Principal Data Scientist

1099/W2/OwnCorp This position can sit remote but must be in the eastern or central time zone. Our client is looking to hire a senior data scientist to join their team on a 6 month contract to hire basis. Candidates need to be perm resident or Us Cit. Candidates must have experience with traditional machine learning/LLM. They also need experience working from proof of concept stage to production. We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Data Scientist to join a growing data science team supporting high-visibility initiatives. This individual will play a critical role in driving end-to-end machine learning solutions from problem definition and proof of concept (POC) through full production deployment. This is an opportunity to work on impactful business use cases involving pricing optimization, customer segmentation, and predictive modeling, collaborating closely with business stakeholders and cross-functional technical teams. Key Responsibilities • Lead the end-to-end data science lifecycle, including: • Problem definition and requirements gathering with business stakeholders • Data collection, exploration, and feature engineering • Model development, evaluation, and selection • POC validation and production deployment • Design and build classification and regression models to support pricing and sales optimization use cases • Develop models to: • Predict likelihood of winning deals based on historical data • Optimize pricing and margin strategies • Collaborate directly with business teams to translate requirements into data science solutions • Work cross-functionally with data engineers and machine learning engineers • Contribute to multiple project phases (parallel model development tracks) • Ensure scalable and maintainable model deployment in production environments • Operate independently with minimal supervision, driving initiatives forward Required Qualifications • Proven experience delivering ML solutions from POC to production (critical requirement) • Strong foundation in: • Machine learning (traditional ML techniques) • Statistics and data modeling • Feature engineering • Hands-on experience with: • Classification models (e.g., segmentation, predictive outcomes) • Regression models (e.g., pricing, forecasting, optimization) • Ability to: • Work independently without heavy oversight • Interface directly with business stakeholders • Translate ambiguous problems into structured solutions • Experience working in collaborative, cross-functional teams Preferred Qualifications • Experience with: • Databricks environment • MLflow for model tracking and lifecycle management • PySpark / distributed data processing • Background in pricing analytics, sales optimization, or customer segmentation modeling • Experience in high-visibility or enterprise-scale projects What Success Looks Like • Ability to independently lead a use case from idea to production • Deliver high-quality, scalable ML models aligned with business goals • Effectively partner with stakeholders to drive measurable outcomes • Contribute to multiple project phases in a fast-paced environment