Staff Machine Learning Data Scientist

Summary

Join KoBold, a leading mineral exploration company, and contribute to the energy transition by leveraging cutting-edge AI and remote sensing technologies. As a Data Science Team Lead, you will architect, implement, and maintain data science models for processing large-scale geospatial data, directly impacting mineral exploration projects. You will lead and grow a team of engineers and data scientists, overseeing global airborne data collection programs. This role requires strong technical skills, experience managing technical teams, and a collaborative approach. The position offers a competitive salary, remote work flexibility, and the opportunity to work on impactful projects within a dynamic, fast-growing company.

Requirements

• Demonstrated ability to quickly absorb and synthesize complex information, with a track record of high intellectual rigor in a professional setting
• Exceptional curiosity and eagerness to learn, with a proactive approach to exploring new concepts and technologies
• At least 5 years of experience as a software engineer, data scientist or ML engineer
• 2+ years managing technical teams in complex, multidisciplinary projects
• Track record of building production quality data processing solutions or tooling that have delivered business value
• Proficiency with foundational concepts of ML, including statistical, traditional and deep-learning approaches
• Proficiency in Python, ideally including array-based packages such as xarray and numpy
• Proficiency in scaling complex data operations across distributed computing resources, using tools such as Spark or Dask
• Capacity to dive deep on novel challenging problems in applying ML to mineral exploration, including understanding a complex domain of geology and mineral exploration practices as well as working with limited, disparate and noisy data sources
• Collaborative attitude to work with stakeholders with different backgrounds (data scientists, geoscientists, software engineers, operations)
• Experience with multispectral remote-sensing data from a variety of sources
• Ability to take ownership and responsibility of large projects
• Ability to explain technical problems to and collaborate on solutions with domain experts who aren’t software developers. A strong communicator who enjoys working with colleagues across the company
• Ability to independently prioritize multiple tasks effectively

Responsibilities

• Architect, implement, and maintain foundational data science models for distributed processing of large-scale geospatial data with direct application to Kobold’s mineral exploration projects and deep collaboration with geoscientists
• In collaboration with our engineering team, build tooling to increase the velocity and rigor of our machine learning capabilities to derive insights from remote sensing data
• Improve upon current processing pipelines for lidar, high resolution imagery, and hyperspectral data
• Push the state of the art in analysis capabilities by implementing statistically rigorous spatially aware clustering, anomaly detection, and other analysis methods
• Collaborate with data scientists, geoscientists and engineers to invent and deploy algorithms that combine large and complex data sets for mineral exploration and discoveries
• Lead and grow the team of 3-6 field engineers and data scientists collecting and processing terabytes of hyperspectral and lidar data around the globe
• Run our global airborne data collection program - working closely with internal mineral exploration teams, legal, contracting, and operations as well as external aviation partners to safely and successfully deploy our custom sensors, backhaul and rapidly process data
• Lead the week-to-week working cadence and quarterly planning process - setting clear goals, timelines, and technical objectives - weighing company priorities and executing a roadmap to improve our capabilities to collect data and derive mineral exploration insights

Preferred Qualifications

• Intellectual curiosity and eagerness to learn about all aspects of mineral exploration, particularly in the geology domain. Open to working directly with geologists in the field. Enjoys constantly learning such that you are driving insights and innovations
• Excitement about joining a fast-growing early-stage company, comfort with a dynamic work environment, and eagerness to take on a range of responsibilities
• Keen not just to build cool technology, but to figure out what technical product to build to best achieve the business objectives of the company

Benefits

• Remote work, Candidates can be located anywhere in the United States or Canada
• The US base salary range for this full-time exempt position is $200,000 - $250,000