Lead Data Scientist
Quick answer
NPR is hiring a Lead Data Scientist (US-based) with a salary range of $164,000 – $201,000 for a full-time, hybrid position in Washington, D.C. or New York City.
- Role
- Lead Data Scientist
- Organization
- NPR
- Location
- Washington, D.C. or New York City
- Work setup
- Hybrid
- Level
- Senior
- Compensation
- $164,000 – $201,000
- Category
- Engineering & Technology
The role
Lead Data Scientist for the AI Labs team at NPR, focusing on fine-tuning and optimizing LLMs, designing data science workflows, and ensuring ethical and secure AI applications.
What you'll do
- Lead the selection, fine-tuning, and optimization of LLMs tailored to NPR’s unique content voice
- Design and architect automated machine learning pipelines for metadata generation
- Collaborate with product, design, and engineering teams to translate user needs into production-ready data science workflows
- Architect recommendation frameworks for audience personalization
- Support newsroom research through the prototyping, validation, and development of API-driven tooling
- Establish evaluation, testing, and benchmarking frameworks to ensure model outputs meet NPR’s standards
What it takes
- 8+ years of professional experience in Data Science, Machine Learning, or NLP shipping production-grade systems
- Proven track record of applying, fine-tuning, and evaluating LLMs and foundational architectures
- Experience with ASR, diarization, and audio preprocessing pipelines
- Experience designing and maintaining large-scale data architectures, vector databases, and semantic search pipelines
- Hands-on experience designing, deploying, and optimizing production-grade recommendation engines at scale
- Experience building machine learning workflows within major cloud environments
What you'll bring
How we treat you
Comprehensive benefits including health and wellness, paid time off, and financial well-being
Frequently asked questions
Where is the job located?
The job is located in Washington, D.C. or New York City, with a hybrid work schedule.
What is the compensation?
The anticipated salary range is $164,000 – $201,000, plus benefits.
What are the key qualifications required?
Key qualifications include 8+ years of experience in Data Science, ML, or NLP, and hands-on experience with LLMs and cloud environments.
How do I apply?
Interested candidates can apply through NPR’s career page.
Is the job remote?
This is a hybrid role, with some duties better performed at an NPR facility. The employee will be required to be in the office at least two to three days per week.
How to apply
Apply directly on NPR's site. We link straight through — no resume parsing, no profile to fill out.
This listing is aggregated from a third-party source and its summary may be auto-generated, so details can be inaccurate or out of date. ForGood is not the employer and is not liable for the content — please verify everything on NPR's official posting before applying.