Senior Data Scientist

We respectfully request that 3rd parties refrain from contacting us regarding this posting. This role is W2 only. Overview LABUR is supporting a client through a Conversational AI initiative aimed at transforming the customer shopping experience through intelligent, reliable, and compliant chatbot technology. This engagement requires a Senior Data Scientist with deep expertise in Large Language Models (LLMs), particularly leveraging OpenAI APIs on Azure, to help architect and optimize an LLM-powered shopping assistant. The work will focus on integrating AI agents with external tools and databases, applying Responsible AI principles, and driving experimentation to ensure performance, reliability, and compliance across the solution. Responsibilities • Architect and implement LLM-based agents using function calling to interact with external tools and databases. • Lead prompt engineering efforts to optimize chatbot performance and reduce hallucinations. • Apply Responsible AI and compliance best practices throughout the development lifecycle. • Collaborate with product, analytics, and engineering teams to align chatbot capabilities with business goals. • Conduct exploratory data analysis (EDA) to inform model behavior and performance. • Guide cloud engineering teams on infrastructure requirements and integration strategies. • Design and execute A/B testing frameworks to evaluate chatbot effectiveness. • Define and implement testing strategies for conversational agents. Qualifications • Deep expertise in LLMs, with hands-on experience using OpenAI APIs on Azure. • Advanced Python skills for AI workflow integration and optimization. • Proven experience in NLP and Conversational AI development. • Strong understanding of Responsible AI and compliance standards. • Experience developing AI agents with function calling capabilities. • Preferred: familiarity with A/B testing, hallucination prevention techniques, chatbot testing strategies, EDA, and defining data requirements for engineering teams. • Working knowledge of cloud services (hands-on or through specification). Compensation $75 - $85 per hour - Dependent on fit and experience.