Data Scientist

Associated Press • New York, NY

72d • $116,000 - $160,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Associated Press' Metadata and Data Science Team seeks a Data Scientist based in New York, NY. The Data Scientist will design and implement data science and applied machine learning solutions supporting new product development, search and discovery on platform, content enrichment and metadata generation. As a member of cross-functional project teams, the Data Scientist will perform data analysis, evaluate commercial and open-source models, and deliver solutions with real-world impact. The team works closely with various departments and functions across the organization to design, implement and manage end-to-end content metadata, to maintain the integrity of schema standards, and to build solutions with data, analytics and machine learning methods.

Requirements

• 3+ years of relevant data science experience, with strong proficiency in Python including NumPy, Pandas, and large-scale semi-structured JSON data
• Bachelor's degree in Data Science or Computer Science
• Experienced applying core machine learning methods including classification, clustering, regression, and ranking
• Hands-on experience with NLP techniques such as entity recognition, disambiguation, semantic similarity, and embedding-based retrieval
• Experience with transformer models for structured extraction, classification, summarization, and generation
• Experience with hybrid search algorithms, retrieval pipelines, intent detection, query expansion, and relevance tuning in Elasticsearch or OpenSearch
• Experience working with both language and multimodal models
• Experience and comfort working with real-world data, including text and visuals, at scale
• Familiar with ML engineering and ML Ops practices, with a track record of delivering runtime solutions
• Familiarity with cohort analysis, session segmentation, A/B testing, and confidence calibration
• Analytical and curious, with strong problem-solving skills and a practical focus on high-impact, cost-aware solutions
• Able to effectively manage multiple project deliverables simultaneously
• Comfortable being accountable for deliverables across the full product development lifecycle, from problem definition through launch and iteration
• An effective communicator who can tailor analysis and presentations to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Collaborative and empathetic, with a genuine focus on user impact and a desire to grow data literacy across the organization
• Advanced-level professional competency in written and spoken English
• Authorization to work in the United States for any employer

Nice To Haves

• Experience in news media or working with news as data strongly preferred
• Master's degree in Data Science or a related field
• Familiarity with graph data models and designing entity-relationship schemas
• Eagerness to learn the technical nuances of large-scale media operations and identify opportunities within evolving systems

Responsibilities

• Evaluate, fine-tune, and maintain statistical and machine learning models used in run-time production environments, measuring and communicating performance improvements to stakeholders
• Partner with cross-functional teams to design and optimize AI/ML solutions that deliver new product capabilities and internal workflow improvements, using news articles, photos, videos, election results, and other news data
• Research, evaluate, and recommend models and methodologies across the AI/ML landscape, presenting recommended solutions to technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Identify and address gaps in model quality and performance metrics, synthesizing findings into clear, actionable recommendations
• Contribute to the design and enhancement of data and ML pipelines, including multimodal embedding generation and knowledge extraction, with a focus on accuracy, efficiency, and scalability
• Design user-centered solutions and search algorithms focused on quality and performance
• Stay current with emerging technologies and advances in NLP, machine learning, and data science, proactively surfacing opportunities for improvement
• Support the full model development lifecycle, from problem definition and prototyping through integration, deployment, monitoring, and iteration
• Communicate analysis and present findings clearly, adapting to a range of technical and business audiences

Benefits

• Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage
• Retirement benefits
• Company paid life insurance
• Paid vacation and sick days
• Paid parental leave for any new parent
• Mental well-being resources
• Opportunities for professional development

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level