Lead Data Scientist

Lead Data Scientist - AI & Innovation Intelligence
📍 Barcelona, Spain | Hybrid / Remote within Spain
🚀 Full-time
💰 €40k–50k + equity
At Klared, we're building the intelligence layer for R&I.
We bring together millions of data points across scientific research, researchers, companies, patents, funding opportunities and other innovation sources. This helps universities, governments and companies understand who is working on what, where innovation is emerging, and which opportunities they should act on.
We're already working with 15+ universities, public institutions and companies across Europe. We're now looking for a Lead Data Scientist to lead applied R&D across our AI capabilities, take ownership of some of the hardest data and machine learning problems behind our platform, and help shape the technical direction of the product.
🔍 What you'll do
Lead the research and development of new AI/ML approaches for innovation intelligence
Design and conduct applied R&D experiments in areas such as entity resolution, information retrieval, knowledge graphs, ranking systems and LLM-based information extraction
Build ML, NLP and LLM-based systems that turn large-scale, messy and heterogeneous data into reliable intelligence
Define how we evaluate model quality, relevance, robustness and performance, and continuously improve our systems
Explore new methods for extracting useful signals from scientific, technological and innovation data
Take successful research ideas and models from experimentation into production
Help define the technical architecture required to scale our AI and data systems
Help define what intelligence we can extract from our data and how we turn it into valuable product capabilities
Mentor and help grow the AI/data team as Klared scales
This is an applied R&D role. You'll explore, develop and validate new approaches for extracting reliable intelligence from complex research and innovation data, and work closely with our engineering team to bring successful approaches into production.
🎯 What we're looking for
Completed PhD in Machine Learning, AI, NLP, Data Science, Computer Science or a related quantitative field
Experience with modern ML/NLP techniques and LLMs
Solid understanding of statistics, experimentation and model evaluation
Ability to turn ambiguous research questions into production-ready solutions
Experience designing and validating new technical or research approaches
Experience leading or mentoring engineers or data scientists, formally or informally
Comfortable working independently and owning technical decisions
Strong interest in research, deep tech and emerging technologies
Professional working proficiency in English (B2 or higher); Spanish is a plus
Experience with Snowflake is a strong plus
Eligible to work in Spain (EU citizenship or a valid work permit)
Especially interesting if you have experience with:
Entity resolution and disambiguation, such as author, company or organization name disambiguation
Information retrieval, semantic search and embeddings
Knowledge graphs and Graph ML
Ranking and recommendation systems
LLM-based information extraction and structured data generation
Scientific publications, patents, funding data or research datasets
Emerging technology detection or technology intelligence
🎁 What we offer
Permanent contract with a €40k–50k salary plus equity, so you share in the value you help create
A clear career path, with the opportunity to grow the AI team and your role as Klared scales
Real ownership of the AI architecture, R&D direction and intelligence behind the product
The opportunity to work on technically challenging problems involving large-scale scientific, technological and innovation data
Direct collaboration with the founders on problems at the intersection of AI, science and innovation
Hybrid work from Barcelona or remote within Spain
🧭 Our process
1️⃣ 15-minute intro call — mutual fit and your questions
2️⃣ Technical challenge — a realistic problem inspired by our data (~3–4 hours, completed on your own schedule)
3️⃣ Challenge review with our CTO — walk us through your approach, decisions and trade-offs
4️⃣ Conversation with our CEO — vision, ways of working and culture
5️⃣ Offer
We aim to complete the process in around three weeks and provide feedback at every stage.
📩 How to apply
Apply here on LinkedIn or send your CV to hiring@klared.com.
If you enjoy turning messy, fragmented data into useful intelligence, exploring new AI approaches, and building systems used by research and innovation teams across Europe, we'd love to hear from you.
Data Privacy Notice: Klared will process the personal data you provide as part of the recruitment process in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable GDPR requirements. You can exercise your rights to access, rectify or delete your personal data by contacting privacy@klared.com.

Work arrangement
Yes