Data Scientist III

Job#: 3021687

Job Description:

Job Title: Data Scientist III

Location: Burbank, CA - Hybrid

Contract Duration: 10 months

Pay Rate: $84.37/hr

What We Do/Project

We're looking for a Senior Data Scientist with a strong foundation in predictive modeling, clustering, and statistical analysis. This role combines hands-on machine learning with close collaboration across business and product teams to build production-ready models that forecast content performance and reveal content insights. The ideal candidate is fluent in modern MLOps tools, proactively explores new approaches, and iterates based on user feedback to ensure solutions are interpretable, trusted, and adopted across the organization. Experience in the media/entertainment industry is a strong advantage, or other creative industries. The ideal candidate has experience building DS solutions to support, not replace, human judgment, and therefore has experience optimizing for results beyond just accuracy improvements, such as enriching insights and discussions.

Job Responsibilities / Typical Day in the Role

Build and iterate on predictive models to project content performance

Test different model types (e.g., gradient boosting, regression) and iterate based on accuracy and user interpretability needs

Complete model experiments to validate hypotheses

Proactively identify opportunities to improve performance and contribute to model development roadmap

Explore and segment content types

Use clustering, principal component analysis, and other unsupervised methods to identify patterns in performance drivers and content types

Experiment with GenAI to enrich data (e.g., augmenting metadata tagging or generating synthetic attributes)

Collaborate with business users to refine models and drive adoption

Infuse models and model approach with users' domain expertise and decision-making workflows

Present early model outputs in accessible ways to solicit feedback and identify gaps, overlooked variables, and implicit assumptions from users

Interpret user feedback and adapt model design and underlying data to prioritize interpretability, usability, or explainability where required to build trust and drive adoption

Maintain and monitor models

Work with ML Engineers to deploy models in production, including API endpoints, and establish ML pipeline

Contribute to shared libraries and modeling best practices across the data science team

Partner with product and platform teams to deliver impact

Contribute to design and implementation of new products where data science models will be embedded, built by agile product PODs

Collaborate with data architects, data engineers, and broader platform team to facilitate technical discussions and enrich the data available for data science

Must Have Skills / Requirements

1) Proven experience as a Data Scientist

a. 4+ years of experience

2) Python and common ML library experience

a. 4+ years of experience; (e.g., scikit-learn, XGBoost, pandas).

3) Familiarity with AWS tools, especially SageMaker, or equivalent cloud-based ML environments

a. 4+ years of experience

Nice to Have Skills / Preferred Requirements

1) Experience in media & entertainment industry is a strong advantage but not required

2) SQL fluency is a plus

Soft Skills:

1) Curiosity and capability to work in an experimental stage of development to test hypotheses and adjust approaches to deliver the most value to business users

2) Experience building predictive models, especially with limited sample sizes

3) Understanding of clustering and dimensionality reduction techniques

4) Exposure to generative AI models (e.g., LLMs, diffusion models) and an interest in applying them to real-world data problems

5) Strong communication skills and the ability to translate data science work into business value as well as translate business user needs into data science

Technology Requirements:

1) Strong skills in Python and common ML libraries (e.g., scikit-learn, XGBoost, pandas).

2) Familiarity with AWS tools, especially SageMaker, or equivalent cloud-based ML environments

3) Experience building predictive models, especially with limited sample sizes

4) Understanding of clustering and dimensionality reduction techniques

5) Exposure to generative AI models (e.g., LLMs, diffusion models) and an interest in applying them to real-world data problems

EEO Employer

Apex Systems is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate or allow discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, genetic information, registered domestic partner status, marital status, disability, status as a crime victim, protected veteran status, political affiliation, union membership, or any other characteristic protected by law. Apex will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable law. If you have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation in using our website for a search or application, please contact our Employee Services Department at or .

Apex Systems is a world-class IT services company that serves thousands of clients across the globe. When you join Apex, you become part of a team that values innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning. We offer quality career resources, training, certifications, development opportunities, and a comprehensive benefits package. Our commitment to excellence is reflected in many awards, including ClearlyRated's Best of Staffing in Talent Satisfaction in the United States and Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom and Mexico. Apex uses a virtual recruiter as part of the application process. Click for more details.

Apex Benefits Overview: Apex offers a range of supplemental benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and other insurance plans that offer an optional layer of financial protection. We offer an ESPP (employee stock purchase program) and a 401K program which allows you to contribute typically within 30 days of starting, with a company match after 12 months of tenure. Apex also offers a HSA (Health Savings Account on the HDHP plan), a SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with up to 8 free counseling sessions, a corporate discount savings program and other discounts. In terms of professional development, Apex hosts an on-demand training program, provides access to certification prep and a library of technical and leadership courses/books/seminars once you have 6+ months of tenure, and certification discounts and other perks to associations that include CompTIA and IIBA. Apex has a dedicated customer service team for our Consultants that can address questions around benefits and other resources, as well as a certified Career Coach. You can access a full list of our benefits, programs, support teams and resources within our 'Welcome Packet' as well, which an Apex team member can provide.