AI Data Scientist

AI Data Scientist
Location: San Francisco

About the Team
Our client is a leading private equity firm with a dedicated AI team that works directly with portfolio company leadership and the investment team to identify, size, and deliver applied AI opportunities. The team operates less like a research group and more like an internal consultancy with an engineering core, moving quickly from hypothesis to analysis to a shipped tool or a board-ready recommendation.
The Role
They're looking for a Data Scientist who can walk into a portfolio company, get hands-on with messy org, financial, and operational data, and come out with a clear, defensible view of where AI and automation can create value, plus a model that makes the case repeatable across a broad portfolio. This is an applied, high-autonomy role, not a research posting or a slide-writing exercise.
What You'll Do

• Partner with portfolio company teams to source, clean, and analyse workforce, financial, and operational data (headcount, spend, org structure, process data)
• Build and refine quantitative models that size AI-driven efficiency and value-creation opportunities by function, profession, or process
• Develop reusable analytical frameworks that scale a single company's analysis across the wider portfolio
• Translate findings into clear recommendations for investment committee materials and portfolio company leadership; you present your own work
• Partner closely with the team's software engineers to move models from notebook to production tool

What You'll Bring

• 2-3 years at a top-tier strategy consulting firm with genuine hands-on analytics exposure, or equivalent applied data science experience in a fast-paced, stakeholder-facing environment
• Strong quantitative foundation (statistical analysis, segmentation, forecasting, applied ML) and good judgement about when each is, and isn't, the right tool
• Fluent in Python (pandas, scikit-learn or similar) and SQL; genuinely comfortable writing the code, not just briefing someone who does
• A track record of turning ambiguous business questions into structured analysis and a clear point of view
• Comfortable presenting directly to senior stakeholders, including portfolio company executives and investment committees
• A bias toward speed and pragmatism over rigor for its own sake
• Strong analytical skills
• Curiosity and a willingness to learn

Nice to Have

• Exposure to private equity, corporate strategy, or workforce/organisational analytics
• Experience with generative AI / LLM-based analysis tooling
• Experience working across multiple portfolio companies or clients simultaneously

Why This Role
A builder's seat at the intersection of AI, strategy, and investing: a small team, direct exposure to senior leadership, and work that flows straight into investment and value-creation decisions rather than sitting in a deck.

Burns Sheehan Ltd will consider applications based only on skills and ability and will not discriminate on any grounds.