Data Scientist

Zest for Tech; Washington; On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Full health coverage

Generous PTO

Job summary

Zest for Tech in Washington DC is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to develop AI products with social impact. You will lead model development, training, evaluation, and production deployment in collaboration with engineering and product teams.

You will apply modern ML techniques, emphasize rigorous experimentation, and drive measurable improvements using Python and PyTorch in a hands-on, office-based role.

Qualifications

• Experience in data science or applied machine learning.
• Hands-on ML training, fine-tuning, and validation.
• Proficiency with Python and modern ML frameworks.
• Rigorous, detail-oriented approach to experimentation.

Responsibilities

• Build, train, and evaluate machine learning models for real world use cases.
• Apply AI techniques such as classification, document understanding, and extraction to production systems.
• Experiment with and adapt models from open source and vendor ecosystems.
• Partner with engineering and product teams to deploy and iterate on models.
• Improve automation and drive measurable system improvements.

Skills

Data science

Applied ML

Model validation

Experimentation

Python programming

Tools

Python

PyTorch

ML tooling

Data infrastructure

Job description

Senior Data Scientist - Washington DC - $150k-$210k

We are partnered with an established start up building AI products that deliver real social impact. Their work focuses on using technology to improve outcomes for underserved communities, and they are expanding their engineering and data teams as they scale. They have been profitable for the past three years and continue to invest heavily in applied AI across their platform.

This role is focused on applying machine learning and modern AI techniques to real world problems, taking models from experimentation through to production, and directly influencing how AI powered features are designed, evaluated, and improved over time.

What you will do

• Build, train, and evaluate machine learning models for real world use cases
• Apply AI techniques such as classification, document understanding, and extraction to production systems
• Experiment with and adapt models from open source and vendor ecosystems
• Partner closely with engineering and product teams to deploy and iterate on models
• Improve automation, reduce manual processes, and drive measurable system improvements

What you will bring

• Strong experience in data science or applied machine learning
• Hands on experience training, fine tuning, and validating ML models
• Comfort working with Python and modern ML frameworks
• A rigorous and detail oriented approach to experimentation and evaluation
• Motivation to work on problems with clear real world and social impact

Location: Washington DC - 4 days / week in the office

Comp: $150k-$210k

Stack: Python, PyTorch or similar, ML tooling, modern data infrastructure

Perks: full health coverage and generous PTO