Sr. Data Scientist- AI Model Development

Esri

Redlands, Canada

Full Time

Posted August 20, 2026

$96k - $164k

Power Generation

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Job Description

Utilize your expertise in machine learning, transformer architectures, foundation models, and telemetry-driven AI to impact millions of ArcGIS users worldwide.

Key Responsibilities

Drive the design, development, experimentation, validation, and deployment of AI models built from proprietary telemetry datasets, including both custom transformer architectures and foundation model adaptations
Develop and fine-tune LoRA and QLoRA adapters for language models and sequence prediction systems
Work closely with DevOps and telemetry platform teams responsible for data ingestion, processing, and training infrastructure
Design and implement evaluation frameworks that measure model quality, calibration, throughput, latency, memory efficiency, and operational cost
Conduct rigorous comparisons between custom-built models and foundation-model-based adapter solutions, providing recommendations on architecture and deployment strategy
Build and maintain automated testing and regression frameworks for both base models and adapter-specific functionality
Define and document adapter contracts, including model configuration requirements, tokenizer expectations, input schemas, output behavior, and deployment assumptions
Collaborate with platform engineering, product management, UX, and MLOps teams to deliver production-ready AI solutions with clearly defined capabilities and performance targets
Define training, validation, and benchmarking datasets to support model development and evaluation
Stay current on state-of-the-art developments in transformer architectures, parameter-efficient fine-tuning techniques, model serving technologies, and telemetry-based predictive systems
Author technical design documents, experiment reports, and best-practice guidance for model development and deployment
Mentor software engineers, data scientists, and analysts on model training, fine-tuning methodologies, telemetry-driven machine learning, and AI research practices
Collaborate with researchers and developers across Esri throughout the AI research and development lifecycle
Solve and articulate complex technical challenges involving machine learning, predictive modeling, and user experience optimization

Requirements

5+ years of professional software development, machine learning engineering, or data science experience
Strong applied machine learning background and deep understanding of modern transformer architectures
Hands-on experience developing and training custom transformer-based models from scratch
Demonstrated experience fine-tuning small and mid-sized language models using parameter-efficient methods such as LoRA and QLoRA
Experience building next-item and next-N prediction systems using telemetry, event, behavioral, or sequence data
Experience with PyTorch, Transformer architectures, Foundation models LoRA and QLoRA fine-tuning techniques Model evaluation and benchmarking methodologies
Strong analytical problem-solving skills and experience conducting research-oriented development
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both engineering and product leadership audiences
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field
Master’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field
Experience with Esri ArcGIS products and geospatial technologies
Experience with adapter composition techniques, including weighted adapter merging, adapter routing, and mixture-of-adapters architectures
Experience with Sequence modeling and predictive analytics
Experience with ONNX Runtime, LlamaSharp
Experience deploying and serving machine learning models in large-scale production environments
Experience optimizing models for constrained environments, including CPU-only, edge, or low-memory GPU deployments
Familiarity with recommendation systems, ranking systems, and behavioral sequence modeling
Experience with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and hybrid AI architectures
Experience with graph databases, graph analytics platforms, and graph-based machine learning techniques
Familiarity with large-scale AI inference systems with performance and cost optimization considerations
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Benefits & Perks

Esri’s competitive total rewards strategy includes industry-leading health and welfare benefits: medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance for employees (and their families), 401(k) and profit-sharing programs, minimum accrual of 80 hours of vacation leave, twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year, and opportunities for personal and professional growth. Base salary is one component of our total rewards strategy. Compensation decisions and the base range for this role take into account many factors including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.
A reasonable estimate of the base salary range is
$95,680
—
$164,320 USD