Architect V - Data Science

Clearwater, FL, US Mid Level AI/ML Engineer

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Skills & Technologies

AzureDockerKubernetesMlflowPythonPytorchTensorflow

About This Role

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JOB SUMMARY

This position is responsible for technology leadership, with responsibilities including the development of strategic application architecture frameworks and the envisioning, planning and development of technology roadmaps across a wide array of fields.

The Enterprise Architecture team is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to help define how the organization designs, governs, and scales data science and analytics capabilities across the enterprise. This is a hybrid strategist-practitioner role: you will architect enterprise-wide data science patterns and standards on our Snowflake-centered data platform while also leading the design and delivery of high-impact statistical and machine learning solutions. You will partner closely with Enterprise Architects, Data Engineering, IT, and business stakeholders to ensure that advanced analytics capabilities are built on a scalable, governed, and reusable foundation — rather than one-off solutions.

This role is ideal for a senior data scientist who thinks in systems: someone who can move fluidly between building a production-grade model, designing a reusable feature engineering pattern in Snowflake, and advising architecture governance boards on the right way to operationalize AI/ML at scale.Candidate will have at least 10 years experience working for a company or governmental agency with at least 300 employees (if private sector) or 500 employees (if governmental agency).

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Enterprise Data Science Architecture & Strategy

  • Define and evangelize enterprise standards, reference architectures, and reusable design patterns for data science, machine learning, and statistical modeling workflows built on Snowflake and Databricks.
  • Partner with Enterprise Architecture leadership to align data science roadmaps with the broader enterprise data and technology strategy, including data governance, security, and platform modernization initiatives across both platforms.
  • Serve as a technical authority in architecture review boards, evaluating proposed analytics and ML solutions for scalability, cost-efficiency, security, and reusability before they move to production.
  • Design and champion MLOps and ModelOps patterns (versioning, monitoring, retraining, feature stores) that operationalize models reliably across Snowflake (Snowpark, Snowflake ML/Cortex, Snowflake Feature Store) and Databricks (MLflow, Unity Catalog, Feature Store, Databricks Model Serving).
  • Define clear architectural guidance on when to leverage Snowflake versus Databricks for a given workload, and design interoperability patterns so data and models move cleanly between the two platforms.

Optimization & Planning Solutions

  • Design and build mathematical optimization models (linear/mixed-integer programming, heuristics, simulation) to solve enterprise planning problems such as network design, capacity planning, resource allocation, and inventory/demand optimization.
  • Partner with business planning functions to modernize and scale planning processes — translating manual or spreadsheet-based planning into governed, data-driven optimization solutions running on Snowflake and Databricks.
  • Evaluate and integrate optimization solvers and frameworks (e.g., Gurobi, CPLEX, OR-Tools, PuLP) into enterprise architecture patterns so planning solutions are reusable, auditable, and maintainable at scale.
  • Combine forecasting and optimization techniques to support end-to-end planning cycles (e.g., demand planning feeding into network or capacity optimization).

Advanced Analytics & Model Development

  • Lead end-to-end development of advanced statistical models, machine learning algorithms, and forecasting solutions that solve complex, ambiguous business problems with enterprise-wide impact.
  • Translate business questions from executive and cross-functional stakeholders into well-scoped analytical and modeling approaches, and communicate findings and recommendations in clear, actionable terms.
  • Perform advanced exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, and model validation directly against large-scale datasets in Snowflake and Databricks, optimizing for performance and cost.
  • Build and train machine learning models using Databricks notebooks and distributed compute (Spark/PySpark), and manage the model lifecycle end-to-end with MLflow.
  • Apply rigorous experimentation methods (A/B testing, causal inference, quasi-experimental design) to validate model impact and support data-driven decision-making.

Governance, Mentorship & Collaboration

  • Establish and enforce best practices for data quality, model documentation, reproducibility, and responsible/ethical AI across the data science function.
  • Mentor and provide technical guidance to data scientists and analytics engineers; act as a force multiplier by raising the technical bar across the team.
  • Collaborate closely with Data Engineering, Platform/Cloud Engineering, IT Security, and Enterprise Architecture peers to ensure data science solutions are secure, well-governed, and interoperable with enterprise systems.
  • Stay current on emerging data science, AI/ML, and platform capabilities (e.g., Snowflake Cortex AI, Snowpark Container Services, Databricks Mosaic AI) and proactively recommend adoption where it creates business value.

JOB QUALIFICATIONS: Education & Experience Requirements

  • Master’s degree or PhD in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related quantitative field.
  • 10+ years of professional experience in data science, applied machine learning, or advanced analytics, including experience operating at a senior/principal level with enterprise-wide scope.
  • Hands-on, must-have expertise with Snowflake — including writing and optimizing complex Snowflake SQL, working with Snowpark (Python), designing scalable data models and pipelines, and leveraging Snowflake's native ML/AI capabilities (Cortex, Feature Store, ML Functions).
  • Hands-on, must-have expertise with Databricks — including Spark/PySpark for large-scale data processing, the Lakehouse architecture (Delta Lake), MLflow for experiment tracking and model lifecycle management, and Unity Catalog for governance.
  • Strong programming skills in Python and/or R, with deep experience in the modern data science stack (pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch/TensorFlow, Spark MLlib, etc.).
  • Solid foundation in statistics and machine learning techniques: regression, classification, clustering, time-series forecasting, and experimentation/causal inference.
  • Hands-on experience with mathematical/prescriptive optimization (linear programming, mixed-integer programming, or heuristic/simulation-based approaches) applied to planning or resource-allocation problems.
  • Demonstrated experience designing or contributing to enterprise architecture patterns — data architecture, solution architecture, or ML/MLOps architecture — in a large, matrixed organization.
  • Experience with cloud platforms; Azure strongly preferred, along with modern data/ML tooling (dbt, Airflow, MLflow, Docker/Kubernetes).
  • Excellent communication skills, with a track record of translating complex technical concepts for both technical and executive, non-technical audiences.
  • 6+ years developing production-quality solutions using Python, SQL, and Spark, including testing, version control, and software engineering best practices.
  • 4+ years building scalable data pipelines, managing data quality at scale, and supporting cloud-based data lake architectures, including 3+ years with Databricks or a comparable modern data and AI platform.
  • 2+ years designing and deploying Generative AI solutions, including Large Language Models (LLMs), AI agents, and related AI-powered applications within enterprise environments.
  • 3+ years leading or mentoring data scientists and engineers, conducting technical design and code reviews, building analytics and visualization solutions, and translating complex business challenges into machine learning, analytics, and AI products.
  • Experience with commercial or open-source optimization solvers (Gurobi, CPLEX, OR-Tools) and/or supply chain planning platforms (e.g., o9, Kinaxis, Blue Yonder, SAP IBP).
  • Experience with enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF) or formal participation in architecture governance/review processes.
  • Familiarity with data governance and cataloging tools (e.g., Collibra, Alation) and modern orchestration/transformation tools (dbt, Airflow).
  • Experience building and scaling internal ML platforms, feature stores, or self-service analytics capabilities.
  • Experience in the logistics, transportation, or supply chain domain (e.g., network optimization, fleet/route planning, warehouse or distribution planning) is a strong plus.

JOB QUALIFICATIONS: Essential Skills, Abilities and Example Behavior(s)

  • CUSTOMER FOCUS: Provides service excellence to internal and/or external customers. Provides added value. Looks for ways to add value beyond clients' immediate requests. Addresses the unidentified, underlying and long-term client needs. Enhances client service delivery systems and processes. Anticipates clients' upcoming needs and concerns.
  • RESULTS ORIENTATION: Focuses efforts on achieving high quality results consistent with the organization’s standards. Exceeds standards. Defines ambitious, but realistic, personal goals and standards. Evaluates personal progress against standards. Undertakes significant challenges. Adjusts actions to meet and exceed expectations. Tries new ways to get things done, while taking steps to reduce the risks.
  • TEAMWORK / COLLABORATION: Works collaboratively with others to achieve organizational goals. Proactively assists and involves others. Initiates collaboration with others. Assumes additional responsibilities to facilitate the achievement of team goals. Seeks input from other team members on matters that affect them.
  • HIGH STANDARDS: Follows up on procedures, ensures high quality output, takes action to solve quality problems or notify quality issues as appropriate. Exceeds quality standards set by organization. Follows all the policies and procedures for quality set by the organization. Works at a level that consistently meets and often exceeds quality standards set by the organization. Seeks opportunities to improve how work is done, raising the quality of the output.
  • BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE: Uses an understanding of business issues, processes and outcomes to enhance business performance. Makes recommendations to improve business operations. Offers concrete suggestions to reduce costs, improve quality or revenue for aspects of key products or services in own area. Identifies potential new clients for own area. Recognizes the value of all major business areas, avoiding a "single area" bias.
  • CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION: Generates viable, new approaches and solutions. Modifies current approaches. Modifies current approach to better meet needs. Thinks about problems from a new perspective. Expands on the thinking or solutions proposed by others. Demonstrates curiosity, digging for information below the surface.
  • FOSTERING COMMUNICATION: Listens and communicates openly, honestly, and respectfully with different audiences, promoting dialogue and building consensus. Fosters two-way communication. Recalls others' main points, taking them into account in own communication. Checks own understanding of others' communication (e.g., paraphrases, asks questions). Elicits comments or feedback on what has been said. Maintains continuous, open and consistent communication with others.
  • INITIATIVE: Deals with situations and issues proactively and persistently, seizing opportunities that arise. Addresses current issues. Acts on issues in own area of responsibility instead of waiting or hoping the problem will solve itself. Tries varied approaches and solutions to resolve a problem. Persists when significant difficulties arise.
  • PROBLEM SOLVING: Identifies problems and the solutions to them. Solves standard problems. Identifies standard problems based on a range of factors, most of which are clear. Identifies alternate solutions, considering applicable precedents. Identifies optimal solutions based on weighing the advantages and disadvantages of alternative approaches. Evaluates the effectiveness and efficiency of solutions after implementation.
  • TECHNICAL CAPABILITY: Understands and applies functional and technical knowledge and skills to accomplish work objectives. Keeping up to date with new development in the subject area and continuing to enhance the skills. Applies technical knowledge and skills in a range of typical situations, with minimal or no guidance. Follows standard procedures, where applicable, for common tasks. Seeks support from senior staff when encountering atypical issues.
  • SYSTEM DESIGN: Identifying and selecting system options which are balanced and optimized and applying techniques to a variety of system design contexts to ensure system interoperability, scale, performance, usability, and security. Demonstrates solid knowledge and ability, and can apply the competency, with minimal or no guidance, in the full range of typical situations. Would require guidance to handle novel or more complex situations. Maintains control over the system design life cycle. Analyzes architecture business requirements and prepares system design proposals. Provides support for problem resolution activities. Conducts impact analysis for proposed changes to the system. Provide system design guidance to the team.
  • SYSTEMS INTEGRATION AND PORTING: The integration and testing of software products, components and/or subsystems and their interfaces into existing, new or modified software and hardware platform environments to deliver automated solutions according to business and technical specifications. Demonstrates solid knowledge and ability, and can apply the competency, with minimal or no guidance, in the full range of typical situations. Would require guidance to handle novel or more complex situations. Produces integrated software builds using complex programming and software modules. Configures the hardware environment, produces integration test specifications, and conducts tests as required. Verifies that the logical design components are consistent with integration target architecture requirements. Carries out support and production assurance for common systems integration problem resolution activities.
  • INFRASTRUCTURE/PLATFORMS: Supporting the enterprise computing infrastructure (e.g., enterprise servers, client server, storage devices and systems, hardware and software) in the provision, management, storage, operation, scheduling, support and maintenance of the infrastructure. Demonstrates solid knowledge and ability, and can apply the competency, with minimal or no guidance, in the full range of typical situations. Would require guidance to handle novel or more complex situations. Describes how the platform integrates with other enterprise elements. Uses performance data collection tools and techniques to mitigate down-time and improve performance. Installs software and hardware on the platform. Solves routine hardware and software problems, documenting new problems and their solution for future reference. Uses appropriate diagnostic tools to solve complex problems. Executes standards without supervision, suggesting modifications to these standards.
  • PROCESSES, METHODOLOGIES, AND TOOLS: The development of expertise and the provision of advice, assistance and leadership in processes, methodologies and tools used in any specific area of technology by focusing on definition, management, repeatability and measurement to ensure appropriate and effective use throughout the organization. Demonstrates basic knowledge and ability and, with guidance, can apply the competency in common situations that present limited difficulties. Selects appropriate tools and methodologies to deliver applications and systems that meet defined organizational business needs. Works with the QA Team to contribute to the continual improvement of QA standards and best practices. Reviews all integration components to ensure that source code control practices are followed. Captures functional and nonfunctional requirements. Develops business analysis practices and standards, as well as associated tools, templates and techniques. Reviews and identifies modifications to existing software development/integration process approaches. Develops new ways to achieve process improvements. Identifies where software process, methodologies and/or tools would increase the IT organization capacity to contribute to meeting business needs. Evaluates the effectiveness of development and integration processes, methodologies and tools used in application systems development activities.

Equal Opportunity Employer

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Role Details

Company PODS
Title Architect V - Data Science
Location Clearwater, FL, US
Category AI/ML Engineer
Experience Mid Level
Salary Not disclosed
Remote No

About This Role

AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.

Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.

Across the 9,653 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 76% of the market. At PODS, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.

Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.

What the Work Looks Like

A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.

Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.

Skills Required

Azure (8% of roles) Docker (3% of roles) Kubernetes (4% of roles) Mlflow (1% of roles) Python (17% of roles) Pytorch (5% of roles) Tensorflow (4% of roles)

Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.

Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.

Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.

Compensation Benchmarks

AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $212,000 based on 11,857 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $193,200.

Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,400. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,230. The 90th percentile reaches $319,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($253,100) and Research Engineer ($252,000). By seniority level: Entry: $110,408; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $228,700; Director: $272,275; VP: $235,000.

PODS AI Hiring

PODS has 6 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist. Positions span Clearwater, FL, US, Clearwater, FL.

Location Context

Across all AI roles, 6% (568 positions) offer remote work, while 9,010 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,878 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,413 roles, $264,500 median); Los Angeles (1,340 roles, $210,000 median).

Career Path

Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.

From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.

The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.

What to Expect in Interviews

Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.

When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.

AI Hiring Overview

The AI job market has 9,653 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 193 entry-level, 4,500 mid-level, 3,455 senior, and 1,505 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (568 positions). The remaining 9,010 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.

The market median for AI roles is $213,400. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,230. The 90th percentile reaches $319,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($253,100 median, 57 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 419 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($251,622 median, 51 roles).

Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.

The AI Job Market Today

The AI job market spans 9,653 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (7,301), Data Scientist (441), AI Software Engineer (438). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.

The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (193) are outnumbered by mid-level (4,500) and senior (3,455) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 1,505 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.

Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (568 positions), with 9,010 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.

AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $213,400. Top-quartile roles start at $264,230, and the 90th percentile reaches $319,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.

Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $253,100 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $141,440. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.

The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,605 postings), Aws (916 postings), Azure (724 postings), Rag (634 postings), Gcp (522 postings), Pytorch (495 postings), Kubernetes (384 postings), Claude (383 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.

Frequently Asked Questions

Based on 11,857 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for AI/ML Engineer positions is $212,000. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
About 6% of the 9,653 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
PODS is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from AI/ML Engineer positions include ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

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