---
title: 'Senior Data Scientist - NLP/LLM Specialist at Scismic'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-scientist-nlp-llm-specialist-scismic-san-diego-zrh3pmnd8pws'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-16'
---

# Senior Data Scientist - NLP/LLM Specialist at Scismic

- **Company:** Scismic
- **Location:** San Diego, CA
- **Compensation:** $155k–$240k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2025-09-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-16
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/scismic/3e2b10cd-4877-4558-9d22-a63650b515c3

## Job description

Scismic is supporting a global consulting company that fosters a highly collaborative and inclusive culture, encouraging creativity, growth, and innovation. With a team of over 1,000 professionals across 50 global markets, the organization partners with world-class clients to solve complex business challenges across diverse industries. The company values a “builder’s mindset,” empowering employees to create new solutions, develop lasting impact, and grow their careers in a supportive environment.

The company is seeking an exceptional Senior Data Scientist with deep expertise in Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models to join the  consulting practice. You'll work directly with Fortune 500 clients to solve complex business challenges using state-of-the-art AI technologies across diverse industries.

Ideal Candidate Profile

You combine academic rigor with practical engineering skills and exceptional client communication abilities. You will work end-to-end from project initiation through client delivery, comfortable both building sophisticated algorithms and presenting findings directly to clients. You excel at automating repetitive tasks and developing reusable frameworks that scale across multiple engagements. You should be comfortable implementing cutting-edge research while translating complex technical concepts into actionable business strategies. Strong presentation skills and the ability to build trust with senior executives are essential.

## Equal Opportunities

Our mission is to create a positive and entrepreneurial environment where talented people thrive on creativity. We celebrate inclusivity and are committed to providing an inclusive environment for our employees. We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind and are committed to building an agency where everyone is welcome, and every voice is heard. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

In order to comply with equal pay and salary transparency laws in various locations, we believe the target range of base compensation in all locations within the United States for this role is $155k-$240k. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and location.

In addition to medical, dental and vision coverage, we offer a generous unlimited PTO plan, 401k program and comprehensive benefits plan. Additional perks and benefits include a month-long sabbatical, active employee advocacy groups, globally driven inclusivity initiatives, wellness days, summer Fridays and learning and development programs for our employees.

Responsibilities:

- Lead client workshops and discovery sessions to identify NLP opportunities
- Develop and present technical proposals to C-level executives
- Manage multiple client projects simultaneously while maintaining quality and timelines
- Design and implement novel NLP solutions for complex business problems
- Architect scalable solutions for processing and analyzing large text corpora
- Build custom language models tailored to each client's unique industry challenges
- Automate repetitive analytical tasks and develop reusable algorithmic frameworks
- Mentor junior data scientists and provide technical guidance on NLP projects
- Develop automated content analysis, document processing, and customer insight systems
- Create scalable text analytics platforms that drive measurable business outcomes
- Work across retail, finance, healthcare, and media sectors
- Translate complex AI capabilities into clear business value propositions

Technical Environment:

- Languages: Python (primary), R, SQL, potentially C++ for optimization
- ML Frameworks: PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face Transformers
- Infrastructure: Kubernetes, Docker, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)
- Tools: MLflow, Weights & Biases, Apache Airflow, Spark, Vector databases

Required Qualification:

- PhD in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Statistics, Mathematics, Economics, Econometrics, or related quantitative field
- Minimum 5 years of professional experience in data science, machine learning, or related roles
- Advanced NLP expertise: Deep understanding of transformer architectures, attention mechanisms, and modern NLP techniques
- Large Language Model proficiency: Hands-on experience with LLM fine-tuning, prompt engineering, RLHF, and deployment at scale
- Programming mastery: Expert-level Python, with strong knowledge of PyTorch/TensorFlow, Hugging Face ecosystem
- MLOps & Infrastructure: Experience with model deployment, monitoring, and scaling in production environments
- Experience writing production code and ensuring well-managed software delivery
- Experience with foundation models (GPT, BERT, T5, LLaMA, etc.)
- Knowledge of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems
- Understanding of model compression techniques (quantization, distillation, pruning)
- Experience with evaluation metrics and benchmarking for language models

Preferred:

- Experience in consulting or client-facing technical roles
- Knowledge of specialized domains (healthcare NLP, legal AI, financial text analysis)
- Cloud platform expertise (AWS SageMaker, Google Cloud AI, Azure ML)
- Open-source contributions to major ML/NLP libraries

Benefits:

- Hybrid work environment with home and office schedule (2+ days in office per week) and work from anywhere weeks
- Comprehensive health benefits (healthcare, vision, dental, pet, home, and auto insurance)
- Generous time off policies (unlimited paid time off, wellness days, national holidays, summer Fridays)
- Four-week sabbatical every five consecutive years of employment
- Exceptional parental leave benefits
- Global mentorship and networking programs
- Monthly cell phone reimbursement
- 401k savings and employee stock purchase plan
- Volunteer hours (20 hours annually) for designated non-profit partner and personal choice
- Globally driven inclusive initiatives (Employee Advocacy Groups, equity committee)
- Career growth opportunities (multi-day customized trainings for each level)

Equal Opportunities:

- Our mission is to create a positive and entrepreneurial environment where talented people thrive on creativity. We celebrate inclusivity and are committed to providing an inclusive environment for our employees. We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind and are committed to building an agency where everyone is welcome, and every voice is heard. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.
- In order to comply with equal pay and salary transparency laws in various locations, we believe the target range of base compensation in all locations within the United States for this role is $155k-$240k. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and location.
- In addition to medical, dental and vision coverage, we offer a generous unlimited PTO plan, 401k program and comprehensive benefits plan. Additional perks and benefits include a month-long sabbatical, active employee advocacy groups, globally driven inclusivity initiatives, wellness days, summer Fridays and learning and development programs for our employees.

## About Scismic

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Scismic is a digital STEM ecosystem that uses explainable AI and skills-based matching to connect life science, deep tech, and manufacturing employers with qualified talent, while also providing workforce development tools for educators and economic organizations.
- **Entity Type**: Private (NIH-funded)
- **Headquarters**: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (with offices in Boston, London, and Singapore)
- **Founded**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Founders**: Dr. Danika Khong, PhD (CEO & Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: HR tech / talent platform for STEM (Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Deep Tech)
- **Target customers**: B2B (employers in pharma, biotech, medtech, AI/ML, robotics), B2C (STEM job seekers), B2G (economic development organizations, professional associations), B2E (universities and training providers)
- **Mission**: "Put the right scientists in the right roles to help drive innovation forward" and address the broken connection between academia and industry [scismic.com](https://scismic.com/about)

## Products & Services
- **Scismic Connect**: AI-powered hiring platform for employers. Provides gender- and race-blind skills matching, guarantees 3 interview-ready candidates, 97% first-year retention, and free replacement if a hire leaves within 12 months. Reduces time-to-hire by 80% [scismic.com](https://scismic.com/employers)
- **Skills Locker**: Skills intelligence solution for education institutions. Maps curriculum to labor market demand, tracks emerging skills by region, and improves graduate employment outcomes [scismic.com](https://scismic.com/?hsLang=en)
- **SMARTBoard EDU**: White-label technology for economic development organizations and professional associations to build skills-first communities, map regional talent supply/demand, and coordinate multi-stakeholder initiatives [scismic.com](https://scismic.com/?hsLang=en)
- **Job Seeker Platform**: Free platform for STEM professionals to find jobs, receive personalized career pathway recommendations, and access upskilling opportunities [scismic.com](https://scismic.com/?hsLang=en)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Over 80,000 scientists and engineers screened; 8,000+ skills mapped (NIH-awarded taxonomy); 97% employee retention beyond 12 months [scismic.com](https://scismic.com/employers)
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to reduce bias in candidate evaluation; also partners with economic development organizations and professional associations [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/scismic-llc)
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount of 9 employees (-22.2% YoY, -4 people) per LinkedIn; LinkedIn followers 11,609 (+18.9% yearly). The company is expanding into workforce development and education verticals with white-label solutions [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/scismic-llc)

## Competitive Advantages
- **NIH-awarded skills-matching technology** that is gender- and race-blind, reducing bias in candidate screening
- **Specialized focus on STEM** (life sciences, manufacturing, deep tech) – not a generalist platform
- **Strong retention guarantees**: 97% first-year retention, free replacement within 12 months
- **Plug-and-play ecosystem** for multiple stakeholders (employers, educators, workforce boards) – not just a job board

## Strategic Focus
- **Skills-first hiring** – moving away from pedigree-based evaluation to verified skills data
- **Bridging the academia-industry gap** – helping translate STEM education into commercial innovation
- **Workforce development at scale** – white-label solutions for regional economic development and professional associations
- **Expanding education partnerships** – aligning curriculum with real-time labor market demand

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Mission-driven team of PhD scientists and engineers who understand the rigor of research and the importance of talent in STEM. Rated 4.5/5.0 on LinkedIn (6 reviews) with high scores for Work-Life (4.7) and Culture (4.6), but lower for Compensation (2.4) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/scismic-llc)
- **Remote/Hybrid/Office**: Not explicitly stated; headquarters in Cambridge, MA with global offices (Boston, London, Singapore). Likely hybrid or remote-friendly given 9 employees across multiple countries.
- **Notable Perks**: Opportunity to work on NIH-funded technology that directly impacts diversity and innovation in STEM. Small team offers high autonomy and impact. Focus on career development and upskilling for employees as well.
- **Engineering Culture**: Building explainable AI and skills-matching algorithms; team is composed of researchers, product innovators, and commercial strategists [scismic.com](https://scismic.com/about)

## Sources
1. [scismic.com](https://scismic.com/?hsLang=en) – Company homepage and ecosystem overview
2. [scismic.com](https://scismic.com/about) – About page, founders, mission, team
3. [scismic.com](https://scismic.com/employers) – Employer solutions and metrics
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/scismic-llc) – LinkedIn company page, employee count, followers, reviews
5. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/scismic) – Built In profile, description

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- [R&D Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/r-d-engineer-scismic-somerset-291znhp45amb) — Somerset, NJ
- [Speech Language Pathologist  (SLP or CF)](https://feeny.ai/job/speech-language-pathologist-slp-or-cf-scismic-oakland-99svctjwc4vv) — Oakland, CA
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- [Quality Assurance Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/quality-assurance-manager-scismic-indianapolis-z1shqwsr65y0) — Indianapolis, IN
- [Microbiology Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/microbiology-manager-scismic-springfield-g62fth1252zr) — Springfield, MO
- [Manager, Grants and Contracts Administration](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-grants-and-contracts-administration-scismic-phoenix-5wva3f0dvsgj) — Phoenix, AZ
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- [Patent Agent or Junior/Patent Associate (Biomedical Eng/Material Chemist)](https://feeny.ai/job/patent-agent-or-junior-patent-associate-biomedical-eng-material-chemist-scismic-0c4ehvk353p6) — Boston, MA