Senior Data Scientist: Systems Performance & Evaluation

Motional; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 149,000 - 199,000; Full time

Job summary

Motional is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to lead evaluation methodologies for the autonomous system, linking technical challenges to rigorous data-driven measures and to help validate performance across on-road and simulation data.

You will collaborate with Safety, Systems Engineering, and simulation teams to refine metrics, detect data drift, and design launch criteria informed by robust statistical analyses and machine learning methods.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of industry experience solving complex problems with large datasets.
• Bachelor's or higher degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, Robotics, Physics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field. Master's or PhD preferred.
• Strong Python and SQL skills, with demonstrated experience using data analysis libraries to work with large, complex datasets.
• Experience applying advanced statistical and ML methods to drive insights from large and complex data sets.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently with minimal guidance and drive projects from problem definition through to actionable results.
• Proven communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to explain technical findings clearly to engineering partners and leadership.
• Eager to learn new statistical and ML techniques and demonstrated willingness to teach.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of evaluation frameworks for the autonomous system.
• Collaborate with Safety and Systems Engineering to map metrics to safety standards and launch readiness.
• Ensure evaluation metrics are reliable for safety cases and launch decisions.
• Monitor metric reliability and data drift over time for trustworthiness of the evaluation ecosystem.
• Apply data-backed statistical methods for simulation and on-road data analysis.
• Develop new statistical analysis methods for AV performance data and mentor others.

Skills

Python

SQL

Data analysis

Statistics

ML methods

Communication

Independent work

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's or higher in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, Robotics, Physics, Mathematics

Master's or PhD preferred

Job description

Motional is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to lead evaluation methodologies for the autonomous system, linking technical challenges to rigorous data-driven measures and to help validate performance across on-road and simulation data.

You will collaborate with Safety, Systems Engineering, and simulation teams to refine metrics, detect data drift, and design launch criteria informed by robust statistical analyses and machine learning methods.