Job Description
Lead Data Scientist
Location: Hybrid — Newark, NJ (3 days/week onsite)
Employment Type: Contract-to-Hire
Pay Rate: $70-$85 per hour, based on experience. No C2C/1099. W2 only.
About the Role
- Join a leading investment firm as a Lead Data Scientist, partnering with Machine Learning Engineers, Data Engineers, Data Analysts, and cross-functional teams to build AI and Machine Learning products
- Implement Machine Learning, AI, and agentic capabilities that deliver stability, scalability, and integration across products and services
- Solve sophisticated business problems and deploy innovative products and experiences
What You'll Do
- Provide deep technical leadership across a portfolio of high-impact data science initiatives
- Identify optimal data, models, and training/testing techniques for successful product delivery
- Manage team members across data analysis, model development (traditional ML and statistical models), GenAI and agent development, testing, training, and tuning
- Write production-grade code and partner with ML engineers to push models into production, including traditional ML, statistical models, GenAI, and agentic solutions
- Work hands-on with Agentic AI systems, fine-tuning techniques (e.g., LoRA), LLM deployment, RAG, Agentic RAG, Strands, Claude Agents SDK, and related agentic concepts
- Communicate model design and development clearly to technical and non-technical audiences
- Leverage CI/CD best practices, including test automation and monitoring, for ML model and application deployment
- Stay current on emerging technologies and embed learning/innovation into the team's daily work
- Program primarily in Python and SQL
What You Bring
- Advanced degree (Master's or Ph.D.) in Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, Econometrics, Physics, Computer Science, Actuarial Science, Data Science, or a related quantitative field
- Experience leading a small team with minimal guidance
- Demonstrated ability to mentor team members and manage operations based on project and resourcing needs
- Ability to influence business stakeholders and drive adoption of AI/ML solutions
- Experience with Agile methodologies and Test-Driven Development (TDD)
- Strong business acumen to support sound, context-driven decision-making
- Excellent problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills
- Experience with cloud-based AI platforms such as Bedrock and SageMaker
Preferred Technical Expertise (several of the following)
- Data acquisition and transformation using APIs, semantic data models, SQL, and Python
- Database management across relational (SQL), unstructured (NoSQL), and graph/ontology (Graph DB) systems
- Data analysis using visualization, manipulation, and statistical methods to identify trends and anomalies
- Strong foundation in multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, applied probability, and applied statistics
- Deep understanding of machine learning theory, including supervised and unsupervised models
- Experience with Generative AI and NLP, including RAG, LangChain, LangGraph, vector databases, LangFuse, and AgentCore
- Understanding of the model deployment lifecycle, A/B testing, CI/CD pipelines, and frameworks such as AWS SageMaker and Azure Agentic AI tools
Job Tags
Hourly pay, Contract work, 3 days per week