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Lead Data Scientist Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Smarsh

Lead Data Scientist

New York, NY · On-site +1

Summary As a Lead Data Scientist (NLP & Financial Compliance) at Smarsh , you will spearhead the development of state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) and large language model (LLM ...

Inspire Brands

Lead Data Scientist

Atlanta, GA · On-site

The Lead Data Scientist is recognized as an expert within thecompany;progression to this level is typically restrictedon the basis ofbusiness requirements.Solves unique and complex problems with ...

Smarsh

Lead Data Scientist

Atlanta, GA · Remote

$166K - $214K/yr

Summary As a Lead Data Scientist (NLP & Financial Compliance) at Smarsh , you will spearhead the development of state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) and large language model (LLM ...

Inspire Brands

Lead Data Scientist

Atlanta, GA

The Lead Data Scientist is recognized as an expert within thecompany;progression to this level is typically restrictedon the basis ofbusiness requirements.Solves unique and complex problems with ...

Smarsh

Lead Data Scientist

OR · Remote

$166K - $214K/yr

Summary As a Lead Data Scientist (NLP & Financial Compliance) at Smarsh , you will spearhead the development of state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) and large language model (LLM ...

ServiceTitan

Lead Data Scientist

Glendale, CA · On-site +1

As the Lead Data Scientist on our Operations data science team supporting the Finance organization, you will use machine learning, generative AI, and data-driven insights to drive financial planning ...

Smarsh

Lead Data Scientist

Atlanta, GA

Summary As a Lead Data Scientist (NLP & Financial Compliance) at Smarsh , you will spearhead the development of state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) and large language model (LLM ...

Smarsh

OR

Summary As a Lead Data Scientist (NLP & Financial Compliance) at Smarsh , you will spearhead the development of state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) and large language model (LLM ...

Hexagon AB

Lead Data Scientist

Houston, TX · On-site

Lead Data Scientist Job Location (Short): Houston, Texas-USA | Madison, Alabama-USA | Roanoke, Virginia-USA Workplace Type: Remote Req Id: 2289 Responsibilities Octave's ETQ division is seeking a ...

Bart & Associates

Lead Data Scientist

Suitland, MD · On-site

Lead Data Scientist At B&A, we foster and embrace a distinct set of values that we live by and instill in all aspects of our organization: dedication, commitment, partnership, trust, and recognition.

B&A

Lead Data Scientist

Suitland, MD · On-site

Description Lead Data Scientist At B&A, we foster and embrace a distinct set of values that we live by and instill in all aspects of our organization: dedication, commitment, partnership, trust, and ...

Allegis Group

Lead Data Scientist

Hanover, MD · On-site

We are seeking a Lead Data Scientist to join the Connected Growth & Insights team - a metrics-focused practice within Connected Shared Services. This team serves as the "engine of insight" for the ...

Johnson & Johnson

Lead Data Scientist

Spring House, PA · On-site

As a Lead Data Scientist with a strong foundation in data science and expertise in Agentic AI, classical machine learning, and computer vision, you will collaborate across teams to shape a cohesive ...

Jj

Lead Data Scientist

Spring House, PA · On-site

As a Lead Data Scientist with a strong foundation in data science and expertise in Agentic AI, classical machine learning, and computer vision, you will collaborate across teams to shape a cohesive ...

Jj

Lead Data Scientist

Horsham, PA · On-site

As a Lead Data Scientist with a strong foundation in data science and expertise in Agentic AI, classical machine learning, and computer vision, you will collaborate across teams to shape a cohesive ...

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Lead Data Scientist information

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$165K

$243.5K

How much do lead data scientist jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 15, 2026, the average yearly pay for lead data scientist in the United States is $165,018.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $133,500.00 and $170,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are Lead Data Scientists?

Lead Data Scientists are experienced professionals who oversee data science teams and projects within an organization. They are responsible for designing and implementing advanced analytics models, managing data pipelines, and turning data insights into actionable business strategies. In addition to their technical expertise, Lead Data Scientists collaborate with stakeholders, mentor junior data scientists, and ensure that data-driven solutions align with business goals. Their role often bridges the gap between data science and business decision-making, making them key contributors to an organization's success.

What is the 80 20 rule in data science?

In data science, the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, suggests that roughly 80% of results come from 20% of the efforts or features. Lead Data Scientists often use this concept to prioritize data analysis and model development by focusing on the most impactful variables or tasks.

Is 40 too late for data science?

The Lead Data Scientist role does not have an age limit, and many professionals transition into data science later in their careers. Success depends on skills, experience, and continuous learning in areas like programming, statistics, and machine learning, regardless of age.

What does a lead data scientist do?

A lead data scientist oversees data analysis projects, develops models, and guides a team of data scientists to extract insights from data. They often use tools like Python or R, and require strong statistical, programming, and leadership skills to inform business decisions.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Lead Data Scientist, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Lead Data Scientist, you need advanced expertise in statistics, machine learning, data modeling, and strong programming skills (often in Python or R), typically supported by an advanced degree in a quantitative field. Familiarity with big data platforms (such as Hadoop or Spark), cloud computing tools, and experience with data visualization and version control systems are commonly required. Outstanding leadership, communication, and project management abilities help distinguish top performers in this role. These skills are crucial for designing impactful data solutions, guiding teams, and effectively translating complex analyses into actionable business strategies.

How does a Lead Data Scientist typically balance hands-on technical work with team leadership responsibilities?

A Lead Data Scientist often splits their time between developing advanced data models and guiding team members through project execution. While they remain deeply involved in coding, data exploration, and validation, they also mentor junior staff, oversee project timelines, and ensure alignment with business goals. Balancing these tasks requires strong organizational skills, the ability to delegate, and regular communication with both technical teams and non-technical stakeholders. This dual focus not only drives project success but also supports the professional development of the entire data science team.

What is the salary of a lead data scientist?

The salary of a lead data scientist typically ranges from $100,000 to $160,000 annually, depending on experience, location, and industry. Senior roles may include bonuses, stock options, and other benefits, and strong skills in machine learning, statistical analysis, and programming are often required.
More about Lead Data Scientist jobs
What cities are hiring for Lead Data Scientist jobs? Cities with the most Lead Data Scientist job openings:
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Lead Data Scientist jobs near you
Infographic showing various Lead Data Scientist job openings in the United States as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 84% Full Time, 12% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 88% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 10% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $165,018 per year, or $79.3 per hour.
Lead Data Scientist

Lead Data Scientist

Smarsh

New York, NY • On-site, Remote

Full-time

Posted 28 days ago

Job description

Who are we?
Smarsh empowers its customers to manage risk and unleash intelligence in their digital communications. Our growing community of over 6500 organizations in regulated industries counts on Smarsh every day to help them spot compliance, legal or reputational risks in 80+ communication channels before those risks become regulatory fines or headlines. Relentless innovation has fueled our journey to consistent leadership recognition from analysts like Gartner and Forrester, and our sustained, aggressive growth has landed Smarsh in the annual Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing American companies since 2008.
Summary
As a Lead Data Scientist (NLP & Financial Compliance) at Smarsh, you will spearhead the development of state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) and large language model (LLM) solutions that power next-generation compliance and surveillance systems. You'll work on highly specialized problems at the intersection of natural language processing, communications intelligence, financial supervision, and regulatory compliance, where unstructured data from emails, chats, voice transcripts, and trade communications hold the keys to uncovering misconduct and risk.
The role will involve working with other Senior Data Scientists and mentoring Associate Data Scientists in analyzing complex data, generating insights, and creating solutions as needed across a variety of tools and platforms. This role demands both technical excellence in NLP modeling and a deep understanding of financial domain behavior-including insider trading, market manipulation, off-channel communications, MNPI, bribery, and other supervisory risk areas. The ideal candidate for this position will possess the ability to perform both independent and team-based research and generate insights from large data sets with a hands-on/can do attitude of servicing/managing day to day data requests and analysis.
This role also offers a unique opportunity to get exposure to many problems and solutions associated with taking machine learning and analytics research to production. On any given day, you will have the opportunity to interface with business leaders, machine learning researchers, data engineers, platform engineers, data scientists and many more, enabling you to level up in true end-to-end data science proficiency.
How will you contribute?
  • Collect, analyze, and interpret small/large datasets to uncover meaningful insights to support the development of statistical methods / machine learning algorithms.
  • Lead the design, training, and deployment of NLP and transformer-based models for financial surveillance and supervisory use cases (e.g., misconduct detection, market abuse, trade manipulation, insider communication).
  • Development of machine learning models and other analytics following established workflows, while also looking for optimization and improvement opportunities
  • Data annotation and quality review
  • Exploratory data analysis and model fail state analysis
  • Contribute to model governance, documentation, and explainability frameworks aligned with internal and regulatory AI standards.
  • Client/prospect guidance in machine learning model and analytic fine-tuning/development processes
  • Provide guidance to junior team members on model development and EDA
  • Work with Product Manager(s) to intake project/product requirements and translate these to technical tasks within the team's tooling, technique and procedures
  • Continued self-led personal development

What will you bring?
  • Strong understanding of financial markets, compliance, surveillance, supervision, or regulatory technology
  • Experience with one or more data science and machine/deep learning frameworks and tooling, including scikit-learn, H2O, keras, pytorch, tensorflow, pandas, numpy, carot, tidyverse
  • Command of data science and statistics principles (regression, Bayes, time series, clustering, P/R, AUROC, exploratory data analysis etc...)
  • Strong knowledge of key programming concepts (e.g. split-apply-combine, data structures, object-oriented programming)
  • Solid statistics knowledge (hypothesis testing, ANOVA, chi-square tests, etc...)
  • Knowledge of NLP transfer learning, including word embedding models (gloVe, fastText, word2vec) and transformer models (Bert, SBert, HuggingFace, and GPT-x etc.)
  • Experience with natural language processing toolkits like NLTK, spaCy, Nvidia NeMo
  • Knowledge of microservices architecture and continuous delivery concepts in machine learning and related technologies such as helm, Docker and Kubernetes
  • Familiarity with Deep Learning techniques for NLP.
  • Familiarity with LLMs - using ollama & Langchain
  • Excellent verbal and written skills
  • Proven collaborator, thriving on teamwork

Preferred Qualifications
  • Master's or Doctor of Philosophy degree in Computer Science, Applied Math, Statistics, or a scientific field
  • Familiarity with cloud computing platforms (AWS, GCS, Azure)
  • Experience with automated supervision/surveillance/compliance tools

$166,000 - $214,000 a year
The above salary range represents Smarsh's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible base compensation at the time of posting. Any applicable bonus programs will be discussed during the recruiting process.
The salary for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, internal equity, experience, education, location, specialty and training.
Local cost of living assessments are done for each new hire at the time of offer.
About our culture
Smarsh hires lifelong learners with a passion for innovating with purpose, humility and humor. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. We work closely with the most popular communications platforms and the world's leading cloud infrastructure platforms. We use the latest in AI/ML technology to help our customers break new ground at scale. We are a global organization that values diversity, and we believe that providing opportunities for everyone to be their authentic self is key to our success. Smarsh leadership, culture, and commitment to developing our people have all garnered Comparably.com Best Places to Work Awards. Come join us and find out what the best work of your career looks like.

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