GCCs Still Can’t Get Enough Of Data Scientist Talent, And St…

With AI becoming mainstream, demand for data scientists has climbed sharply across experience levels over the past year, extending beyond Tier 1 hubs and into Tier 2 cities.

A recent TeamLease report points to demand for nearly 45,000 AI-related roles, led by data scientists and machine learning engineers. LinkedIn data further underscores this momentum, ranking data science as the fastest-growing job category globally, with more than 11 million roles projected by 2026.

Bengaluru continues to be the undisputed leader across the talent spectrum, recording the highest share of demand at junior (34.60%), mid-level (40.48%), and senior (36.54%) roles, with notable growth across all three bands, according to the Randstad Digital Technology Skills Insights Report for India.

However, Hyderabad maintains a solid second position nationwide, demonstrating consistent demand across junior (15.89%), mid-level (17.25%), and senior (14.72%) roles.

Data scientist positions remain heavily concentrated in Tier 1 metropolitan hubs, led by Bengaluru (38.02%), followed by Hyderabad (16.08%), Pune (11.74%), Mumbai (11.46%), and Delhi-NCR (9.34%).

“Hyderabad has been steadily growing into a strategic location for many new GCCs to set up their primary centres in India. Many of these GCCs are hiring for AI, applied analytics, and Data Engineering,” Neeti Sharma, CEO, TeamLease Digital told AIM.

Proptech firm StarRez wants an early-mover advantage by tapping into the city’s data science talent pool. The company told AIM it is in the early stages of setting up a dedicated data science team in Hyderabad. The US-headquartered student housing management platform is making a deliberate push into India, with Hyderabad as an innovation hub for end-to-end product development, and a strong focus on AI, data science, and automation-led outcomes for universities globally.

The company hired its first employee in India in April this year and currently has a team of around 40 people in Hyderabad. Over the next 18 months, StarRez plans to scale this number to nearly 200.

“To go with Hyderabad was very deliberate,” Baumgartner stated. “We’re trying to build a true innovation hub for end-to-end product delivery—from product management, engineering platforms and architecture, all the way through to customer impact.”

He mentioned that Hyderabad stood out not only for its deep engineering talent but also for its strong product mindset, a combination he found to be rare.

“The talent ecosystem here combines deep engineering skill with product thinking,” he said. “What really stood out to me, after visiting multiple times and interviewing candidates, is how well the local mindset aligns with StarRez’s culture—very practical about innovation, ownership, and long-term value creation.”

A Nascent but Strategic Opportunity

Alongside AI, StarRez is also laying the foundation for a dedicated data science team in Hyderabad.

“We’re building a data science team in Hyderabad as well,” Baumgartner said. “We don’t have any other data capabilities yet at StarRez, and that’s a huge opportunity for us that’s currently nascent.”

The goal is to move beyond reactive insights and towards predictive and personalised outcomes through what the company calls an “intelligent resident ecosystem.” This includes analysing millions of data points—from payment behaviour to social engagement—to identify early signals of student distress and prompt timely human intervention.

The company operates under global compliance frameworks, including SOC 2 Type II, and uses fine-grained data residency controls across its Azure-based infrastructure.

StarRez partners closely with Microsoft and uses Microsoft OpenAI models, alongside orchestration technologies such as Semantic Kernel and the upcoming Microsoft Agent Framework.

From Full-Stack Delivery to AI-Led Innovation

StarRez is building the Hyderabad innovation hub as a full-stack capability centre, contributing across product development, engineering, platforms, quality, AI, and data science.

“GenAI, agentic AI, and data science are going to be major focus areas for us,”  Baumgartner noted.

The company, which serves over 1,200 institutions globally and more than 3 million residents, is increasingly embedding AI into its platform to help university housing teams reduce operational burden and focus on meaningful human interaction with students.

One of the early AI implementations began with simple writing tools powered by large language models, aimed at streamlining routine communication tasks for housing administrators. This evolved into RES 360 Intelligence, a copilot-style interface that allows users to interact with student and housing data through natural language.

“That copilot experience is really our beachhead,” the CTPO explained. “It sets us up to launch agentic workflows.”

StarRez is now working towards task-based agentic AI workflows, where individual AI agents handle specific tasks such as room swaps, check-ins or maintenance requests. Over time, these will be orchestrated into role-based agents that mirror real-world housing roles.

A standout example is StarRez’s AI-powered inspection feature, which won the Vista AI Hackathon Award. The tool uses computer vision to inspect rooms via mobile devices, reducing inspection time from 11 minutes to 30 seconds per room.

“For a university like Columbia with 5,000 beds, that translates to nearly 700 workdays saved per year,” Baumgartner noted. “We’re very intentional about matching technology to measurable customer impact.”

Scaling Talent and Building Brand Presence

For now, StarRez’s hiring in India is focused on experienced professionals across software engineering, AI, data science, platform reliability, product, and design. Fresher hiring will follow once foundational leadership and delivery teams are firmly in place.

While brand awareness is a challenge for newer entrants, StarRez is actively investing in building its presence in Hyderabad through university partnerships, hackathons, meetups and ecosystem engagement, supported by its India partner Zinnov.

“Branding is a challenge for every company that comes in without existing brand equity,” Baumgartner said. “But there are strategies to move the needle quickly, and we’re leaning into them.”

“This team is already shipping features,” he added. “But what excites us is what’s next, connecting AI, data, automation and human insight to create environments that help students thrive, not just live.”

The post GCCs Still Can’t Get Enough Of Data Scientist Talent, And StarRez Knows That appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

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