At Scale AI, we help leading enterprises turn AI from a promising capability into reliable systems that improve real workflows and deliver measurable business value. We are hiring a Senior Forward Deployed Data Scientist / Engineer to work directly with customers on ambiguous, high-impact problems at the intersection of data science, product development, and AI deployment.
This is not a traditional analytics role. On this team, data scientists do the core statistical and modeling work, but they also build real tools and products: evaluation explorers, operator workflows, decision-support systems, experimentation surfaces, and customer-specific AI/data applications that get used in production. In many cases, the data scientist builds the first usable version of the solution, proves value quickly, and helps drive it into a durable product or platform capability.
The right candidate is strong in first-principles problem solving, rigorous measurement, and technical execution. They know how to define metrics, design experiments, diagnose failures, and build systems that people actually use. They are also comfortable using modern AI-assisted development tools to prototype and iterate quickly without sacrificing reliability, observability, or judgment. Python and SQL matter in this role, but as execution fluency in service of building better products and making better decisions.
What you’ll do- Partner directly with enterprise customers to understand workflows, operational pain points, constraints, and success criteria
- Turn ambiguous business and product problems into measurable solutions with clear metrics, technical designs, and deployment plans
- Design and build internal and customer-facing data products, including evaluation tools, workflow applications, decision-support systems, and thin product layers on top of data/ML systems
- Build end-to-end solutions across data ingestion, transformation, experimentation, statistical modeling, deployment, monitoring, and iteration
- Design evaluation frameworks, benchmarks, and feedback loops for ML/LLM systems, human-in-the-loop workflows, and model-assisted operations
- Apply rigorous statistical thinking to experimentation, causal inference, metric design, forecasting, segmentation, diagnostics, and performance measurement
- Use AI-assisted development workflows to accelerate prototyping and product iteration, while maintaining strong engineering discipline
- Diagnose failure modes across data quality, model behavior, retrieval, workflow design, and user experience, and drive fixes into production
- Act as the voice of the customer to Product, Engineering, and Data Science, using field learnings to shape roadmap and platform capabilities
- 5+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, quantitative engineering, or another highly analytical technical role
- Proven track record of shipping data, ML, or AI systems that delivered measurable business or product impact
- Exceptional ability to structure ambiguous problems, define the right success metrics, and translate them into executable technical plans
- Strong foundation in statistics, experimentation, causal reasoning, and measurement
- Experience building tools or products, not just analyses — for example internal workflow tools, evaluation systems, operator-facing products, experimentation platforms, or customer-specific applications
- Hands-on fluency in Python, SQL, and modern data/AI tooling; able to inspect data, prototype quickly, debug deeply, and productionize solutions that work
- Comfort using AI-assisted coding and development workflows to move from idea to usable product quickly
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills; able to work effectively with customers, engineers, product teams, and executives
- High ownership and bias toward shipping in fast-moving environments with incomplete information
- Experience in a forward deployed, solutions, consulting, or other client-facing technical role
- Experience designing evaluation frameworks for LLMs, retrieval systems, agentic workflows, or other AI-enabled products
- Experience with large-scale data processing and distributed systems such as Spark, Ray, or Airflow
- Experience with cloud infrastructure and modern data platforms such as AWS, GCP, Snowflake, or BigQuery
- Experience building lightweight applications, APIs, internal tools, or workflow software on top of data/ML systems
- Familiarity with marketplace experimentation, causal inference, forecasting, optimization, or advanced statistical modeling
- Strong product instinct and the judgment to know when the right answer is a model, an experiment, a tool, or a workflow redesign
Success in this role means taking a messy, high-stakes customer problem and turning it into a deployed system that is actually used. Sometimes that system is a model. Sometimes it is an evaluation framework. Sometimes it is an operator-facing tool or a lightweight data product that changes how decisions get made. In all cases, success is defined by measurable impact, rigorous evaluation, and reliable execution.
Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.
PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.
About Us:
At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Cisco, DLA Piper, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.
We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.
We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [email protected]. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.
We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision.
PLEASE NOTE: We collect, retain and use personal data for our professional business purposes, including notifying you of job opportunities that may be of interest and sharing with our affiliates. We limit the personal data we collect to that which we believe is appropriate and necessary to manage applicants’ needs, provide our services, and comply with applicable laws. Any information we collect in connection with your application will be treated in accordance with our internal policies and programs designed to protect personal data. Please see our privacy policy for additional information.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of relevant industry experience in a highly analytical role
- Proven track record of shipping high-quality data products
- Expert-level coding abilities in Python and complex SQL
- Strong problem-solving skills
- Ability to effectively communicate complex technical concepts
Scale AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Scale AI and has not been reviewed or approved by Scale AI.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as comprehensive across medical, dental, and vision, with flexibility to choose plans that fit individual or family needs. A monthly wellness stipend further supports physical and mental wellbeing expenses.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity-based compensation is included in eligible packages, positioning ownership as a meaningful component of total rewards for many full-time roles. An employee stock purchase plan also provides an additional pathway to participate in potential upside.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off is positioned as generous with a flexible policy intended to support recharging and burnout prevention. Paid holidays and paid sick days are also part of the time-off offering.
Scale AI Insights
What We Do
Scale accelerates the development of AI applications by helping machine learning teams generate high-quality ground truth data. Our advanced LiDAR, image, video and NLP annotation APIs allow machine learning teams at companies like OpenAI, Lyft, Pinterest, and Airbnb focus on building differentiated models vs. labeling data.
