/ML depth, strong product judgment, and the ability to ramp quickly are equally important.
Nice to have
- Experience in online travel, e-commerce, search, ranking, recommendations, pricing, or personalization.
Full description
About Agoda
At Agoda, we bridge the world through travel. Our story began in 2005, when two lifelong friends and entrepreneurs, driven by their passion for travel, launched Agoda to make it easier for everyone to explore the world.
Today, we are part of Booking Holdings [NASDAQ: BKNG], with a diverse team of over 7,000 people from 90 countries, working together in offices around the globe. Every day, we connect people to destinations and experiences, with our great deals across our millions of hotels and holiday properties, flights, and experiences worldwide.
No two days are the same at Agoda. Data and technology are at the heart of our culture, fueling our curiosity and innovation. If you’re ready to begin your best journey and help build travel for the world, join us.
Planning a trip can feel like a second job. Agodaʼs AI Assistant turns a loose travel idea into a personalized, actionable trip plan across hotels, flights, and activities. Weʼre hiring Lead/Principal Data Scientists to own how it understands, plans, recommends, and improves.
Get To Know Our Team
Youʼll join the team building Agodaʼs AI Assistant: The assistant runs on Agodaʼs live inventory of 6M+ properties, 130K+ flight routes and 300K+ activities, so your work can directly shape the options and decisions travelers see in live booking journeys. Weʼre early enough that the big design decisions are still open, and youʼll make many of them. The role suits senior data scientists and ML practitioners who want end-to-end responsibility for complex systems, where ML, product and engineering meet
What You'll Do
- Own the assistantʼs core intelligence: intent understanding, multi-step trip planning,
memory, and tool calls into Agodaʼs search.
- Build the evaluation backbone: offline evaluations, LLM-as-judge calibrated against
human labels, and A/B tests, so we know a change is better before travelers see it.
- Make the hard trade-offs with data: use data to make hard trade-offs among quality,
latency, cost, and reliability, in partnership with product, engineering, and leadership.
- Ship, learn, repeat: get ideas into production fast and let usage tell you what to fix next.
- Raise the bar: set technical direction and DS practices for building and evaluating agents,
and mentor other data scientists
What We're Looking For
- Strong DS fundamentals: Modeling, statistics, experimentation and causal inference.
- RAG, tool use, agent orchestration, context