Lead Data Scientist: Generative AI & LLM Systems

SoTalent; Raleigh (NC); On-site; USD 118,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual incentive eligibility

Job summary

SoTalent is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to lead Generative AI and advanced analytics initiatives across the organization. This senior role focuses on delivering scalable AI solutions, mentoring data scientists, and setting technical standards.

You'll guide projects from concept to production, work with stakeholders to translate complex AI capabilities into value, and ensure governance, security, and responsible-use practices while optimizing cost and performance.

Qualifications

• Significant professional experience in data science, ML, or applied AI.
• Proven experience leading complex data science or AI projects.
• Strong technical expertise across modern Generative AI and machine learning technologies.
• Experience working with LLMs, RAG architectures, semantic search, and AI-driven information retrieval.
• Experience leading or influencing technical teams and setting development standards.
• Proven ability to mentor, coach, and develop other data scientists and technical professionals.
• Experience managing projects involving customers or senior stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly to senior audiences.
• Strong collaborative approach and the ability to work across technical and business functions.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex data science and AI projects from development through production implementation.
• Act as a technical leader for analytical projects and communicate results to senior stakeholders.
• Lead code reviews and serve as a final technical approver for models and AI solutions before customer deployment.
• Establish and evaluate new frameworks, methodologies, development standards, and governance practices.
• Set a high technical standard for model development, experimentation, evaluation, and production deployment.
• Lead and mentor small- to medium-sized teams, both directly and through cross-functional influence.
• Provide technical guidance and act as a subject matter expert across advanced AI and data science initiatives.
• Develop and optimize large language model (LLM) solutions, including prompting, fine-tuning, and model adaptation.

Skills

Generative AI

Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Hybrid search

Embeddings

Knowledge graphs

Graph-enhanced AI

Agentic AI

Autonomous agents

AI evaluation

Human-in-the-loop

AI observability

Cost optimization

Data governance

Job description

SoTalent is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to lead Generative AI and advanced analytics initiatives across the organization. This senior role focuses on delivering scalable AI solutions, mentoring data scientists, and setting technical standards.

You'll guide projects from concept to production, work with stakeholders to translate complex AI capabilities into value, and ensure governance, security, and responsible-use practices while optimizing cost and performance.