Senior Data Scientist Engineer

Four Sea Group, Inc.; South Dakota; On-site; USD 194,000 - 262,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

ESOP ownership

Generous PTO

Medical stipend

Health insurance

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

Life insurance

Disability coverage

Job summary

Four Sea Group, Inc. is seeking a Senior Data Scientist Engineer to lead the design, deployment, and governance of advanced AI/ML solutions for mission-focused environments. You will guide model development, ensure reliability, and mentor engineers across teams in production-ready pipelines.

The role requires 10+ years of ML experience, leadership in high-stakes settings, and proficiency with Python and major ML libraries. A TS/SCI with CI poly is required at application.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in a quantitative field.
• 10+ years designing, training, and deploying ML models.
• Active TS/SCI clearance with CI Polygraph.
• Experience leading AI/ML efforts in high-consequence environments.
• Proficiency with Python and common ML libraries.

Responsibilities

• Lead development, training, optimization, and deployment of AI/ML models.
• Define approaches for model validation, explainability, monitoring, and lifecycle.
• Build data ingestion, retraining, and delivery pipelines.
• Operationalize ML models in production and integrate with DevSecOps workflows.
• Monitor performance, drift detection, and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with analysts and engineers to align with mission needs.
• Guide decisions on model performance, interpretability, and deployment tradeoffs.
• Review code and mentor mid-level engineers.
• Contribute to governance of production ML execution.

Skills

ML model development

Production ML

Model validation

Explainability

Python + libraries

Cross-team collaboration

Communication skills

Mentoring engineers

Independent work

DoD/IC experience

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in a quantitative field

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Scikit-learn

XGBoost

Spark

Ray

Dask

MLflow

Docker

Jupyter

Git

Confluence

Job description

About the role

We are seeking a Senior Data Scientist Engineer to lead the design, development, and deployment of advanced AI/ML solutions supporting complex mission and operational environments. This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who can operate independently in ambiguous technical settings, guide high-impact model development, and help translate raw data into actionable intelligence through scalable, production-ready machine learning solutions.

The ideal candidate brings deep experience in applied machine learning, strong technical judgment, and the ability to collaborate across engineering and analyst teams while mentoring other engineers and improving the reliability, explainability, and operational readiness of deployed models.

What you'll do

• Lead development, training, optimization, and deployment of advanced AI/ML models in support of mission and operational objectives.
• Define and implement technical approaches for model development, validation, explainability, monitoring, and lifecycle management.
• Build and improve automated data ingestion, curation, retraining, and model delivery pipelines to support long-term adaptability and performance.
• Operationalize machine learning models in production environments and support integration with broader software and DevSecOps workflows.
• Monitor model performance, implement drift detection and testing approaches, and improve reliability through continuous evaluation and optimization.
• Collaborate with analysts, mission experts, software engineers, and other stakeholders to validate model outputs and align solutions to operational needs.
• Guide technical decision-making related to model performance, interpretability, reproducibility, and deployment tradeoffs.
• Review code, mentor mid-level engineers, and promote strong engineering practices across the team.
• Contribute to continuous improvement in data science methodology, model governance, and production ML execution.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in a quantitative discipline such as statistics, mathematics, operations research, engineering, computer science, or a related technical field.
• 10+ years of relevant experience designing, training, and deploying machine learning models in complex technical environments.
• Active TS/SCI clearance with CI Polygraph required at time of application.
• Experience leading complex AI/ML efforts and operating independently in technically ambiguous, high-consequence environments.
• Strong experience with supervised, unsupervised, and ensemble modeling approaches, including neural network-based methods.
• Experience developing and deploying production machine learning solutions, not just research prototypes.
• Experience with model validation, performance monitoring, explainability, and reproducibility practices.
• Proficiency with Python and common data science and machine learning libraries/frameworks.
• Experience collaborating across engineering, analyst, and operational stakeholders to align models to mission needs.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in deep learning approaches such as CNNs, RNNs, Transformers, or semi-supervised learning methods.
• Proficiency with frameworks and libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, XGBoost, or similar tools.
• Familiarity with distributed data or compute frameworks including Spark, Ray, or Dask.
• Working knowledge of ML lifecycle and deployment tooling such as MLflow, DVC, Docker, or similar environments.
• Knowledge of model monitoring, A/B testing, drift detection, and long-term production support practices.
• Analytical depth in areas such as causal inference, signal data processing, experiment design, or model interpretability approaches including SHAP or LIME.
• Comfort working in Agile or DevSecOps environments using tools such as Git, Jupyter Notebooks, Confluence, or similar collaboration platforms.
• Demonstrated success mentoring engineers or guiding technical work in applied AI/ML environments.
• Prior work in the DoD or Intelligence Community supporting mission-critical data science applications.
• Exposure to enterprise AI initiatives, production ML governance, or high-consequence analytical systems.

Salary: The salary range for this role is $193,700.00 - 262,000.00 per year. The salary range provided is a good faith estimate representative of all experience levels. Four Sea Group, Inc. considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role, function and associated responsibilities, a candidate's work experience, location, education/training, key skills, and market conditions.

Application Deadline: This position is expected to remain open through August 31st, 2026. The company may adjust this deadline based on business needs and will update the posting as appropriate.

Benefits: FSG is 100% ESOP-owned, which means our employees share directly in the company's growth. We offer competitive compensation, a strong employer-funded retirement plan, generous PTO and flexible time-off options, comprehensive health, dental, vision, life, short-term disability, and long-term disability benefits, plus a generous medical stipend that gives employees more choice and flexibility. Our model is intentionally built to keep more value with employees through salary, retirement, benefits, and ownership. You will work alongside experienced engineers and technical leaders on meaningful defense, space, software, systems, and mission support work, with room to grow as a technical expert, mentor, program contributor, or future leader.
EEO Statement: Four Sea Group is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, marital or familial status, age, disability, veteran status, militaryserviceor application for military service.