Senior Data Scientist (AI)

ECCO Select is a talent acquisition and consulting company specializing in people, process and technology solutions. We provide the talent behind the technology enabling our clients to achieve their goals. For more information about ECCO Select, visit us at www.eccoselect.com. Position Title: Senior Data Scientist Location Information Washington, D.C. Onsite preferred; fully remote accommodated Position Responsibilities: As a Senior Data Scientist, you will play a pivotal role in establishing and growing an AI/ML innovation lab within a highly regulated organization. This full-stack position requires the broad-ranging expertise necessary to design, develop, deploy, and maintain advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions, with a significant focus on generative AI. • Lead research, prototyping, and end-to-end development of AI/ML solutions, with particular attention to generative AI use cases. • Design, build, and iterate on proof-of-concept applications to demonstrate value and translate these prototypes into scalable, production-ready systems. • Develop large language model applications to support tasks such as text analysis, summarization, information extraction, document classification, and workflow automation. • Experiment with, fine-tune, and evaluate AI models, incorporating prompt engineering and retrieval-augmented generation to improve outcomes. • Evaluate, recommend, and pilot emerging AI technologies, tools, frameworks, and models for adoption by the organization. • Apply classical and modern ML techniques, including supervised/unsupervised learning, regression, classification, NLP, and deep learning. • Lead deployment and monitoring of models across cloud, containerized, and internal environments, managing the full application lifecycle from initial release through maintenance and updates. • Create interactive dashboards and analytical applications using Python or R frameworks (such as Streamlit, Dash, Flask, and R Shiny) to communicate insights and support decision making. • Translate complex analytics into actionable insights for non-technical stakeholders, designing intuitive visualizations and presenting technical findings in accessible terms. • Manage deployment pipelines, including containerization (Docker), CI/CD, API integrations, rate limiting, and cloud cost management. • Implement monitoring, logging, alerting, and dashboarding for application and model performance, quality, and system health. • Establish and maintain documentation for technical, security, privacy, compliance, and production-readiness requirements. • Participate in agile team practices, including sprint planning, daily standups, and retrospectives, while communicating progress and managing risks across multidisciplinary teams. • Engage directly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including analysts, legal, technology staff, and senior leaders, to understand business needs and identify practical AI opportunities. • Champion responsible AI practices, including fairness, bias detection, explainability, and compliance with privacy and security requirements in regulated settings. • Collaborate with, or independently manage, cloud and infrastructure engineering tasks as needed for end-to-end solution ownership. • Contribute to the development of documentation, best practices, and mentoring to build internal AI/ML capabilities. Essential Skills, Experience • U.S. Citizenship required. • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Machine Learning, or related field. • 6+ years of hands-on experience developing, deploying, and maintaining AI/ML solutions in enterprise, academic, government, or similarly complex environments. • Advanced proficiency with Python or R for data science and application development, with additional programming language experience preferred. • Experience building and maintaining AI/ML applications in cloud production settings. • Hands-on experience with containerization (Docker) and foundational knowledge of CI/CD practices. • Proficient in building interactive applications and dashboards with frameworks such as Streamlit, Dash, Flask, or R Shiny. • Strong background in developing sophisticated data visualizations using Plotly, Matplotlib, Seaborn, ggplot2, Tableau, Power BI, or equivalent tools. • Deep expertise in machine learning, natural language processing, and generative AI technologies, including LLMs and NLP pipelines (e.g., text normalization, entity recognition, word embeddings). • Experience with key AI/ML libraries such as Scikit-learn, spaCy, XGBoost, and related technologies. • Expertise in statistical modeling, data analysis, and applied analytical problem solving. • Demonstrated ability to independently deliver solutions from initial concept and research through to deployment and long-term maintenance. • Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with the capability to distill complex concepts for technical and lay audiences alike. • Experience working within or alongside federally regulated IT governance processes, including security, privacy, and compliance. • Ability to manage through ambiguity, adapt to evolving requirements, and contribute to team-based agile workflows. Qualifications: • Master’s degree in a relevant technical field strongly preferred. • Prior experience supporting U.S. federal government or regulatory bodies. • Experience in financial services data, compliance, or regulatory analytics valued. • Proficiency working in agile environments, such as Scrum or Kanban, and experience with tracking tools like Jira or Azure DevOps. • Hands-on experience with large language model APIs (e.g., GPT, Llama) and generative AI frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex). • Knowledge of prompt engineering, model fine-tuning, vector databases, and retrieval-augmented generation techniques. • Familiarity with AWS AI services (e.g., Bedrock, SageMaker, Comprehend, Rekognition, Transcribe), as well as AWS infrastructure (EC2, ECS, Lambda, S3, CloudWatch). • Experience using infrastructure-as-code solutions such as Terraform or CloudFormation. • Relevant AWS certifications and experience with Databricks, MLOps practices, and multi-modal AI development are a plus. • Demonstrated commitment to responsible AI standards, bias mitigation, model transparency, and data governance in sensitive environments. • Familiarity with FISMA, federal privacy, security, and governance frameworks. Work Environment and Schedule: • Full-time contract position, initial six-month engagement with possible extensions. • Preference for onsite work in Washington, D.C.; fully remote arrangements supported. • Engaged, collaborative, and fast-paced team environment focused on research, rapid prototyping, and operational excellence. • Small, agile team structure – ideal for candidates who are self-driven, adaptable, and able to contribute across multiple domains. ECCO Select is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. Our policy is to provide equal opportunity to all people without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, age, disability, pregnancy, genetic information, citizenship status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other legally protected category. Veterans of our United States Uniformed Services are specifically encouraged to apply for ECCO Select opportunities. Equal Employment Opportunity is The Law This Organization Participates in E-Verify