Senior Data Scientist

Base Salary: $150k- $190k

Company summary:

Teragonia, a robustly capitalized startup with a well-established clientele, is dedicated to transforming the financial sponsor universe through cutting-edge data science and AI solutions. Our mission is to reimagine how financial sponsors execute their investment thesis, from sourcing to exit, and maximize value to all stakeholders (financial sponsors comprise private equity firms, venture capitalists, family funds, and sovereign wealth funds). We seek to accomplish this mission through an industry-aligned operating model that optimally blends business domain knowledge, technology, and quantitative techniques.

Our core offerings include: (i) business intelligence applications, (ii) enterprise solutions that provide data science and operations research-driven insights to business users, and (iii) data science consulting.

Teragonia offers a comprehensive career development platform through cross-learning within our multidisciplinary structure. We nurture a diverse, inclusive, collaborative, respectful, and collegial environment. Our competitive compensation package aligns with industry leaders, encompassing 401k contribution matching, medical insurance, and additional benefits.

Division summary:

Teragonia’s Data Science and Operations Research (DS&OR) consulting division centers around the financial sponsor industry, given the important role the industry plays in fostering innovation and improving operating efficiency in the economy, while providing access to substantial private capital to startups and middle market companies. We specialize in leveraging innovative statistical, optimization, and AI/ML models to solve business problems and generate transformative business value.

We champion the professional growth and development of our team members, offering focused education, diverse professional experiences, and mentorship. We understand the importance of balancing between professional advancement and personal pursuits. Our team fosters a collaborative and forward-thinking environment.

Job summary:

We are particularly interested in candidates who operate with integrity, intellectual humility, and a long-term career commitment. The ideal candidate for this role will have a solid foundation in data science, mathematical modeling, and programming. You should have the ability to extract, summarize and articulate meaningful business insights to our financial sponsor clients. As a Senior Data Scientist at Teragonia, you will be a significant contributor to our service delivery, innovation, business development, practice development, and thought leadership. You will have the opportunity, and the management support, to develop specialized knowledge of data science and AI applications in a chosen industry or domain.

Service delivery-technical skills:

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will work closely with our team that understands the client’s business needs and provide them with data-driven solutions. You will use statistical, operations research, and machine learning techniques to analyze data and develop predictive models while understanding the business context. The ideal candidate will have excellent attention to detail and the ability to work effectively as part of our diverse multidisciplinary team of business analysts, software engineers, financial engineers, and operations researchers.

You will be passionate about learning the business applications of data science to enable revenue growth and cost optimization for our clients. You will develop and utilize expertise in technical research and review of existing solutions and literature relevant to the problem at hand.

As a Senior Data Scientist you should be able to write clean code efficiently, to develop advanced models. You will receive appropriate mentoring and have access to company selected resources and training programs to further develop your coding skills.

Transforming low-hygiene data sets to develop organized databases with high fidelity is a necessary part of the job. As such, you will gain expertise in data wrangling skills. You will develop deep knowledge of the software tools used for service delivery, including data manipulation and data visualization software to efficiently and effectively complete the assigned tasks.

Service delivery - engagement and client management:

You will be working on multiple client engagements simultaneously, or a large and complex engagement, and the scope of the engagement could evolve based on changing client needs. The financial sponsor universe demands actionable insights in a relatively short period. As such, the engagement duration typically lasts a few weeks relative to longer-duration projects at large global corporations. The ideal candidate will be excited about working on a variety of topics in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.

The engagement planning and status update meetings are critical to Teragonia’s innovation process and maintaining high quality standards and efficiency. More importantly, they contribute to your professional development. You will actively participate in the engagement planning and brainstorming sessions by presenting your own ideas, asking questions, and challenging the ideas presented.

You will proactively manage your workload and the delivery timelines assigned to you, and provide status updates as requested by the engagement leader. Depending on your experience and specialization, you will have the opportunity to lead relatively low complex engagements with the support of the Lead Data Scientist or the Principal Data Scientist.

You will have strong communication and presentation skills and be able to clearly articulate to the team, and the client, the business applications and impact of the data science and quantitative concepts and principles relevant to the problem at hand.

Specialization:

You will develop specialized knowledge of data science and AI applications in a chosen industry or a domain (examples include, but not limited to, pricing, sales and marketing, supply chain, manufacturing, SaaS) or a combination of domain and industry that aligns with Teragonia’s strategic goals. Teragonia will provide appropriate resources to develop your knowledge in the tools and the chosen industry and domain.

Innovation:

Constant, purpose-led innovation is central to Teragonia’s success. You will work closely with a cross-functional team of data scientists, business analysts and software engineers to research, ideate, develop and test scalable data science enterprise applications. Innovating our processes to improve efficiency and novel solutions to our client’s business problems will be highly regarded by the executive leadership.

Practice development and thought leadership:

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will supervise, mentor and develop the junior data scientists both in an on-the-job and classroom settings. We operate on a “team-first” basis and your ability to mentor and develop the junior members is critical.

You will have the opportunity to assist the executive leadership and the officers with strategic marketing initiatives, including preparing marketing materials like pitch decks, case studies, and online marketing campaigns.

You will actively assist with conducting research for thought leadership initiatives, including publishing white papers and articles in peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and relevant domain-specific publications.

Initiative in coming up with effective training and development programs and practical new business development ideas, as well as identifying areas to pursue and publish our thought leadership based on your own research, will be highly regarded by the executive leadership.

DS & OR Flexible work policy:

We empower you to choose the work environment that best balances your personal needs with the business needs. We recognize that a remote location may allow you to better focus and balance your personal needs. We also believe brainstorming, planning, and team-building exercises are most effective in person and would expect you to be in the office, except when specific remote working arrangements are agreed due to personal situations.

For candidates living in the Chicago metropolitan area or New York City or within commutable distance, we expect your presence in the office based on business or team needs or team-building activities that are most productive in person. We do not impose specific days for in-office attendance.

We will consider specific remote working arrangements for candidates living outside the Chicago metropolitan area, New York City, or the adjacent suburbs to both cities. We ask that you travel to our headquarters for important events, such as critical brainstorming and planning sessions, training, or team-building events. If we open an office near you in the future, the same flexible work policy would apply as for our employees living in the Chicago metropolitan area or New York City, or within a commutable distance.

For more junior applicants ( less than 3 years of professional experience), we are looking for candidates living in, or willing to relocate to, within commutable distance of the Chicago metropolitan area or New York City so that we can provide you with the support and mentorship as you grow in your career. If you are willing to relocate to the Chicago metropolitan area, New York City, or within commutable distance, we will reimburse your reasonable relocation expenses.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Statement

Teragonia strives for diversity and inclusion in the workforce and does not tolerate harassment or discrimination of any kind. We make employment decisions based on the needs of our business and the qualifications of the individual and do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy or other medical conditions/needs), family or parental status, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, personal appearance, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or any legally protected characteristic not otherwise covered here. We encourage all to apply.

Requirements

Minimum requirements:

• Be located in the United States.
• Masters’ degree in Data Science, Analytics, Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Management Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related STEM field with a strong academic record.
• 3+ years of experience in a data science or quantitative role.
• Proficiency in Python or R, Spark/PySpark, and ETL software such as Dataiku, Alteryx, Databricks etc.

Preferred, but not required:

• Experience in a leading consulting organization.
• Exposure to financial sponsors in a professional setting.
• Prior knowledge of business management or corporate finance applications.

Benefits

We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package designed to attract top talent and motivate high performance.

• Competitive Total Compensation - We constantly benchmark our pay scales against the market to maintain competitiveness.
• Restricted Stock Awards - We offer restricted stock awards to select positions to ensure our teams’ long term commitment and hard work are rewarded by sharing our collective success.
• Visa Sponsorship - We offer visa sponsorship for eligible employees.
• 401k Plan with Employer Contributions - We help secure your future with 100% matching of 401k contributions up to 6% of your annual base salary after your first work anniversary.
• Professional Development Opportunities - We will sponsor company-selected training sessions, conferences, and certifications to foster your growth.
• Meal Reimbursement - Reimbursement for lunch at the office, and dinner too if you are working past 7 pm, up to a limit.
• Gym Membership - Reimbursement for fitness & wellness programs, such as gym memberships, up to a limit.
• Commuter Benefits - We offer the opportunity to leverage the available tax concessions for commuting expenses.
• Relocation Assistance - Available to those who move to the Chicago or New York City metropolitan area as required by their job role.
• Paid Time Off (PTO) - You will be eligible for 15 to 20 days PTO, depending on level, accrued according to company policies.
• Annual Quiet Week - From Dec 24 to Jan 2, we anticipate a quiet week. During this period, all employees may work remotely, and we put in our best effort to keep workload as light as possible in light of balancing business needs.
• Firm Holidays - 12 firm-designated holidays annually, in addition to the eligible PTO.
• Comprehensive Healthcare, Vision, and Dental Insurance - We prioritize your health and wellness with insurance coverage through leading national providers.
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) / Health Savings Account (HSA) Plan - We provide the opportunity to manage your healthcare expenses efficiently through FSA/HSA plans.
• Mental Health Support - Enroll in our healthcare plan and gain access to mental health support through Talkspace.
• HealthAdvocate - Expert assistance to help you navigate the complexities of the healthcare system.
• Disability Insurance - We sponsor short term disability insurance through a leading national provider.
• Sick Days - We adhere to applicable state regulations, ensuring you have time to recover when you are not feeling well.