Staff Data Scientist - GM Motorsports

3M HEALTHCARE; Concord (NC); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation benefits

Hybrid work arrangement

Job summary

General Motors' Motorsports organization seeks a Staff Data Scientist to lead data science, ML, and analytics across NASCAR, IndyCar, and other racing programs. You will partner with race engineers and IT to translate racing questions into scalable models and production-ready analytics.

You will mentor a team of data scientists, drive the end‑to‑end ML lifecycle, and advance governance, reproducibility, and impact on race weekend decisions and vehicle development.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of hands‑on data science/ML experience with leadership of projects or initiatives.
• Experience in complex, high‑stakes domains (e.g., motorsports, automotive, aerospace, manufacturing).
• Bachelor’s degree in CS/Data Science or related field; Master’s/PhD preferred for advanced modeling.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction for data science in motorsports and mentor junior and senior data scientists.
• Define and evolve the data science roadmap for GM Motorsports in alignment with priorities.
• Architect end‑to‑end ML solutions from data ingestion to model deployment and monitoring.
• Establish best practices in experimental design, model development, validation, and MLOps.
• Lead high‑visibility projects from problem framing through delivery, including race strategy models and telemetry analytics.
• Translate racing and business questions into clear analytical plans and success criteria.
• Own technical decision‑making, including method selection and risk mitigation.
• Partner with race engineers and program leaders to identify valuable AI/ML opportunities.
• Build models and tools supporting weekend decision‑making and long‑term performance analysis.
• Ensure solutions are robust, interpretable, and integrated into existing workflows.
• Provide mentorship and code/analysis review for teammates.

Skills

Python

Statistical modeling

MLOps

Mentoring

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/related field

Master’s or PhD in quantitative field

Tools

Azure

Kubernetes

Feature stores

CI/CD for ML

Job description

Job Description

The Staff Data Scientist is a senior technical leader responsible for driving the design, delivery, and adoption of advanced analytics and machine learning solutions across NASCAR, IndyCar, and other GM racing programs. This role sits within Motorsports Product and Machine Intelligence and partners closely with race engineering, vehicle performance, strategy, and IT to turn data into competitive advantage on and off the track.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction for data science in motorsports; mentor junior and senior data scientists; own high‑impact initiatives from concept through production and operationalization.
• Define and evolve the data science roadmap for GM Motorsports in alignment with program and competition priorities.
• Architect end‑to‑end ML and analytical solutions (from data ingestion and feature engineering to model deployment and performance monitoring).
• Establish and enforce best practices in experimental design, model development, validation, and MLOps within the team.
• Lead high‑visibility projects (e.g., race strategy models, performance prediction, simulation, telemetry analytics, audio/vision‑based models) from problem framing through delivery.
• Translate ambiguous racing and business questions into clear problem statements, analytical plans, and measurable success criteria.
• Own technical decision‑making, including method selection, trade‑offs, and risk mitigation.
• Partner with race engineers, competition leaders, and program managers to identify the most valuable AI/ML opportunities.
• Build models and tools that directly support race weekend decision‑making, vehicle development, and long‑term performance analysis.
• Ensure solutions are usable in real workflows: robust, interpretable where needed, and integrated into existing tools and systems.
• Provide technical mentorship and code/analysis review for junior and senior data scientists.
• Raise the bar on engineering rigor (testing, reproducibility, documentation, model monitoring).
• Help define career paths, skill expectations, and standards for the data science discipline within GM Motorsports.
• Communicate complex analytical concepts and model behavior to non‑technical stakeholders in clear, actionable terms.
• Work cross‑functionally with data engineering, software engineering, IT, and program leadership to deliver integrated solutions.
• Contribute to a culture of experimentation, learning, and evidence‑based decisions.
• Champion data quality, governance, and responsible AI practices in model development and deployment.
• Contribute to and help maintain shared libraries, templates, and tooling that accelerate future projects.
• Support documentation and knowledge‑sharing across teams and programs.

Required Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related quantitative field (equivalent experience considered).
• Typically 7+ years of hands‑on experience in data science / machine learning roles, with significant experience leading projects or initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience in complex, high‑stakes domains (e.g., motorsports, automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, or similar).

Technical Skills

• Expert‑level proficiency in Python and core data/ML libraries (e.g., NumPy, pandas, scikit‑learn, PyTorch, and/or TensorFlow).
• Strong foundation in statistical modeling, machine learning, and experimental design.
• Experience building and deploying production ML systems (CI/CD for ML, model serving, monitoring).
• Proficiency with SQL and working with large, complex datasets (telemetry, time series, logs, sensor data, etc.).
• Familiarity with cloud platforms and modern data stacks (e.g., Azure, Kubernetes, feature stores, ML pipelines).

Motorsports / Automotive

• Experience with time‑series telemetry, simulation data, race strategy, or vehicle performance analysis is strongly preferred.
• Ability to quickly learn and reason about race engineering concepts and constraints (e.g., setup, tire strategy, fuel, aero, regulations).

Soft Skills

• Proven ability to lead without authority, influence technical direction, and drive outcomes across teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present to engineering leaders and executives.
• Track record of mentoring and developing other data scientists.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or Ph.D. in a quantitative field (equivalent experience considered).
• Prior experience in motorsports (NASCAR, IndyCar, F1, WEC, etc.) or high‑performance automotive programs.
• Experience with audio processing, computer vision, or multimodal modeling applied to noisy real‑world data.
• Hands‑on experience with vector search, embeddings, and retrieval‑augmented systems.
• Experience designing real‑time or near‑real‑time analytics/ML systems supporting operational decisions.
• Contributions to internal tooling, open‑source projects, or technical publications.

Employment and Work Conditions

• GM does not provide immigration‑related sponsorship for this role.
• This role is categorized as hybrid: the selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location at least 3 times a week (or other frequency dictated by their manager).
• This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity

General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers. All employment decisions are made on a non‑discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws.

Accommodations

General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us or call us at 1-800-865-7580. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.