Founding Data Science Lead — Build & Scale AI

Harnham; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Base salary up to $200,000

Annual bonus

Founding Data Science capacity

Ownership over roadmap

High leadership visibility

Hybrid Chicago work

Job summary

Harnham, a leading analytics consultancy, is recruiting a Data Science Lead to join as a founding hire in Chicago. You will shape the data strategy, lead end-to-end DS/ML projects, and work closely with senior stakeholders across the organization to drive measurable impact.

This is a hands-on leadership role offering significant ownership, flexibility to define the function, and the chance to build a scalable DS capability from the ground up in a hybrid Chicago environment.

Qualifications

• Significant professional experience delivering Data Science and machine learning solutions in commercial environments.
• Advanced Python and SQL skills.
• Strong experience building predictive and/or machine learning models from concept through implementation.
• Track record of tackling ambiguous, open-ended business problems and determining the right analytical approach.
• Experience partnering directly with senior business stakeholders and communicating technical concepts to non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Leading end-to-end Data Science and machine learning projects, from discovery and experimentation through deployment and measurement
• Identifying and prioritizing high-value opportunities for predictive analytics, ML, and AI across the business
• Building models and analytical solutions that directly influence commercial and operational decision-making
• Partnering with senior stakeholders to translate complex, open-ended business challenges into technical strategies
• Establishing best practices across modeling, experimentation, deployment, and Data Science development
• Influencing the future technical roadmap, tooling, and architecture of the function
• Acting as a senior technical voice while remaining highly hands-on with Python, SQL, and modern Data Science tooling
• Helping shape the team as the Data Science capability continues to scale

Skills

Python

SQL

Machine Learning

Problem Solving

Stakeholder management

Data Science leadership

Job description

Harnham, a leading analytics consultancy, is recruiting a Data Science Lead to join as a founding hire in Chicago. You will shape the data strategy, lead end-to-end DS/ML projects, and work closely with senior stakeholders across the organization to drive measurable impact.

This is a hands-on leadership role offering significant ownership, flexibility to define the function, and the chance to build a scalable DS capability from the ground up in a hybrid Chicago environment.