Principal Data Scientist

Worldpay•Cincinnati, OH

1d•$165,300 - $249,675•Hybrid

About The Position

This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship, now or in the future. Candidates must be a US Citizen or Green Card Holder. This position is remote in the Greater Boston Area only OR hybrid 3 days per week in our either our Cincinnati, OH or Atlanta, GA office. Ready to take your career global? Make your mark at one of the biggest names in payments. We are seeking an experienced and visionary Principal Data Scientist to help scale our Data Science and AI team. In this role, you will collaborate closely with ML software engineers, product managers, and other product delivery teams to build ML models and data-driven algorithms into robust, scalable, and production-ready products that optimize the end-to-end payment process. You will act as a payment subject matter expert and apply strong system and product thinking to create new product concepts, influence and build development roadmaps, design intelligent decision engines, drive cross-functional initiatives and mentor senior DS/ML engineers. You will balance strategic leadership with hands-on technical contribution, dividing your time between setting technical direction and actively participating in architecture, design reviews, code reviews, and selected implementation efforts.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or related field (PhD preferred)
7+ years in ML research or engineering
5+ years building large-scale, real-time ML systems in production, including significant hands-on experience
Expertise in machine learning, statistical modeling, and data analysis
Strong experience across the ML lifecycle and experimentation processes
Proficiency in Python (Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn)
Strong SQL and database experience
Demonstrated ability to lead solution design and execution, translating complex business requirements into actionable technology solutions
Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate effectively across technical and business audiences at all levels, including executive leadership

Nice To Haves

Experience in payments, fintech, or financial services
Knowledge of payment systems (authorization lifecycle, tokenization, fraud/risk, real-time payments)
Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Snowflake, Databricks, Vertex AI)
Agile development experience
Experience in large companies, mature ML teams, and/or highly regulated industries
NoSQL and/or graph database experience is a plus

Responsibilities

Define the technical vision and strategy for new data-driven product initiatives with a focus on end-to-end payment optimization, aligning them with business goals.
Develop scalable and reusable capabilities to power real-time machine learning models (classification, ranking and optimization), enable rapid experimentation at scale, and support continuous monitoring of ML products.
Oversee and participate hands-on in the conceptualization, development, production deployment, operation, validation, and maintenance of ML models and model update systems.
Establish and ensure adherence to best practices for ML modeling.
Stay abreast of industry trends and emerging technologies in ML and payment optimization, driving adoption of modern tools, frameworks, and infrastructure.
Foster a culture of innovation, experimentation and collaboration.
Mentor an elite team of data scientists.
Partner with product, engineering, data, and compliance teams to integrate ML into products.
Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Collaborate with other Data Science leaders to establish an operating model for machine learning R&D that optimizes end-to-end delivery of business value.