Data Science Manager

The Data Science Manager is a player-coach who leads a small, high-output team while staying deeply hands-on. This role owns the full scope of data science at Appriss Retail - data engineering, governance, and production model delivery - not just model building. The right candidate has built and shipped real data platforms and AI/ML systems using a modern stack, has meaningful experience with LLMs and agentic architectures, and can operate credibly in both the technical weeds and the business conversation.

This is not a role for someone who manages from a distance. You will write code, review pipelines, define data contracts, and drive architectural decisions - while also growing and directing the team around you.

Essential Duties

Technical leadership & delivery

• Own end-to-end delivery of high-impact data science projects - from ambiguous business request to production-ready system.

• Design and maintain data pipelines, data models, and governance standards alongside your team; treat infrastructure as a first-class product concern.

• Build, evaluate, and iterate on ML models in production; lead experimentation rigor, monitoring, and lifecycle management.

• Architect and ship LLM-integrated features and agentic workflows - including prompt engineering, tool use, and output evaluation.

• Guide cloud infrastructure architecture for data science projects, taking into account performance, maintenance, and cost criteria.

• Set the standard for code quality: write production-grade Python and SQL, enforce review practices, and maintain documentation.

• Partner closely with engineering to integrate models and pipelines into core product infrastructure.

People & team

• Directly manage 2-4 data scientists; provide technical mentorship, career development, and clear performance expectations.

• Define team operating norms: sprint planning, code review, documentation, and delivery accountability.

• Recruit and grow the team as the function scales.

Strategy & stakeholders

• Translate ambiguous business problems into well-scoped analytical and modeling work with defined success criteria.

• Partner with product, engineering, and business stakeholders to ensure data work is grounded in real source systems and product context - not isolated analysis.

• Contribute to the data and analytics roadmap, balancing near-term delivery with longer-term platform investment.

• Communicate clearly to non-technical audiences; influence decisions with data and model outputs.

• Master’s degree in a quantitative field, or bachelor’s with significant professional experience.

• 6+ years of experience in data science, data engineering, or a closely related technical discipline.

• 1+ year of direct people management or formal technical lead experience over a team.

Technical skills - required

• Expert-level SQL and Python; production code, not just analysis scripts.

• Deep understanding of data infrastructure: pipelines, warehousing, data modeling, and source system behavior.

• Hands-on ML experience: model training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and iteration.

• Strong software engineering practices: version control, code review, testing, and CI/CD familiarity.

• Ability to scope and deliver complex analytical projects independently from vague inputs.

• Cloud data platform experience: Snowflake, Azure (preferred), AWS, or GCP.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency with modern data stack tooling: dbt, Airflow, Spark, or equivalent.

• Demonstrated LLM experience: prompt engineering, RAG, fine-tuning, or agent frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, or equivalent)

• Experience and familiarity with agentic AI architectures: multi-step reasoning, tool use, memory, and orchestration.

• Experience in retail, fraud detection, or transaction-level data at scale.

• Familiarity with ML platform tooling: MLflow, feature stores, model registries, or similar., Amazon Web Services (AWS), Analysis Skills, Architectural Services, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Career Development, Cloud Architecture, Cloud Computing, Coaching, Code Reviews, Communication Skills, Computer Programming, Continuous Deployment/Delivery, Continuous Integration, Data Analysis, Data Management, Data Modeling, Data Science, Data Warehousing, Documentation, GCP (Good Clinical Practices), Leadership, Machine Tool, Memory Hardware, Mentoring, Microsoft Windows Azure, People Management, Product Engineering, Production Systems, Python Programming/Scripting Language, Retail, SQL (Structured Query Language), Scripting (Scripting Languages), Snowflake Schema, Software Engineering, Source Code/Configuration Management (SCM), Sprint Planning, Technical Delivery, Technical Leadership, Testing, Willing to Travel

At Appriss Retail, we offer a competitive and comprehensive benefits package designed to support your well-being at work and beyond. Benefits begin on your first day and include multiple medical plan options, dental and vision coverage, health savings and flexible spending accounts, paid parental leave, and supplemental coverage for life’s unexpected moments. We offer generous paid time off, a 401(k) with immediate vesting and company match, short- and long-term disability, and free access to health and wellbeing resources such as Calm and Sworkit. You’ll also have access to learning and development opportunities to help you grow your career. Our benefits support your well-being so you can perform your best in every part of life.