Lead Data Scientist - USA/ Canada

Company Profile

Blackstraw is an end-to-end technology services company specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Engineering solutions across Data Science, Data Engineering, LLM/GenAI and LLMOps.

Founded in 2018, we help global enterprises across North America, Europe and Asia to build and operationalize AI systems that create measurable business impact. Our mission is to make AI adoption simpler, faster and scalable through a blend of deep domain expertise, reusable accelerators and proven engineering practices.

With a 500+ strong team of engineers, data scientists and AI specialists, we partner with organizations to deliver real-world outcomes in areas such as predictive analytics, computer vision, natural language processing and Generative AI.

At Blackstraw , we’re passionate about solving complex business challenges through intelligent automation, modern data architectures and next-gen AI applications enabling enterprises to move from AI experimentation to transformation.

Headquartered in Florida (USA) with operations in Canada and India, Blackstraw continues to empower global enterprises to unlock the true potential of AI.

Job location: Remote

Job Type: Full-time only

Experience:​ 7+ Years

Job Summary:

We are looking for Lead Data Scientists who can lead and mentor a data science team while transforming raw data into meaningful, business-driving insights.

Lead Data Scientist responsibilities include managing the client, data science teams, planning projects and building analytics models. You should have a strong problem-solving ability and a knack for statistical analysis. 

Responsibilities:

• You would be required to Identify, develop and implement the appropriate statistical techniques, algorithms and Deep learning / ML Models to create new, scalable solutions that address business challenges across industry domains.
• Define, develop, maintain and evolve data models, tools and capabilities.
• Communicate your findings to the appropriate teams through visualizations
• Provide solutions for but not limited to: Object detection/Image recognition, natural language processing, Sentiment Analysis, Topic Modeling, Concept Extraction, Recommender Systems, Text Classification, Clustering , Customer Segmentation & Targeting, Propensity Modeling, Churn Modeling, Lifetime Value Estimation, Forecasting, Modeling Response to Incentives, Marketing Mix Optimization, Price Optimization, GenAI, and Agentic Ai (LLMs and VLMs).
• Ability to build, train and lead a team of data scientists.
• Follow/maintain an agile methodology for delivering on project milestones.
• Experience applying statistical ideas and methods to data sets to answer business problems.
• Mine and analyze data to drive optimization and improvement of product development, marketing techniques and business strategies.
• Working on ML Model Containerisation.
• Creating ML Model Inference Pipelines.
• Testing and Monitoring ML Models.

Tech Stack:

• Strong Python programming Knowledge- Data Science and Advanced Concepts like Abstract Class, Function Overloading + Overriding, Inheritance, Modular Programming and Reusability
• Working knowledge of Transformers, Hugging face, BERT, RAG, multi-model inference pipelines etc..
• Working knowledge in implementing large language and agentic models for enterprise applications.
• Cloud Experience in using Azure services,
• Building APIs using REST, FAST.
• Good to have - Pyspark: Spark Dataframe Operations, SQL functions API, Parallel Execution
• Good to have - Unit testing using Python pytest or Unittest

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelors/ Masters in Computer Science, Information Systems, Machine Learning, Statistics, Applied Mathematics or related technical degree. 
• Minimum of 7 years of  experience in a related position, as a senior data scientist building Predictive analytics, Computer Vision, NLP and GenAI solutions for various types of business problems.
• Advanced knowledge of statistical techniques, machine learning algorithms and deep learning frameworks like Tensorflow, Keras, Pytorch, etc..
• Strong planning and project management skills, able to juggle multiple tasks and priorities. 
• Self-motivated and driven to deliver agreed results on-time
• Ability to convert analytical output into clear, concise, and persuasive insights & recommendations for technical & non-technical audience
• Strong influence and relationship management skills. 

Key traits: 

• Should have excellent communication skills.
• Should have an ownership mindset.
• Should be self motivated and willing to work as part of a team.
• Should be able to collaborate and coordinate with onshore and offshore teams.
• Be a problem solver and be proactive to solve the challenges that come his way.

What We Offer

• Opportunity to lead a high‑impact cloud modernization program.
• Work with modern AWS technologies and enterprise‑scale datasets.
• Competitive compensation and growth‑oriented environment.

Blackstraw provides equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, marital status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law.