Operations Research Optimization Jobs in Texas (NOW HIRING)

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We are seeking a Data Scientist with strong industry experience to operate as a crossfunctional leader at the intersection of transportation operations, operations research, AI, and business strategy. This role partners deeply with Operations, Technology, Product, Finance, and Executive Leadership to design and deploy analytics and AI solutions that materially improve service reliability, efficiency, and decisionmaking.

In addition to advanced modeling, this role serves as the enterprise champion for Agentic AI adoption, ensuring autonomous and semiautonomous systems are introduced responsibly, collaboratively, and with measurable operational impact.

CrossFunctional Operating Model

This role does not sit in isolation within data science. Instead, you will:

• Cocreate solutions with Operations and Planning leaders
• Partner with IT, Data Engineering, and Platform teams on scalable cloud architectures
• Collaborate with Product and Innovation teams on usercentric decision tools
• Engage Finance and Procurement on cost, ROI, and optimization tradeoffs
• Advise Executive Leadership on AI strategy, automation risk, and operational impact

You are expected to influence without authority and act as a unifying technical and strategic voice across functions.

Key Responsibilities

Transportation Operations & OR (BusinessEmbedded)

• Work directly with operations, dispatch, and planning teams to understand constraints, tradeoffs, and realworld decision processes.
• Design and deploy operations research and analytics solutions for:
• Scheduling and rostering
• Fleet sizing and allocation
• Demand forecasting and capacity planning
• Service reliability, ontime performance, and cost optimization
• Balance mathematical optimality with operational practicality and change management.

Agentic AI Champion (EnterpriseWide)

• Act as the crossfunctional champion for Agentic AI, driving alignment across technical, operational, and leadership teams.
• Identify opportunities where agentbased systems can augment planners, dispatchers, analysts, and executives.
• Design agentic workflows that integrate:
• Planning and reasoning
• Optimization tools and simulation engines
• Data platforms, APIs, and business rules
• Humanintheloop controls for safetycritical decisions
• Establish shared standards for governance, observability, safety, and accountability of agentic AI across departments.

Microsoft Fabric & CloudFirst Enablement

• Partner with data engineering and platform teams to deliver solutions on Microsoft Fabric, including:
• OneLake, Lakehouses, and Warehouses
• Fabric Notebooks (Python / Spark)
• Power BI semantic models for operational decision support
• Ensure analytics and AI outputs are consumable by both technical and nontechnical users.
• Influence cloud architecture decisions to support realtime and largescale transportation analytics.

ResearchtoOperations Translation

• Bring PhDlevel rigor into applied, crossfunctional problem solving.
• Translate advances in:
• Operations research
• Machine learning
• Reinforcement learning
• Agentic and autonomous systems
  into solutions that can be operationalized and sustained.
• Produce internal frameworks, playbooks, and reference architectures used across teams.

Strategic Influence & Enablement

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on:
• AI investment decisions
• Automation risk and readiness
• Tradeoffs between cost, service quality, and equity
• Mentor data scientists, analysts, engineers, and operations staff to raise AI literacy across the organization.
• Facilitate crossfunctional forums or working groups around analytics, AI, and automation.

Required Qualifications

• Masters/PhD in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Transportation Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field.
• 7+ years of industry experience working in transportation, logistics, mobility, or complex operational environments.
• Demonstrated success operating in highly crossfunctional settings.
• Deep expertise in optimization, simulation, and statistical modeling, combined with ML.
• Strong programming skills in Python; experience integrating OR solvers and dashboards.
• Experience delivering solutions in cloudbased, enterprise environments.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholdermanagement skills.

Agentic AI–Specific Requirements

• Experience leading or designing agentic AI systems across multiple teams or functions.
• Ability to explain agentic concepts clearly to operations, leadership, IT, and risk teams.
• Strong judgment in distinguishing when:
• Deterministic OR is sufficient
• ML adds value
• Agentic AI is appropriate
• Commitment to responsible AI deployment, particularly in safety, equity, and compliancesensitive transportation systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in public transit, paratransit, logistics, or large fleet operations.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Azure and Fabricbased analytics ecosystems.
• Experience influencing AI governance, operating models, or centers of excellence.
• Prior leadership in enterprise transformation or modernization initiatives.

What Success Looks Like

• Operations trust and actively use analytics and AI solutions.
• Agentic AI is adopted intentionally, safely, and crossfunctionally—not in silos.
• Microsoft Fabric enables shared, consistent decisionmaking across teams.
• Leadership views this role as a connector between strategy, technology, and daytoday operations.

MV Transportation is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, sex, physical or mental disability, veteran or military status, genetic information or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances.  The information collected by this application is solely to determine suitability for employment, verify identity and maintain employment statistics on applicants. 

Where permissible under applicable state and local law, applicants may be subject to a pre-employment drug test and background check after receiving a conditional offer of employment.

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