Lead Data Scientist

Requirements:

• 8+ years of applied machine learning or data science experience, including building and deploying multiple models used by customers.
• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction for data science, including selecting approaches, tools, and standards adopted by others.
• Experience mentoring, coaching, or leading data scientists or engineers, formally or as a technical lead.
• Deep expertise in at least one of time-series forecasting, anomaly detection, or optimization using noisy real-world data, supported by strong statistics, experimental design, and model evaluation skills.
• Expert Python and SQL skills, with the ability and willingness to build models hands-on.
• Working knowledge of LLM and generative AI systems, particularly evaluation methods such as test-set design, metrics, human labeling, and error analysis.
• Experience with fast-moving software development practices that emphasize experimentation, testing, customer validation, and responsible production delivery.
• A record of turning ambiguous problems into shipped products in partnership with domain experts, product, and engineering teams; influencing executives and stakeholders; and communicating candidly when an approach is unlikely to work.
• A degree in a quantitative field or equivalent practical experience; an advanced degree is welcome but not required.
• Preferred: Oil, gas, energy, or industrial experience; SCADA/IIoT or geospatial data experience; experience labeling or evaluating document-extraction systems; familiarity with Databricks, Spark, Azure, AWS, MLflow, or similar MLOps tools; experience hiring data scientists or establishing an early-stage data science function; or experience on cross-functional innovation teams that take prototypes to customers.

Responsibilities:

• Work with experts across Land, Production, Accounting, and Transportation to turn customer challenges into measurable data science problems and assess their potential value.
• Build forecasting, anomaly detection, optimization, and predictive models using production, SCADA/IIoT, accounting, transportation, and geospatial data, from initial analysis through prototype.
• Design experiments, offline evaluations, and pilot success measures; assess results and recommend when an idea should be discontinued.
• Partner with the Lead Applied AI Engineer on generative AI and agentic initiatives by providing data, designing evaluations, and contributing statistical and machine learning models.
• Collaborate with solution engineers on customer pilots and define data, monitoring, and MLOps needs for production handoff of the models you own.
• Work with engineering teams after deployment to monitor models, detect drift, assess performance, and drive ongoing improvements.
• Establish the Labs data science direction, tools, and standards for data quality, experimentation, reproducibility, and responsible machine learning, while strengthening data fluency across the team.
• Document the Labs data science practices, coach and mentor colleagues, and help shape future roles and hiring plans as the function grows.

Technologies:

• AI
• AWS
• Azure
• Databricks
• Support
• LLM
• Machine Learning
• MLflow
• MLOps
• Python
• SQL
• Spark
• Cloud
• Embedded
• Mobile

More

We are PakEnergy, whose products support the land, production, accounting, and transportation operations of more than 2,300 oil and gas companies. We are expanding our use of AI and establishing the PakEnergy Innovation Lab to identify valuable customer problems, develop prototypes using operational energy data, and bring successful solutions into production. We have already launched AI applications for lease analysis, transportation paperwork, and plunger-lift well optimization. As the Labs founding data science and machine learning lead, you will work alongside product-domain experts, a Lead Applied AI Engineer, and solution engineers, report directly to our Chief Product Officer, and help shape our Pak AI roadmap. The position is based in our offices in Frisco, Texas, or Calgary, Alberta. We offer a casual business environment, generous paid time off, employer-sponsored health benefits, and a retirement savings plan, including a 401(k) in the United States. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds; applicants who do not meet every listed qualification are encouraged to apply.

last updated 43 week of 2026