Entry Level Meta Data Science Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary:
First Solar is a leading company in solar energy technology, and they are seeking a Scientist for Data Research and Development. The role involves supporting large scale statistical experiment design and analysis, serving as a lead statistician for project teams, and providing expertise in data science techniques to generate insights.
Responsibilities:
• While assigned to a Development Program, serve as statistical expert and work with Technical, Operations and Process Engineering Teams to achieve program goals via research, modeling, experiment design and analysis.
• Gain deep understanding of program objectives, learning the physics behind the processes to know current and predict future Program Team needs.
• Help Team define an experiment’s statement of intent, reviewing previous responses and assuring factor estimability is understood.
• Systematic review of prior experimentation to find relevant, high-quality data, while accounting for variability in study approach, sample size, execution, environment, etc.
• Standardize and weight prior research to build new predictive models to guide Program experimentation.
• Understand experimenter’s needs and develop custom experiment design to efficiently create insight.
• Exhaustively evaluate experiment design and resulting model.
• Work with Program Partners to define and prepare datasets for modeling.
• Monitor many data streams and feedback data quality to Program Teams.
• Be the data forensics Program Lead, data mining root cause of un-intended processing artifacts.
• Explore data using a variety of statistical (e.g., data mining, regression, cluster analysis, partitioning, PCA) techniques to answer research questions and guide future experiments.
• Synthesize independent experiment findings into overall treatment effects.
• Prepare testing scenarios and test model performance against new results, subsets, etc.
• Clearly and concisely communicate analysis and modeling results to business partners, supporting socialization and adoption of results into business activities and decisions.
• Perform Program meta-analysis, putting the newest experiment in context with history, highlighting key abnormalities, consistencies, and correlations.
• Define data structures and systems that will institutionalize improvements and lower the bar for analysis across the organization.
• Hone and proliferate the craft of cross-experiment meta-analysis in Research & Development.
• Assist in development of standard analytical approaches and methodologies for the department.
• Apply advanced statistical techniques, including analysis of variance, t-tests, factor analysis, regression, multivariate analyses, PCA or simulation, to analyze the effects of experimentation.
• Provide guidance and direction related to statistical analysis to less experienced Research & Development staff as needed.
• Provide peer review related to analytics methods and results.
• Work closely with Development Technical Teams to identify and answer critical questions.
• Identify and scope new opportunities for statistical analysis applications and scripting.
• Proactively research and leverage new statistical techniques and technologies to apply and teach.
• Develop and lead training sessions for advanced Data Science & Statistics concepts.
• Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
Required:
• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Data Science, or similar technical discipline, and 5 years of relevant technical experience or 2 years of experience as an Engineer- Analytics R&D at First Solar.
• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Data Science, or similar technical discipline, and 3 years of relevant technical experience or 2 years of experience as an Engineer- Analytics R&D at First Solar.
• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Data Science, or similar technical discipline, without prior technical work experience.
• Deep understanding of Design of Experiments.
• Meta-analysis and systematic research review.
• Data forensics and partitioning on large data sets.
• Data Wrangling: preparation, mapping, and transformation.
• Structured and unstructured data sets.
• Executive level storytelling with data visualization.
• Impart clarity when communicating complex data relationships.
• Linear Algebra: Matrix Algebra and eigenvalues/vectors.
• Passion to learn new areas of study (device physics learning will be intensive).
• High emotional intelligence.
• Bravery to speak a dissenting opinion or present evidence against current belief.
• Skilled in a structured problem-solving method (such as DMAIC, A3, 5 Whys, etc.).
• Extensive understanding of Probability and Inferential Statistics as well as visual display of these concepts.
• Expert at building predictive models and utilizing advanced statistical analysis, including generalized linear models, decision trees, PCA, logistic and multivariate regression.
• Deep knowledge of statistical and modeling software tools and scripting languages such as JMP, SAS, Python, SPSS, or R to manipulate data and draw insights from large data sets.
• Experience with Microsoft environment: Windows OS, Office 365, Teams, SharePoint, etc.
Preferred:
• Previous R&D, PV, or Semiconductor experience helpful, but not necessary.
Company:
First Solar manufactures thin film photovoltaic modules and provides PV power plants and supporting services. Founded in 1999, the company is headquartered in Tempe, USA, with a team of 5001-10000 employees. The company is currently Late Stage.