Senior Lead Applied AI Scientist - Production ML & RAG

Lumen; Madison (WI); On-site; USD 152,000 - 253,000; Full time

Job summary

Lumen is seeking a highly technical, product-minded Senior Lead Applied AI Scientist to design, build, deploy, and continuously improve production-scale AI solutions across agents, generative AI, ML and related workloads.

You will partner with business, product, engineering, and technology leaders to translate high‑value opportunities into AI-powered solutions that deliver measurable business impact, with a hands-on, prototyping approach.

Qualifications

• Seven plus years of experience in applied AI, machine learning, or data science, including production AI deployments.
• Proven track record of delivering AI solutions that drive measurable business outcomes.
• Deep expertise in machine learning, statistics, experimentation, predictive analytics, and modern AI techniques.
• Hands-on experience building LLM, RAG, agentic, and machine learning solutions.
• Strong experience with AI evaluation, model performance optimization, responsible AI, and production monitoring.
• Proficiency in Python and modern AI/ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face, MLflow, or similar technologies.
• Experience with MLOps, LLMOps, cloud AI platforms, APIs, and software engineering best practices.
• Strong product mindset, problem-solving skills, and ability to communicate complex concepts with technical and business stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize AI solutions from concept through production deployment.
• Partner with business and product teams to identify opportunities, define success metrics, and validate value through rapid experimentation.
• Develop advanced AI systems leveraging machine learning, generative AI, retrieval, predictive modeling, and agentic architectures.
• Define evaluation frameworks and continuously improve quality, reliability, safety, performance, and cost.
• Partner with Engineering to deliver scalable, production-ready solutions using MLOps and LLMOps best practices.
• Contribute reusable frameworks, evaluation assets, and technical standards that accelerate AI adoption across the enterprise.
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance on complex AI initiatives.

Skills

Applied AI

Production AI deployments

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Hugging Face

MLOps

LLMOps

Data science

Education

Master's degree

PhD

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Hugging Face

MLflow

LLMOps tooling

Job description

Lumen is seeking a highly technical, product-minded Senior Lead Applied AI Scientist to design, build, deploy, and continuously improve production-scale AI solutions across agents, generative AI, ML and related workloads.

You will partner with business, product, engineering, and technology leaders to translate high‑value opportunities into AI-powered solutions that deliver measurable business impact, with a hands-on, prototyping approach.