Consultant - MLOps Engineer

to support the Trait Discovery and Delivery Department under the Global Research Program, Accelerated Crop Improvement. The incumbent will be responsible for building and operationalizing robust AI/ML pipelines specifically for drone-based phenotyping and image analysis workflows. The role bridges data science, software engineering, and cloud infrastructure to ensure models are production-ready, scalable that arealigned with the program’s research objectives across ICRISAT and CG centers. The position is based at ICRISAT Headquarters, Patancheru, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi- arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower these disadvantaged populations to overcom ICRISAT invites applications from dynamic and motivated Indian nationals for the position of Consultant - MLOps Engineer,e poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agricultural production systems.

ICRISAT is headquartered at Patancheru near Hyderabad, India, with two regional hubs and eight country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT envisions a prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics. Its mission is to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics. ICRISAT conducts research on its mandate crops of chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet in the arid and semi-arid tropics. The Institute focuses its work on the drylands and in protecting the environment. Tropical dryland areas are usually seen as resource-poor and perennially beset by shocks such as drought, thereby trapping dryland communities in poverty and hunger and making them dependent on external aid. Please visit - www.icrisat.org

Responsibilities:

A. MLOps Pipeline Design and Deployment

• Design, build, and implement end-to-end MLOps/DevOps pipelines for scalable training, testing, and deployment of AI/ML models for drone image analysis.

• Automate CI/CD workflows (using GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or GitLab CI) for model lifecycle management across development, staging, and production environments.

• Develop and maintain containerized applications using Docker and orchestration frameworks using Kubernetes for multi-center deployment.

B. Drone Image Analysis and Model Integration

• Collaborate with data scientists to integrate computer vision and image analysis models (developed for drone-captured phenotyping data) into production-grade pipelines.

• Support the integration of Roboflow-based annotation and model training workflows with internal ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn). 

• Enable model reproducibility, versioning, and rollback mechanisms using tools such as MLflow and DVC.

C. Cloud Infrastructure and Data Management

• Manage cloud infrastructure (Azure, AWS, GCP) for hosting data services, model registries, and application endpoints across CG centers.

• Implement infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible) for repeatable and auditable cloud environment provisioning.

• Ensure secure, compliant, and efficient data flow across systems, including large-scale drone imagery datasets.

D. Monitoring, APIs, and Collaboration

• Monitor model performance in production using tools like Prometheus and Grafana; implement alerting and retraining triggers where necessary.

• Develop and support APIs and microservices that expose model inference capabilities to digital agriculture platforms and partner institutions.

• Liaise and co-develop solutions with MLOps engineers from Roboflow and Google, ensuring interoperability and shared best practices.

• Maintain comprehensive technical documentation and provide support to multi-disciplinary research teams across CGIAR centers.

Eligibility and Qualifications:

Education

•       Graduate or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Applications, Information Technology, or a closely related field.

Experience

•       Minimum 2–5 years of hands-on experience in MLOps or DevOps roles, preferably in research or data-intensive environments.

•       Demonstrated experience with drone image data, computer vision pipelines, or agricultural AI applications is a strong advantage.

•       Prior experience working with international research organizations or CGIAR centers is desirable.

Technical Skills

•       Proficiency in Python and scripting for automation and data processing.

•       Familiarity with ML frameworks: TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn.

•       Proficiency with CI/CD tools: GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI.

•       Containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes).

•       Cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible).

•       Data and model versioning tools: DVC, MLflow.

•       Monitoring and visualization tools: Prometheus, Grafana.

•       Familiarity with Roboflow or similar image annotation and model training platforms is an advantage.

Soft Skills

•       Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.

•       Excellent communication and documentation skills for multi-stakeholder and multi-country collaboration.

•       Ability to work in a multicultural, international team environment across time zones.

General:

This is a contractual role for a period of 12 months (1year)), renewable based on the performance of the incumbent and the institute’s continuing need for the position.

How to apply:

The position will remain open until a suitable candidate is identified. Shortlisting will start from 09 June 2026. All Applicants should apply with their latest Resume, and the names and contact information of three references that are knowledgeable about their professional qualifications and work experience. All applications will be acknowledged; however, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

ICRISAT is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to increasing diversity and maintaining a progressive and inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of their ethnicity, race, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, age, marital status or whether they have a disability.