Senior Data Scientist

Our client is seeking an Senior Data Scientist to join their team. As a Senior Data Scientist you will design and implement AI, Machine Learning, and Operations Research models that transform business objectives into data-driven solutions. This role advances mission by optimizing decisions, improving operations, and enhancing guest experiences through applied analytics and innovation. The position responsibilities outlined below are not all encompassing. Other duties, responsibilities, and qualifications may be required and/or assigned as necessary.

Position Responsibilities:

• Translate risk management business requirements into well-defined data science solutions, including incident prioritization and claim severity classification.
• Profile, clean, and prepare claims and incident data for analytics, modeling, and scoring.
• Develop feature engineering logic using structured and unstructured claims and incident data.
• Apply NLP and text-processing techniques to claim and incident narratives to extract useful risk signals.
• Develop record-linkage approaches to connect incidents and claims when a clean unique identifier is not available.
• Build and validate models that rank incidents by likelihood of becoming claims or requiring Risk Management intervention.
• Build and validate claim severity models that classify claims by likely financial impact and high-dollar claim risk.
• Generate explain ability outputs, including key risk drivers and business-readable reasons for flagged incidents or claims.
• Collaborate with Risk Management, Legal, Data Engineering, BI, Data Governance, and MLOps partners to deliver usable business outputs.
• Monitor model performance, drift, scoring quality, and retraining needs.
• Document modeling assumptions, feature logic, validation results, limitations, and handoff requirements.
• Ensure data science work follows data governance expectations, including appropriate handling of PII and sensitive fields.
• Present findings, model results, and recommendations to business and technical stakeholders in a clear, actionable manner.

Experience And Qualifications:

Required Skills -

• Expertise in operations research modeling (LP, IP, MIP) and tools (CPLEX, Gurobi, etc).
• Expertise in building machine learning models, including supervised, unsupervised, and deep learning methods.
• Expertise in feature engineering, model evaluation, and hyperparameter tuning.
• Expertise in Python, SQL, and Spark, and a broad array of machine learning frameworks (Scikit-Learn, XGBoost, Tensorflow, PyTorch, MXNet, LLM, etc).
• Experience in developing and deploying solutions in a Cloud environment (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform) with large datasets.
• Experience with streaming data architectures.
• Experience operating in an Agile Methodology environment.
• Experience with DevOps and CI/CD concepts.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills.

Preferred Skills:

• Exposure to hospitality, travel, or service industry data and optimization use cases.
• Strong understanding of data architecture and MLOps best practices.
• Proven ability to translate complex analytics into business impact.
• Passion for continuous learning and innovation in applied data science.

Education:

• Master s degree in computer science, statistics, industrial engineering, or related fields required, PhD preferred
• 5+ years of experience in data science, operations research, or related area (2+ years for candidates with PhD).

Salary/Rate: $90-$110/HR (depends on experience level). This is a contract position with candidates expected to work 40 hours/ week.

About The Company

Peterson Technology Partners (PTP) is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to creating a transparent, inclusive, and human-centered hiring experience.

For more than 28 years, PTP has operated as one of the top IT staffing and recruiting firms in the USA built on trust, long-term partnerships, and technical excellence.

Based in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, IL, our team of more than 500 employees and consultants is dedicated to:

Helping every client make the best hiring decisions possible

Matching professionals with the right IT jobs and career opportunities

As part of that commitment, we believe in providing clear information about how our hiring technologies work and how your data is used. The following section outlines our AI-assisted interview process and your rights as a candidate.

AI-Assisted Interview Experience (Pete & Gabi Rebecca)

To provide a consistent, fair, and flexible experience for all candidates, we use AI-assisted tools to support parts of the interview process. This includes our proprietary AI platform Pete & Gabi, which includes AI recruiter Rebecca.

These AI hiring tools help us:

• Conduct recorded video interviews
• Transcribe interviews
• Summarize candidate responses
• Generate job-related insights
• Streamline communication and scheduling

Please note that:

The AI does NOT make hiring decisions; all decisions are made by our human recruiters, hiring managers, or client partners.

The AI does not evaluate facial expressions, emotions, or physical traits; it is used only to support fairness, consistency, and efficiency.

If you prefer a non-AI interview format, we will gladly provide an alternative.

Technical or Case Interviews (Role-Dependent):

When applying for certain tech jobs, you may participate in:

• A technical interview
• A coding challenge
• A case study
• A client-specific assessment

We will always explain what to expect in advance so you can prepare with confidence.

Human Review & Selection:

Every candidate's profile including interviews, conversations, and assessments is reviewed by experienced recruiters and hiring leaders.

AI insights may assist with organization and evaluation, but final decisions are always human-driven.

Your Rights as a Candidate:

At PTP, every candidate has the right to:

Request a non-AI interview path

Ask how your data is being used

Request access to transcripts or interview recordings

Request deletion of your AI-recorded interview

Receive clear, timely communication

Our goal is to ensure you feel respected, informed, and supported throughout your experience.

Our Commitment:

For more than 28 years, PTP has focused on putting people first candidates, consultants, employees, and clients.

We're committed to a hiring process that is:

• Transparent
• Compliant
• Equitable
• Powered by innovative technology that enhances not replaces human judgment

Welcome to the future of hiring at Peterson Technology Partners.

We're excited to learn more about you.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

Peterson Technology Partners is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.