Applied Scientist Jobs in San Francisco, CA

San Francisco, CA · On-site (5 days/week) · Full-time
Compensation: $170,000–$300,000 base

About the Company

Our client is a Series B company building purpose-built AI systems that forecast and optimize how physical products are manufactured, stored, and distributed around the world. Instead of layering a general-purpose model on top of existing tools, the team trains a custom frontier model for each customer and treats supply chain forecasting as a fundamental computer science problem. They are already live with multi-billion-dollar enterprises and high-growth businesses, backed by top-tier venture investors, and led by a founding team with prior successful exits and deep research backgrounds.

Founded 2024 · ~20 people · Industry: AI, B2B, Enterprise, Logistics, Manufacturing

The Role

Our client is hiring an Applied AI Scientist to join a brand-new Applied AI team being built out around its VP of Applied AI. This is a technical, customer-facing role for someone coming from data science, forward deployed engineering, or solutions architecture who is equally comfortable in a Jupyter notebook and in front of an enterprise stakeholder. You'd be the trusted technical partner to customers from the very first demo through full production deployment, with customer demand growing quickly enough that there is real room to shape how the team operates.

What you'll be doing

• Meeting with enterprise customers to understand their operational challenges and framing those problems clearly for technical and non-technical audiences alike
• Leading technical and value-focused demos, and building custom demos and prototypes that support sales and go-to-market efforts
• Working directly in customer data with Python and SQL to surface and demonstrate real business value
• Acting as the technical point person through evaluations, pilots, and implementations
• Supporting live customer deployments so each customer gets the full value of the platform

Tech stack: Python, SQL, Machine Learning, Data Science

Requirements

• Direct experience working with enterprise customers on deployments, pilots, demos, or messy operational data problems (retail or CPG settings are a strong plus)
• A track record of building custom demos and proofs-of-concept in code, primarily Python and SQL
• Roughly 3–8 years as a data scientist, forward deployed engineer, solutions architect, or similar
• Background at an enterprise ML/data platform company, an early-stage startup, or a top-tier consulting firm
• A bachelor's degree in a STEM or other quantitative field
• Experience in a selling or pre-sales motion for a product where you needed a genuine grounding in machine learning to be credible
• Ability to run demos that land with both engineers and business leaders

Nice to Haves

• A hands-on, builder's approach and real enthusiasm for picking up unfamiliar technologies and domains as the work requires

Why Join

• Work on real AI: custom frontier models trained per customer, not a wrapper around someone else's LLM
• Ground floor of a new team at a well-funded Series B: you'll help define the function as the company deploys with some of the world's largest supply chains
• Founders with prior exits and a team drawn from leading universities, big tech, and top data and analytics companies
• Competitive base plus health, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k), commuter benefits, and unlimited PTO

Details

• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Work policy: 5 days in-office
• Compensation: $170,000–$300,000 base; no equity component at this time
• Visa sponsorship: Open to visa transfers (e.g. OPT, H-1B transfers)
• Employment type: Full-time