Hybrid Data Scientist I: AI for Social Science Research

NORC at the University of Chicago; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental and vision insurance

Retirement plan (403(b))

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

NORC at the University of Chicago seeks a Data Scientist I to join the Methodology and Quantitative Social Sciences department, supporting research, analytics, and AI initiatives. The role blends data management, statistical modeling, ML, and computational social science to improve research outcomes and decision making.

You will work with methodologists and engineers to design AI-powered applications, fine-tune models, build RAG solutions, develop prompts, and monitor performance, with hybrid

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a computational field with social science emphasis.
• At least 4 years of relevant experience.
• Strong Python proficiency.
• Experience with SQL and relational databases.
• Experience in ML with real‑world datasets.
• Experience with Git and collaborative workflows.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with methodologists and experts to design, deploy AI-enabled apps.
• Fine-tune or customize ML/LLM models for domain tasks.
• Build RAG solutions using vector databases and semantic search.
• Develop prompt engineering strategies and evaluation frameworks.
• Implement model monitoring, testing, and optimization processes.
• Apply NLP for text classification, extraction, summarization, and content analysis.
• Support experimentation with AI agents, tool calling, and workflow automation.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Skills

Python

SQL

Git

Statistical analysis

Machine learning

Data pipelines

Cloud environments

Communication skills

Analytical thinking

Software development

Education

Bachelor's degree in computational social science, data science, computer science or related quantitative field with social science emphasis

Tools

Version control (Git)

NLP tools

Vector databases

Lang models tuning

Job description

NORC at the University of Chicago seeks a Data Scientist I to join the Methodology and Quantitative Social Sciences department, supporting research, analytics, and AI initiatives. The role blends data management, statistical modeling, ML, and computational social science to improve research outcomes and decision making.

You will work with methodologists and engineers to design AI-powered applications, fine-tune models, build RAG solutions, develop prompts, and monitor performance, with hybrid