Data Scientist

Job Title: Data Scientist Location: Grand Rapids, MI – 3 days hybrid onsite per week. Job Type: 12 month contract • Need retail industry experience Job Description client is seeking a Data Scientist to own and optimize the AI-driven product content ecosystem for our owned brands. This role sits at the intersection of machine learning, product catalog, and digital commerce, driving measurable improvements in how products are described, discovered, and converted. You will build and deploy models that power product descriptions, product status, and item relationships (e.g., similar items)—with a clear focus on improving the product detail page (PDP) conversion rate as the primary metric of success. AI Product Content - Develop and optimize AI-generated product descriptions (e.g., LLM-based enrichment, attribute extraction) - Improve content quality, completeness, and consistency across the catalog - Build evaluation frameworks to measure description effectiveness (conversion, engagement, SEO impact) Product Status Intelligence - Create models to improve product availability, status accuracy, and lifecycle signals - In-stock / out-of-stock prediction - Product readiness and completeness scoring - Partner with upstream data teams to ensure reliable, real-time product signals Similar Items & Product Relationships - Design and implement recommendation systems for: - Similar/substitute items - Complementary products - Optimize for both customer relevance and conversion impact - Continuously test and refine ranking algorithms Measurement & Experimentation - Own A/B testing strategy for product content and recommendations - Quantify incremental impact on PDP conversion and revenue - Build dashboards and models to isolate causal effects Additional Skills & Qualifications What you'll be doing as a Data Scientist: • Advanced Degree (MA/MS, PhD) in Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, or related quantitative field • Certifications: Azure Data Science Associate, Azure AI, Safe Agile • 6+ years of relevant data science experience in an applied role – preferable w/in retail, logistics, supply chain or CPG. Advanced and hands on experience using: Python, Databricks, Azure ML, Azure Cognitive Service, SAS, R, SQL, PySpark, Numpy, Pandas, Scikit Learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, AutoTS, Prophet, NLTK • Experience with Azure Cloud technologies including Azure DevOps, Azure Synapse, MLOps, GitHub - Solid experience working with large datasets and developing ML/AI systems such as: natural language processing, speech/text/image recognition, supervised and unsupervised learning models, forecasting and/or econometric time series models • Proactive and action oriented • Ability to collaborate with, and present to internal and external partners • Able to learn company systems, processes and tools, and identify opportunities to improve • Detail oriented and organized • Ability to meet production deadlines • Strong communications, interpersonal and organizational skills • Excellent written and verbal communication skills • Understanding of intellectual property rights, compliance and enforcement