Assoc Dir-AI Science

You want more out of a career. A place to share your ideas freely — even if they’re daring or different. Where the true you can learn, grow, and thrive. At Verizon, we power and empower how people live, work and play by connecting them to what brings them joy. We do what we love — driving innovation, creativity, and impact in the world. Our V Team is a community of people who anticipate, lead, and believe that listening is where learning begins. In crisis and in celebration, we come together — lifting our communities and building trust in how we show up, everywhere & always. Want in? Join the #VTeamLife.

This is a leadership role that will require deep technical expertise in data science and AI methods, experience with implementation of AI in commercial applications and experience in leading and building a team. This leader and the team will focus on proactive research on the next generation of AI methods with a focus on building ethical AI capabilities and designing models and model testing and validations practices that eliminate potential for biases.

This role will work closely with data science teams and the entire data scientist community at Verizon in proactively designing and developing unbiased and ethical AI capabilities. These AI capabilities will include predictive, prescriptive and adaptive applications for all predictions and inferences at Verizon. Models will typically get implemented on premise, in cloud and/or on the edge and in both real-time and batch mode depending upon the business applications. 

An ideal candidate will have excellent communication skills, critical thinking, and strategic thinking skills above and beyond the technical knowledge and commercial application experience required.

Responsibilities

Develop Next Generation AI Capabilities

• Lead in developing the next generation of AI that protects the privacy of our customers and ensures that our modeling practices are ethical and bias free. Bring thought leadership in this space by introducing ways of identifying and testing for biases in our models. Introduce new methods to protect the confidentiality of our data.

• Develop testing and validation rigor for all new and next generation AI methods.

• Collaborate with data scientist teams and senior leaders to ensure model testing and validation discipline is followed for all models including models deployed in production.

Build and Manage the Team

• Build a high performing team of data scientists that is highly engaged, operates with high degree to autonomy, accountability and a sense to urgency in delivering on business outcomes

• Build a diverse team with an inclusive culture

• Attract and retain top talent with deep technical expertise to Verizon

• Enable career development via access to training resources, on the job coaching and mentoring

Help create an environment where our scientists are engaged in pioneering work that can be shared with the world in a number of ways like open source, publications, etc.

Technical Thought Leadership

• Operate as an expert and thought leader both within Verizon and externally within industry

• Serve as trusted advisor to all stakeholders at Verizon

• Coach and mentor our high potential talent

Elevate the AI Practice

• Partner with academia and startup ecosystem to identify and potentially bring in new AI approach that can be of value to Verizon.

• Stay informed on the latest advancements in AI and technology space, finding ways to deliver value by applying and customizing these to our specific problem space.

• Help create an environment where our scientists are engaged in pioneering work that can be shared with the world in a number of ways like open source, publications, etc.

• Inspire our team to create AI applications designed with bias considerations and that promotes ethical AI both within Verizon and externally with Verizon’s partners.

• Establish best practices and governance routines to ensure adherence to model management policies, peer reviews, and compliance to our policy standards for privacy, ethics, and bias.

What we're looking for:

You'll need to have:

• Bachelors degree or six or more years of work experience.

• Six or more years of relevant work experience.

• Five or more years of direct experience with leading models research and validation with a focus on topics like bias and ethical AI, two or more years in a manager capacity managing research oriented talent

• Expert level understanding and ability to explain both the code and the underlying math used in algorithms/models. Must have excellent coding proficiency with demonstrated expertise in python, java, R, etc. Expert level knowledge of AI/ML models, frameworks(keras, pytorch, etc.) and libraries/packages/apis (e.g., scikit); Agentic AI/ Gen AI experience.

• Five or more years of developing models and algorithms independently, writing your own code, developing strategy for algorithmic experimentation, and deploying in production

• Experience with both batch and streaming models in production

• Advanced knowledge of math, probability, statistics, and models

• Experience with Cloud or other distributed compute services

• Exposure to data structures, data modeling and software architecture skills

Even better if you have any of the following:

• Excellent communication skills

• Excellent cross-functional collaboration skills

• Outstanding analytical and problem solving skills

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or similar field

Verizon is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, gender, disability or any other legally protected characteristics.