Senior AI Scientist – Transportation & Logistics
About The Position
Avathon is seeking a Senior AI Scientist specializing in Transportation & Logistics to join their team. This role focuses on developing intelligent solutions for transportation and logistics networks, leveraging expertise in operations research, reinforcement learning, and large-scale data systems. The successful candidate will lead the design and deployment of advanced optimization and machine learning systems for complex transportation ecosystems, addressing challenges like routing, scheduling, network optimization, demand forecasting, and asset utilization across various logistics environments (FCL, LCL, FTL, LTL, intermodal, maritime). The position offers opportunities to innovate in areas such as vessel scheduling, container repositioning, fleet optimization, and dynamic routing, with close collaboration with engineering, product, and operations teams to bring AI solutions to production.
Requirements
- PhD in Computer Science, Operations Research, Applied Math, or related quantitative field.
- 10–15+ years of experience in AI/ML or optimization, or Supply Chain planning systems.
- Strong expertise in Python (NumPy, Pandas, PyTorch/TensorFlow).
- Proficiency with optimization tools (Gurobi, CPLEX, OR-Tools).
- Deep knowledge of routing algorithms (VRP, shortest path, heuristics/metaheuristics).
- Deep knowledge of time-series forecasting and probabilistic modeling.
- Experience deploying models in production environments.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in transportation, logistics, or supply chain domain.
- Familiarity with Maritime shipping or fleet scheduling.
- Experience with container logistics and repositioning problems.
- Experience with reinforcement learning for dynamic decision-making.
- Experience with digital twins and simulation systems.
- Knowledge of cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure).
- Experience with streaming data (Kafka, Spark).
- Publications/Patents in AI/ML/OR conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, INFORMS, etc.).
Responsibilities
- Design and implement advanced AI/ML models for fleet optimization, capacity planning, vehicle routing and scheduling (VRP, TSP variants), and demand forecasting and optimization.
- Apply reinforcement learning, optimization algorithms, and hybrid ML + OR approaches.
- Build solutions for maritime logistics (vessel scheduling, port operations), container repositioning and imbalance optimization, and truckload (FTL), less-than-truckload (LTL), and intermodal routing.
- Incorporate real-world constraints such as time windows, capacity, regulations, and SLAs into solutions.
- Productionize models using scalable architectures (cloud-native, APIs).
- Collaborate with engineering teams to deploy AI solutions into production.
- Ensure robustness, explainability, and monitoring of models.
- Work with large-scale datasets including shipment data, GPS/telematics, weather, port congestion, and tariffs.
- Build feature pipelines and data validation frameworks.
- Lead AI initiatives and mentor junior scientists.
- Translate business problems into AI solutions.
- Partner with product, operations, and stakeholders to define roadmaps.
Benefits
- Evolving culture with the opportunity to drive new ideas and technology
- Stock Option Grants
- Medical Coverage and Parental Leave Plans
- 401k with Employer Match
- Monthly Technology Allowance
- Newly renovated office space located near Pleasanton, CA -- including fully stocked beverage and snack areas
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
Ph.D. or professional degree
