Data Scientist / Applied ML Engineer

Job#: 3044476

Job Description:
Data Scientist / Applied ML Engineer

Location: Newport Beach, California (Onsite)

Role Overview

As a Data Scientist / Applied ML Engineer, you will design, develop, and operationalize enterprise forecasting capabilities that power critical planning and decision-making, with a heavier focus on the applied ML engineer aspects of the role. You will own the full machine learning lifecycle-from business requirements, feature engineering, and model development through production deployment and continuous improvement. This role is a contract position with the potential for conversion to a full-time employee. A strong culture fit and good social skills are as important as technical skills for this team.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and implement scalable time series forecasting solutions supporting enterprise planning initiatives.
• Research, evaluate, and implement advanced statistical, machine learning, and deep learning forecasting methodologies.
• Design reusable feature engineering frameworks and forecasting methodologies that can be leveraged across multiple business domains.
• Develop production-grade machine learning pipelines, inference services, and reusable forecasting software components.
• Develop modular Python libraries, reusable forecasting frameworks, and feature pipelines to accelerate future development.
• Build scalable production data products by integrating internal and external demand drivers.
• Develop automated model validation, monitoring, and performance reporting capabilities.
• Partner with Data Engineering, Architecture, and Platform teams to design and implement scalable cloud-native forecasting architectures.
• Develop production-quality software using object-oriented programming principles and software engineering best practices.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver forecasting initiatives from concept through production deployment.

Required Qualifications

Education: A BA/BS in Statistics, Mathematics, Operations Research, Economics, Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, or a related quantitative discipline is required. A Master's degree is preferred.

Experience: Candidates should have 3-5+ years of experience designing and developing machine learning or time series forecasting solutions (or 2+ years with a quantitative Master's degree). Experience should be in supporting business planning, retail, supply chain, demand planning, or related analytical domains. The ideal candidate will be at a mid to senior level, but junior-level candidates will also be considered.

Technical Skills: Strong proficiency with SQL and Python for software development, data engineering, feature engineering, and production forecasting applications is required. Candidates must have experience designing, developing, deploying, and monitoring production machine learning solutions using modern software engineering and MLOps practices. Strong software engineering fundamentals including object-oriented programming, version control (Git), and automated testing are necessary.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting retail forecasting, demand planning, supply chain optimization, labor planning, or inventory optimization.
• Experience with forecasting frameworks such as Prophet, ARIMA/SARIMA, State Space Models, XGBoost, LightGBM, or Temporal Fusion Transformers.
• Experience with Databricks, Snowflake, Spark, dbt, Azure Data Factory, or MLflow.
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines, model registries, feature stores, and production model monitoring frameworks.
• Experience designing APIs, reusable Python packages, or cloud-native machine learning applications.
• Experience with BI platforms (such as Power BI) for communicating forecasting results.

Work Environment

This position requires the candidate to be onsite in Newport Beach, CA. The standard work arrangement is 4 days per week onsite and 1 day working from home, with potential flexibility for an additional remote day based on team needs.

Everforth Apex is a world-class IT services company that serves thousands of clients across the globe. When you join Everforth Apex, you become part of a team that values innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning. We offer quality career resources, training, certifications, development opportunities, and a comprehensive benefits package. Our commitment to excellence is reflected in many awards, including ClearlyRateds Best of Staffing in Talent Satisfaction in the United States and Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom and Mexico.

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Everforth Apex Benefits Overview: Everforth Apex offers a range of supplemental benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and other insurance plans that offer an optional layer of financial protection. We offer an ESPP (employee stock purchase program) and a 401K program which allows you to contribute typically within 30 days of starting, with a company match after 12 months of tenure. Everforth Apex also offers a HSA (Health Savings Account on the HDHP plan), a SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with up to 8 free counseling sessions, a corporate discount savings program and other discounts. In terms of professional development, Everforth Apex hosts an on-demand training program, provides access to certification prep and a library of technical and leadership courses/books/seminars once you have 6+ months of tenure, and certification discounts and other perks to associations that include CompTIA and IIBA. Everforth Apex has a dedicated customer service team for our Consultants that can address questions around benefits and other resources, as well as a certified Career Coach. You can access a full list of our benefits, programs, support teams and resources within our 'Welcome Packet' as well, which an Everforth Apex team member can provide.

Everforth Apex Systems is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate or allow discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, genetic information, registered domestic partner status, marital status, disability, status as a crime victim, protected veteran status, political affiliation, union membership, or any other characteristic protected by law. Everforth Apex will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable law.

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