Data Science Lead Jobs in San Francisco, CA

Sia is a next-generation, global management consulting group. Founded in 1999, we were born digital. Today our strategy and management capabilities are augmented by data science, enhanced by creativity and driven by responsibility. We’re optimists for change and we help clients initiate, navigate and benefit from transformation. We believe optimism is a force multiplier, helping clients to mitigate downside and maximize opportunity. With expertise across a broad range of sectors and services, our 3,000 consultants serve clients worldwide from 48 locations in 19 countries. Our expertise delivers results. Our optimism transforms outcomes.

Sia’s AI & Data Business Unit is the powerhouse of our firm’s innovation—merging cutting-edge Data Science, Generative AI, and advanced digital solutions to transform industries. With over 350 experts worldwide, we tackle projects from proof-of-concept to large-scale deployment, always pushing the boundaries of AI capabilities. Our 12 R&D labs in Europe and North America drive continuous research in areas like computer vision, MLOps, and deep learning, partnering closely with our business consultants for real-world impact. By joining Sia’s AI & Data team, you’ll step into a vibrant, collaborative environment that nurtures professional growth and empowers you to shape the future of AI-driven consulting.

To support its growth, Sia is recruiting a Data Scientist Consultant with a strong interest in Risk, Compliance and Regulatory topics and challenges.

Reporting to Sia's Data Science teams, your role is to support our clients' operational teams and compliance departments in defining their data needs, analyzing their data, deploying data science algorithms, and AI agents and providing strategic decision support.

These engagements require the implementation of complex analyses to support our clients, notably in:

• Forward-Deployed Engineering
• Generative AI, Machine Learning & Statistics
• Data Analysis for strategic support
• Data Engineering & DevOps
• Data Transformation & Acculturation

A few examples of engagements:

• Predictive compliance risk monitoring: Building automated data pipelines and dashboards to track operational metrics and forecast the future health of compliance workstreams, enabling proactive risk identification and mitigation.

• AI-powered regulatory intelligence: Designing and deploying a GenAI-driven system that monitors regulatory change in real time, structures obligations, maps them automatically to internal policies and controls, scores compliance gaps, and orchestrates remediation workflows - all with a full source-of-truth audit trail for compliance, risk, and legal teams.

• Analytics/ML models for AML compliance: Built and refined ML models to automate due diligence and ID verification workflows, reducing manual review time. Managed third-party data integration and collaborated with Legal and Engineering to ensure compliant deployment.

As part of the firm's internal activities, your contribution will focus on the following areas:

• Developing or strengthening our offerings through training, working groups, and internal/external materials.
• Our publication strategy (sector blogs, studies, press coverage). \
• Business development, by contributing to the definition of client needs and participating in sales activities.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner with our clients' leadership teams, engineers, program managers, and data analysts to understand data needs.
• Identify, acquire, process, and explore relevant data sources.
• Analyze large amounts of structured and unstructured information to discover trends and patterns.
• Use your data analytics and data science expertise to derive valuable insights from datasets, and build predictive models and machine learning algorithms.
• Design, build, fine-tune, and deploy LLM-based systems using models such as GPT, Claude, Gemini, Llama, and Mistral.
• Develop GenAI-powered applications (self-managed and API-based) that meet real business needs and comply with applicable regulations (GDPR, EU AI Act, model licenses).
• Design and optimize prompting strategies (few-shot, Chain/Tree-of-Thought, ReAct, self-reflection, guardrails) to improve reliability and control.
• Communicate at scale through multiple mediums: presentations, dashboards, datasets, bots, and more.
• Propose solutions and strategies to business challenges.
• Collaborate with engineering and product development teams.
• Work across a broad range of partners and projects, delivering models, algorithms, datasets, measurements, services, tools, and processes.

• Master's degree or Engineering degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related quantitative field.
• 2+ years of experience as a Data Scientist or Data Analyst.
• Strong programming skills, particularly Python and SQL.
• Proficiency in at least one major GenAI application framework (LangChain, LlamaIndex, etc.).
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Knowledge of both proprietary and open-source model ecosystems (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral AI, Hugging Face, etc.).
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts simply.

Preferred technical experience:

• Experience building agentic AI systems.
• Good understanding of machine learning techniques.
• Good understanding of statistical techniques and concepts.
• Experience with data visualization tools.
• Experience developing conversational AI systems / chatbots.
• Understanding of or experience with protocols and standards for connecting LLMs to external tools and databases, such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• Experience deploying models at scale in production environments.

Preferred industry sector experiences

• Regulatory Obligations Management: Analyze and document legal/regulatory requirements to maintain and update the client's RCM obligations library
• Control Design & Implementation: Design and implement operational controls and compliance frameworks to ensure regulatory adherence
• Risk Assessment & Testing: Lead RCSAs, thematic reviews, and control testing to identify compliance and operational gaps
• Regulatory Analysis & Strategy: Interpret emerging regulatory trends and enforcement actions to inform compliance strategy
• Compliance Best Practices: Develop and maintain compliance best practices
• Regulatory Interpretation & Controls Mapping: Interpret laws and regulations to assess applicability and map obligations to controls
• Risk & Compliance Transformation: Support transformation engagements across first-line (controls design/testing) and second-line (risk, compliance) functions

Compensation & Benefits

Sia invests in total rewards that support how our people work, live, and grow.

Compensation

• Base Salary: $98,000-122,000. Actual compensation within this range will be determined based on experience, qualifications, geographic location, and other job-related factors permitted by applicable law.
• Annual Performance Bonus

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision; company-paid life and AD&D; voluntary supplemental insurance and EAP
• 401(k) with company match and immediate vesting; HSA and FSA options
• College savings and student loan repayment programs
• Paid parental leave; generous PTO, nine company holidays, and one floating holiday
• Cell phone stipend; well-being and professional development programs

Benefits are subject to applicable plan terms and eligibility requirements.

Workplace
Sia values in-person collaboration. When serving clients, consultants may be required to work onsite at a client location based on engagement needs. Between client engagements, consultants are expected to work from a Sia office or approved coworking location at least three days per week. Candidates should reside within a reasonable commuting distance of a Sia office or approved coworking location. Sia maintains offices and coworking arrangements across multiple U.S. markets, including New York City, Charlotte, Greater Seattle, San Francisco Greater Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Washington D.C.

Work Authorization

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States at the time of application and throughout their employment. This position is not eligible for employment visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Our Commitment

At Sia, we believe in fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture where our employees and partners are valued and thrive in a sense of belonging.

Sia is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, remuneration, or discipline, are based solely on performance, competence, conduct, or business needs.