Applied Data Scientist - Forecasting & Decision Systems (Oahu)

We're looking for an experienced Senior Applied Data Scientist to lead the development of HFA's forecasting and decision-support capabilities.

Your primary focus will be building production-ready forecasting systems that improve purchasing, inventory planning, and operational decision-making across our business. You'll own projects from initial business problem through experimentation, deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement while working closely with Operations, Merchandising, Purchasing, Data Engineering, Business Intelligence, and Software Engineering to deliver practical solutions with measurable business impact.

If you enjoy solving complex business problems, building production machine learning systems, and seeing your work directly influence real-world operations, we'd love to meet you.

What You'll Do

• Lead the design, development, deployment, and ongoing improvement of HFA's demand forecasting systems.
• Build forecasting models that account for seasonality, promotions, stockouts, product life cycles, and changing customer demand.
• Develop production-quality Python and SQL solutions, APIs, automated pipelines, and monitoring systems.
• Build AI-assisted internal applications and analytical tools that support operational decision-making.
• Translate model outputs into practical recommendations for buyers, merchandisers, and operational leaders.
• Measure business outcomes and continuously improve forecasting performance.
• Partner with Data Engineering, Business Intelligence, and Software Engineering to deploy scalable production solutions.
• Explore optimization opportunities across inventory, routing, scheduling, purchasing, and workforce planning.
• Clearly communicate technical findings and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• 5+ years of experience building production machine learning, forecasting, or applied data science solutions.
• Demonstrated experience deploying models into live business environments.
• Strong Python and SQL development experience.
• Deep understanding of time-series forecasting and rigorous model evaluation.
• Experience building production software, APIs, pipelines, or internal applications.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools while maintaining strong engineering practices.
• Familiarity with Docker, CI/CD, model monitoring, version control, and production deployment.
• Ability to translate complex business challenges into measurable technical solutions.
• Excellent communication skills with both technical and business teams.
• Strong analytical thinking and sound judgment when choosing between simple and advanced modeling approaches.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating across multiple departments.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in one or more of the following is highly desirable:

• Grocery, food distribution, retail, merchandising, or supply chain forecasting
• Inventory optimization and replenishment planning
• Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, MLflow, or Snowpark
• Mathematical optimization (OR-Tools, Pyomo, Gurobi, CPLEX, or similar)
• Applied LLMs, AI agents, or AI-assisted business applications
• Computer vision or OCR technologies
• Experimentation, causal inference, or promotion effectiveness analysis
• Streamlit, Dash, React, or other internal application frameworks
• Logistics, transportation, warehouse, or multi-location operations

• Free healthcare coverage for Team Members
• Partial subsidy for family medical coverage
• 401(k) with company match and immediate vesting
• Paid Time Off, Holidays, and Floating Holidays
• Employee Assistance Program
• Horizon Day (Paid Community Volunteer Day)
• Wellness programs and gym membership discounts
• Career growth and leadership opportunities

At Hawaii Foodservice Alliance (HFA), we are proud to be Hawaii's largest locally owned supplier of perishable foods and logistics services, serving grocery stores, retailers, and businesses across the islands. As a local company, we are committed to the communities we serve and understand that the work we do starts with the people on our team. We believe in creating opportunities for growth, investing in our employees, and building long-term careers for those who grow with us. As we continue investing in technology and innovation, we're building advanced forecasting and AI-driven decision systems that improve how we order, move, and deliver products across Hawaii. This role will help shape the future of how HFA makes data-driven operational decisions., Why Join HFA? This is a unique opportunity to build a brand-new applied data science capability inside one of Hawaii's largest local companies. Rather than creating reports alone, your work will directly influence purchasing decisions, inventory levels, warehouse operations, merchandising, transportation, and customer service across the islands. You'll have the opportunity to build modern AI-powered decision systems using an established technology foundation that includes governed Snowflake data, production pipelines, internal applications, and cross-functional support from engineering and business teams. If you're excited about building practical AI solutions that solve meaningful business problems and deliver measurable operational impact, we'd love to hear from you.