Lead Data Scientist Job Description, Duties and Responsibilities

By | August 16, 2023
Lead Data Scientist Job Description
Lead Data Scientists are responsible in managing and leading the data science team to
developing analytics-focused products.

Lead Data Scientist Job Description, Duties and Responsibilities

If you are searching for information about what the lead data scientist job description is, this post will be a great deal of help to you.

It provides the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities that majorly form the day-to-day work activities of most lead data scientist.

This article also shows the major requirements anyone seeking the job of a lead data scientist will be expected to fulfill by most recruiters.

Please, read on to increase your knowledge of the lead data scientist career:

What Does a Lead Data Scientist Do?

The lead data scientist is responsible for managing the data science team, planning projects, and building analytics models, leveraging on large volumes of data across sources in a variety of forms.

They are responsible for leading the development of analytics-focused products and utilizing cutting edge machine learning, natural language processing, and mathematical techniques to develop powerful sciences.

The lead data scientist job description entails working with a variety of datasets, ranging from procurement and supply chain data to EMR/EHR and claims data, and more.

It also involves spotting and managing data development challenges in the organization, proffering suggestion, and deploying data science solutions.

The lead data scientist performs research and builds core understanding of the company performance metrics to qualitatively inform and interpret models.

They are also responsible for supporting the growth and professional development of the team of data scientists under their authority.

The lead data scientist work description also involves leading the development, operation, and maintenance of methodologies that help drive product offerings, including the application of statistical modeling and time-series analysis techniques to build company specific or market metric/KPI predictions.

Lead Data Scientist Job Description Example/Sample/Template

The lead data analyst performs various functions, including working with a team of data scientist, Big Data specialists, etc., to enable innovation and accelerate the application of best methods and technologies in an organization’s big data environment.

Here is an example of a lead data scientist job description showing major tasks, duties, and responsibilities they commonly perform:

  • Responsible for overseeing the data scientists team, machine learning engineers, and big data specialists
  • Teach, lead, and counsel colleagues on new techniques or solutions
  • Lead data mining and collection procedures
  • Collaborate with data and software engineers to enable deployment of sciences and technologies that will scale across the company’s ecosystem
  • Responsible for the conception, planning, and prioritizing of data projects
  • Provide support to inexperienced analysts with high-level expertise in an open source language (e.g., R, Python, Julia, etc.)
  • Spot and evaluate emerging/cutting edge, open source, data science/machine learning libraries/big data platforms (e.g. XGBoost, H2Oai, Spark, Hadoop, etc.)
  • Adhere to stringent quality assurance and documentation standards using version control and code repositories (e.g., Git, GitHub, Markdown)
  • Interpret and analyze data problems and guarantee data quality and integrity
  • Responsible for building analytic systems and predictive models as well as experimenting with new models and techniques
  • Ensure that data projects align with organizational goals
  • Utilize data visualization tools to deliver insights to stakeholders.

Lead Data Scientist Job Description for Resume

If you are presently working as a lead data scientist or have worked in that role before and are now writing a resume for a new position, it is important to add the professional experience section to your resume.

This is where you can show the recruiter that you have got the required work experience as a lead data scientist by highlighting the duties you have successfully performed working in that role.

To make an effective professional or work experience section for your resume, you can apply the duties and responsibilities of a lead data scientist provided in the job description example above.

Lead Data Scientist Requirements – Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

If you are seeking the job of a lead data scientist, you will need to prove to recruiters that you will be effective in achieving the purpose obligations, and objectives of the role, to be considered for the position.

Shown below are major requirements that recruiters may want you to fulfill if you are applying for the lead data scientist position to be offered an interview:

  • Education: Applicants for the lead data scientist position are required to possess a minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Computer Science, or Statistics, or in a relevant discipline
  • Knowledge: They should possess extensive relevant work experience and advanced working knowledge of SQL, Python/R, or other languages/technologies for performing complex data modeling and analysis. It is also crucial that they are familiar with and able to apply natural language processing, machine learning, conceptual modeling, statistical analysis, predictive modeling, and hypothesis testing to solve data problems. It is also important that they can work with dashboard and visualization software such as Tableau, D3, Mixpanel, Flurry or Google Analytics
  • Employers may also seek for individuals with experience developing analytical solutions using statistical methods and machine learning algorithms; hands-on knowledge of data wrangling, data cleaning and prep, dimensionality reduction; experience querying data from relational databases using SQL; and expertise with Big Data concepts, tools, and architecture (e.g. Hadoop, Pig, Hive, Spark, Sparkling Water
  • Communication skills: Communication is an essential factor in a work environment, and as a team lead, it is vital that applicants can relate with the team and convey information effectively. Besides communicating with the work team, they also need Data visualization skills and ability to present technical solutions to non-technical audience in a simple and clear manner
  • Business acumen: The lead data analyst should also have a business mindset, swift to identify risk situations and opportunities, and able to generate creative solutions to business problems
  • Flexibility: The world of information technology is dynamic so it is essential that the lead data scientist is willing to try new things and fail, and welcome and embrace change
  • Collaborative skills: The lead data scientist is responsible for managing a team of data scientists, machine learning engineers, Big Data specialists, and data and software engineers. It is vital that they can work together with the group of people mentioned above to enable deployment of sciences and technologies that will scale across the organization’s ecosystem.

Conclusion

If you are a recruiter or HR manager needing to hire for the lead data scientist position, you can make a good description of the job by applying the sample job description above.

It is important to provide a detailed description of the lead data scientist position to prospective candidates to help them learn about the job and determine if they will be able to succeed in it.

This will enable you to find the best suitable people for the vacant lead data scientist position.

You will also find this post helpful if you are interested in the lead data scientist career, to learn and increase your knowledge of the duties that they perform.