$90 - $100

Job Title:

Manager Of Data Science Location:

Raleigh, NC (27606)

Duration:

6 Months (Contract to Hire) Role Overview We are seeking a hands-on Manager of Data Science to lead a high-impact team on our Agentic Content Platform — building the shared agents, evaluation, and platform core capabilities that run our content streams, and owning the delivery of some streams end to end. This is a player-coach role combining people's leadership, technical strategy, and selective hands-on data science contribution. Key Responsibilities Scope & Impact

+ Set the vision and strategic priorities for AI across the content platform, acting as a recognized expert for Data Science

+ Own delivery of your assigned content streams — quality, timeliness, and automation level — while contributing reusable capability back to the shared platform

+ Lead and develop a team of data scientists, setting the cultural tone for the group

+ Drive applied research with a clear path to production, keeping the business outcome as the first priority and working within real-world constraints such as latency and reliability

+ Build and scale evaluation science capabilities within the team, including offline evaluation frameworks, automated benchmarking pipelines, and human-in-the-loop feedback systems to rigorously measure model quality and business impact

+ Champion hands-on rapid prototyping and iteration

+ Collaborate with other Data Science teams to maximize re-use of components and patterns, eliminating waste, duplication and unnecessary customization

+ Operate with broad scope, coordinating across multiple cross-functional teams, systems, and domains

+ Exercise judgment about where to automate, where to keep a human editor in the loop, and how to move that line over time

+ Select the right tools and technologies for the business problem Technical & Product Leadership

+ Define and execute the AI roadmap for the content platform, prioritizing reusable platform capabilities and agent-based workflows over one-off solutions.

+ Translate ambiguous business problems into clear technical strategies and delivery plans, identifying tradeoffs and alternative approaches when constraints arise.

+ Design and oversee production-grade AI systems that meet customer requirements for accuracy, reliability, scalability, and appropriate human oversight.

+ Partner with Product, Engineering, and Architecture leaders to establish shared foundations, integrate AI into the platform at scale, and replace bespoke tooling with reusable workflows.

+ Lead by example through hands-on technical contributions, including writing code, developing and demonstrating prototypes, and contributing to experiments and production models.

+ Establish and scale Data Science standards for experimentation, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, performance, and reliability across both the team's solutions and shared capabilities. Team & Operational Excellence

+ Foster a culture of curiosity, adaptability, responsible innovation, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning, enabling the team to evolve as technologies, customer needs, and business priorities change.

+ Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing data science team, supporting individual growth and career development.

+ Establish clear goals, priorities, operating rhythms, and accountability for the team's work.

+ Foster effective collaboration across Product, Engineering, Design, Legal, and other business functions.

+ Promote a culture of technical excellence, responsible innovation, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.

+ Ensure the team has the skills, resources, and organizational support needed to deliver against business priorities. Core Qualifications Experience & Education

+ Advanced degree (Master's or PhD) in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related field strongly preferred, or equivalent practical experience

+ Bachelor's degree in a relevant field with significant applied experience in data science, machine learning, or AI

+ Typically requires: + 8+ years of relevant experience in data science, machine learning, or applied AI + 4+ years of leadership experience (direct or indirect team management) We recognize that exceptional candidates may follow non-traditional paths and value demonstrated impact, technical depth, and leadership over strict credential requirements. Technical Proficiency

+ Proficient with Python, ML and LLM tooling such as Google ADK, LangChain/LangGraph, ML frameworks (e.g. TensorFlow, PyTorch) and prompt tuning techniques

+ Experience building multi-agent or orchestrated LLM systems — task decomposition, tool use, routing, state and failure handling

+ Familiarity with vector databases, knowledge graphs, and hybrid retrieval architecture

+ Strong experience working with structured and unstructured data at scale

+ Ability to design and implement data pipelines and preparation workflows

+ Experience integrating ML into complex, multi-stage processing systems, including event-driven architectures

+ Working knowledge of containerization, CI/CD, RESTful API design and model serving tools

+ Familiarity with LLM observability and evaluation tooling (tracing, offline eval harnesses, LLM-as-judge and human review pipelines)

+ Cloud infrastructure experience on AWS (preferred), Azure, or GCP

+ Familiarity with AI coding tools (e.g. GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex)Motion Recruitment Partners (MRP) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants must be currently authorized to work on a full-time basis in the country for which they are applying, and no sponsorship is currently available. Employment is subject to the successful completion of a pre-employment screening. Accommodation will be provided in all parts of the hiring process as required under MRP's Employment Accommodation policy. Applicants need to make their needs known in advance.