Contract Machine Learning Engineer Jobs in Portland, OR

Lead AI and Data Science Engineer - Manager

Position Summary

Our Human Capital practice is at the forefront of transforming the nature of work. As converging forces reshape industries, our team uniquely addresses the complexities of work, workforce, and workplace dynamics. We leverage sector-specific insights and cross-domain perspectives to help organizations tackle their most challenging workforce issues and align talent strategies with their strategic visions. Our practice is renowned for making work better for humans and humans better at work. Be part of this exciting era of change and join us on this transformative journey.

Recruiting for this role ends on 08/30/2026.

Work you'll do

The Lead AI and Data Science Engineer - Manager will lead the data architecture and engineering delivery that enables AI/ML/GenAI solutions, ensuring data is trusted, secure, observable, and scalable from ingestion through consumption. You will design and operationalize modern data and retrieval foundations to support LLM-powered applications (e.g., Claude, GPT/Codex, Gemini) including patterns such as RAG, embeddings, vector search, and governed access to structured and unstructured data. You will manage day-to-day delivery with an onshore/offshore team, partnering with data science, ML engineering, and product stakeholders to translate use cases into production-ready pipelines and platforms with strong data governance, lineage, quality controls, and monitoring. This role blends hands-on technical leadership with delivery management and team development, driving consistent engineering standards and measurable outcomes in client environments.
Strategic Alignment and Vision
* Help define the AI/ML/GenAI technical direction and vision, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and digital transformation efforts.
* Translate the vision of business leaders into realistic technical implementations, while identifying misaligned initiatives and impractical use cases
Architectural Design
* Design end-to-end AI architectures, from data ingestion to model deployment, integrating with cloud and on-premises systems.
Design and Technology Selection
* Select appropriate technologies from a pool of open-source and commercial offerings, considering deployment models and integration with existing tools.
* Understand and contribute to MLOps and LLMOps, focusing on operational capabilities and infrastructure to deploy and manage machine learning models and large language models.
Research and Development
* Conduct research to provide technical solutions to scale AI/ML powered features for real-world challenges, making trade-offs based on quality, scalability, performance, and cost.
* Lead the development of AI models (e.g., machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision) and implement scalable AI solutions.
Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement
* Collaborate with Enterprise, Application, Data & DevOps teams, Data scientists, Machine Learning & GenAI Engineers, and Business teams to pilot use cases and discuss best design.
* Gather inputs from multiple stakeholders to align technical implementation with existing and future requirements.
Consulting & Advisory
* Serve as a technical advisor to leadership, providing insights on AI trends, potential business impacts, and implementation best practices.
Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement
* Be responsible for the successful execution of AI-powered applications using agile methodology.
* Audit AI tools and practices across data, models and software engineering, focusing on continuous improvement and feedback mechanisms.
* Contribute to standardizing CI/CD pipelines, user and service roles, and container creation, model consumption, testing, and deployment methodology based on business and security requirements.
Risk Management and Ethical Considerations
* Work closely with security and risk leaders to foresee and mitigate risks, ensuring ethical AI implementation and compliance with upcoming regulations.
* Address potential issues such as training data poisoning, AI model theft, and adversarial samples.
Product Strategy and Business Understanding
* Help AI product managers and business stakeholders understand the potential and limitations of AI when planning new products.
* Break down client problems and bring an understanding of leading technology, analytics methods, tools, and operating model approaches.
Tool Development and Data Management
* Build tools and capabilities that assist with data ingestion, feature engineering, data management, and organization.
* Design, implement, and maintain distributed computing solutions for data processing and model training, ensuring the security, scalability, and reliability of machine learning infrastructure.

A successful candidate would possess these skills:

• Ability to work independently and collaborate as part of a team
• Effective written and verbal communication skills
• Meticulous attention to detail and quality of work product
• Ability to build and sustain professional relationships
• Ability to lead projects or workstreams
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks in a fast-paced and dynamic environment
• Strong interpersonal skills and professional demeanor
• Ability to meet deadlines
• Ability to provide clear guidance to others

The team

HC Forward is a dedicated innovation partner accelerating the future of Human Capital by building market-aligned products, platforms, and services that apply AI, data, and engineering to modernize HR experiences and outcomes.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Data Science, Information Systems or related field.
• 6+ years of consulting experience leading delivery teams, including onshore and offshore team members
• 6+ years of experience gathering non-functional requirements and defining application architecture frameworks, including validation and testing deliverables
• 5+ years of experience working in an AI environment
• 5+ years of experience translating requirements into client ready design documents
• 5+ years of experience in software application architecture analysis, design, and delivery
• 5+ years of experience executing full system development life cycle implementations
• Ability to travel 0-25%, on average, based on the work you do and the clients and industries/sectors you serve.
• Limited immigration sponsorship may be available.

Preferred:

• Advanced degrees such as Masters or PhD are preferred
• Certifications in AI/ML technologies and Cloud platforms, such as AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty, Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer, Azure AI Engineer, Azure Data Scientist, or Azure Solutions Architect
• 5 + years of experience in Data Science, Statistics, and Machine Learning
  5+ years of experience in Generative AI/LLMs, preferably experienced in delivering and productionizing
• 5+ years of experience in machine learning model development, natural language processing, and data analysis; Experienced in Supervised and Unsupervised learning, feature engineering, model training, and deployment
• 5+ year of experience in implementing cloud-based AI/ML workloads on any of AWS, Microsoft and Azure.

The wage range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. At Deloitte, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is $141,200 to $278,300.

You may also be eligible to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing the program, whereby an award, if any, depends on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.

Deloitte is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the recruiting process, please direct your inquiries to the Global Call Center (GCC) at USTalentCICInbox@deloitte.com.

For more information about Human Capital, visit our landing page at:https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/careers/articles/join-deloitte-human-capital-consulting-jobs.html

#HCFY27 #IIOFY27

Lead AI and Data Science Engineer - Manager

Position Summary

Our Human Capital practice is at the forefront of transforming the nature of work. As converging forces reshape industries, our team uniquely addresses the complexities of work, workforce, and workplace dynamics. We leverage sector-specific insights and cross-domain perspectives to help organizations tackle their most challenging workforce issues and align talent strategies with their strategic visions. Our practice is renowned for making work better for humans and humans better at work. Be part of this exciting era of change and join us on this transformative journey.

Recruiting for this role ends on 08/30/2026.

Work you'll do

The Lead AI and Data Science Engineer - Manager will lead the data architecture and engineering delivery that enables AI/ML/GenAI solutions, ensuring data is trusted, secure, observable, and scalable from ingestion through consumption. You will design and operationalize modern data and retrieval foundations to support LLM-powered applications (e.g., Claude, GPT/Codex, Gemini) including patterns such as RAG, embeddings, vector search, and governed access to structured and unstructured data. You will manage day-to-day delivery with an onshore/offshore team, partnering with data science, ML engineering, and product stakeholders to translate use cases into production-ready pipelines and platforms with strong data governance, lineage, quality controls, and monitoring. This role blends hands-on technical leadership with delivery management and team development, driving consistent engineering standards and measurable outcomes in client environments.
Strategic Alignment and Vision
* Help define the AI/ML/GenAI technical direction and vision, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and digital transformation efforts.
* Translate the vision of business leaders into realistic technical implementations, while identifying misaligned initiatives and impractical use cases
Architectural Design
* Design end-to-end AI architectures, from data ingestion to model deployment, integrating with cloud and on-premises systems.
Design and Technology Selection
* Select appropriate technologies from a pool of open-source and commercial offerings, considering deployment models and integration with existing tools.
* Understand and contribute to MLOps and LLMOps, focusing on operational capabilities and infrastructure to deploy and manage machine learning models and large language models.
Research and Development
* Conduct research to provide technical solutions to scale AI/ML powered features for real-world challenges, making trade-offs based on quality, scalability, performance, and cost.
* Lead the development of AI models (e.g., machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision) and implement scalable AI solutions.
Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement
* Collaborate with Enterprise, Application, Data & DevOps teams, Data scientists, Machine Learning & GenAI Engineers, and Business teams to pilot use cases and discuss best design.
* Gather inputs from multiple stakeholders to align technical implementation with existing and future requirements.
Consulting & Advisory
* Serve as a technical advisor to leadership, providing insights on AI trends, potential business impacts, and implementation best practices.
Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement
* Be responsible for the successful execution of AI-powered applications using agile methodology.
* Audit AI tools and practices across data, models and software engineering, focusing on continuous improvement and feedback mechanisms.
* Contribute to standardizing CI/CD pipelines, user and service roles, and container creation, model consumption, testing, and deployment methodology based on business and security requirements.
Risk Management and Ethical Considerations
* Work closely with security and risk leaders to foresee and mitigate risks, ensuring ethical AI implementation and compliance with upcoming regulations.
* Address potential issues such as training data poisoning, AI model theft, and adversarial samples.
Product Strategy and Business Understanding
* Help AI product managers and business stakeholders understand the potential and limitations of AI when planning new products.
* Break down client problems and bring an understanding of leading technology, analytics methods, tools, and operating model approaches.
Tool Development and Data Management
* Build tools and capabilities that assist with data ingestion, feature engineering, data management, and organization.
* Design, implement, and maintain distributed computing solutions for data processing and model training, ensuring the security, scalability, and reliability of machine learning infrastructure.

A successful candidate would possess these skills:

• Ability to work independently and collaborate as part of a team
• Effective written and verbal communication skills
• Meticulous attention to detail and quality of work product
• Ability to build and sustain professional relationships
• Ability to lead projects or workstreams
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