Data Scientist

BDO Canada; Ottawa; Hybrid; CAD 74,000 - 112,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading professional services firm is seeking a talented Data Scientist specializing in Data Analytics & Visualisation to enhance operational efficiency across the organization. The successful candidate will develop and maintain advanced Power BI dashboards, write complex SQL queries, and collaborate with business teams to translate data insights into actionable solutions. This position offers a dynamic environment fostering personal and professional growth, with an expected salary range of $74,000 to $112,000.

Benefits

Flexible benefits

Market-leading personal time off

Competitive compensation based on performance

Qualifications

• Must have a Bachelor's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, or related field.
• Must have advanced SQL skills with experience in writing complex queries.
• Hands-on experience with data modeling in Databricks is essential.

Responsibilities

• Design and build advanced Power BI dashboards for KPIs and metrics.
• Write complex SQL queries for data structuring and ETL processes.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate business questions into visual data stories.

Skills

Advanced proficiency in SQL

Expert-level skills in Power BI

Strong communication skills

Hands-on experience with Databricks

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Data Science or related field

Tools

Databricks

Power BI

Job description

Putting people first, every day

BDO is a firm built on a foundation of positive relationships with our people and our clients. Each day, our professionals provide exceptional service, helping clients with advice and insight they can trust. In turn, we offer an award‑winning environment that fosters a people‑first culture with a high priority on your personal and professional growth.

Your Opportunity

We are seeking a talented Data Scientist with a strong specialization in Data Analytics & Visualisation to join our Innovation and Change team. This is a replacement role and is pivotal in transforming raw data into actionable insights that enhance operational efficiency, support audit, tax, and advisory engagements, and enable data‑driven decision‑making across the firm.

As a member of the Data Analytics team, you will not just analyze data—you will be responsible for the "last mile" of our data strategy: translating complex internal data into sophisticated, interactive dashboards and data products for business users across the organization. You will work directly within our Databricks lakehouse and SQL data warehouses to architect data models, curated datasets, and predictive tools that enable firm‑wide insight generation.

Key Responsibilities

• Dashboard Development: Design, build, and maintain advanced Power BI dashboards that track firm KPIs, workforce utilisation, financial performance, and internal quality metrics. You will design user‑friendly visualisations that present complex data in ways that are accessible to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Data Modelling & Transformation: Write complex SQL queries and utilise Databricks to clean, aggregate and structure raw data for visualisation and data product layers. You will be responsible for the ETL processes required to collect and transform large datasets for reporting, analytics and predictive modelling use cases.
• Data Product Development & Maintenance: Design, build, and maintain curated data products – standardised, reusable, business‑ready datasets that serve as trusted sources of truth. Collaborate with business stakeholders to evolve data products based on emerging operational or analytical needs.
• Predictive Analytics & Modelling: Develop, test and deploy predictive models to support firm‑wide decision‑making and identify opportunities for optimisation. Monitor and maintain model accuracy and effectiveness over time, ensuring ongoing performance alignment with business needs.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Partner with internal Finance, HR, Market Intelligence and Business teams to gather requirements and translate non‑technical business questions into visual data stories.
• Communication & Storytelling: Clearly communicate technical analysis and results to stakeholders using data visualisations, reports and presentations, ensuring insights are actionable.
• Automation: Automate data refresh schedules and reporting workflows to replace manual Excel‑based processes. Ensure end‑to‑end reliability, monitoring and sustainability of automated pipelines.
• Governance: Ensure all internal data handling complies with our firm’s strict security, privacy and compliance standards. Maintain documentation for data models, data products, predictive models and analytical processes.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics or a related quantitative field.
• SQL Mastery: Advanced proficiency in SQL (window functions, CTEs, stored procedures) with a demonstrated ability to write complex queries, optimise performance and work with relational databases.
• Databricks: Hands‑on experience with Databricks for data engineering, modelling and analysis.
• Power BI: Expert‑level skills in Power BI, including DAX, Power Query (M) and managing workspaces/gateways.
• Communication: Strong ability to explain technical data insights to non‑technical accounting and finance professionals.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working within a Professional Services, Financial Services or CPA firm environment is an asset.
• Knowledge of Python for statistical analysis or scripting outside of Databricks.
• Familiarity with Azure cloud services (Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake).
• Experience with predictive modelling or machine learning concepts.

The expected range of compensation for this role is $74,000 to $112,000.

Why BDO?

Our people‑first approach to talent has earned us a spot among Canada’s Top 100 Employers for 2025. This recognition is a milestone we’re thrilled to add to our collection of awards for both experienced and student talent experiences.

Our firm is committed to providing an environment where you can be successful in the following ways:

• We enable you to engage with how we change and evolve, being a key contributor to the success and growth of BDO in Canada.
• We help you become a better professional within our services, industries and markets with extensive opportunities for learning and development.
• We support your achievement of personal goals outside of the office and making an impact on your community.

Giving back adds up: Where company meets community. BDO is actively involved in our communities by supporting local charity initiatives. We support staff with local and national events where you will be given the opportunity to contribute to your community.

Total rewards that matter: We pay for performance with competitive total cash compensation that recognises and rewards your contribution. We provide flexible benefits from day one and market‑leading personal time off policy. We are committed to supporting your overall wellness beyond working hours and provide reimbursement for wellness initiatives that fit your lifestyle.

Everyone counts: We believe every employee should have the opportunity to participate and succeed. Through leadership by our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leader, we are committed to a workplace culture of respect, inclusion and diversity. We recognise and celebrate the valuable differences among each of us, including race, religious beliefs, physical or mental disabilities, age, place of origin, marital status, family status, gender or gender identity and sexual orientation. If you require accommodation to complete the application process, please contact us.

Flexibility: All BDO personnel are expected to spend some of their time working in the office, at the client site and virtually unless accommodations or alternative work arrangements are in place. Our model is a blended approach designed to support the flexible needs of our people, the firm and our clients. It’s about creating work experiences that meet everyone’s needs and providing flexibility to adjust when, where and how we work to meet the expectations of our role.

Code of Conduct: Our Code of Conduct sets clear standards for how we conduct business. It reflects our shared values and commitments and includes guiding principles to help us make ethical decisions and maintain trust with each other, our clients and the public.

With your consent, BDO Canada may use AI technology (Microsoft Copilot) to transcribe during preliminary conversations, solely for the purpose of note‑taking and not for other purposes, such as resume review, evaluation or selection of candidates.

Ready to make your mark at BDO? Click “Apply now” to send your up‑to‑date resume to one of our Talent Acquisition Specialists.

To explore other opportunities at BDO, check out our careers page.