Scientifique Principale des Données-Ingénieur, Staff Data Scientist- Eng

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do. We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better and celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you.

Responsibilities

• Work with domain experts, perform data studies and analysis on billions of records from our one‑of‑a‑kind dataset to identify meaningful business opportunities; translate ambiguous business problems into well‑defined computational tasks.
• Apply statistics, machine learning, and other techniques to analyze the data, generate models, and prototype new AI solutions. Define experimentation strategy and validate solutions rigorously before deployment.
• Build production‑quality prototypes and collaborate with engineering resources to implement the solution in a scalable cloud framework like Google's Vertex AI. Design multi‑component systems with appropriate monitoring, canary deployments, and rollback capabilities.
• Thrive in different working environments—both independent, self‑driven research and development, and collaborative, team‑driven projects. Navigate ambiguity by focusing on purpose and help the team adapt to changing priorities.
• Lead new initiatives that bring business value to UKG, mentor others, and proactively identify team‑wide improvement opportunities.
• Technical leadership: Serve as the technical lead on data science projects, owning end‑to‑end delivery from problem framing through solution deployment and driving technical decisions across the project lifecycle. Define technical roadmaps for multi‑phase projects, anticipate risks and trade‑offs, and drive stakeholder alignment. Take responsibility for team‑level failures and own operational excellence.
• Internal & external communication: Communicate project progress, technical approaches, and results effectively to internal teams (product, engineering, leadership), connecting DS work to business outcomes in stakeholder language. Engage with external stakeholders (customers, partners) as needed.
• Knowledge sharing & team development: Foster a culture of knowledge sharing by conducting technical reviews, leading brown‑bag sessions, and establishing best practices for the data science team. Model excellence and integrity; identify growth opportunities for teammates. Actively participate in hiring.
• Data & code stewardship: Establish team‑wide standards for code quality, automation, testing, and documentation. Ensure data quality and governance practices are applied across all data systems and pipelines.

Qualifications

• Education and experience in a quantitative field. PhD plus 3 years of experience, or master’s degree plus 5 years of experience.
• Deep expertise in at least 1–2 machine learning or AI subfields, including but not limited to generative AI, agentic AI, LLMs and foundation models, regression, classification, deep learning, time‑series analysis, clustering, NLP, transfer learning, GenAI, etc.
• Strong ability to visualize data, communicate meaningful business insights, and present complex findings to technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Proven track record of delivering impactful AI solutions that drive business value, with demonstrated end‑to‑end ownership from problem framing through production deployment.
• Significant experience designing, developing, and deploying AI solutions in production environments, with familiarity in cloud‑based frameworks like Vertex AI and databases like BigQuery or equivalent.
• Experience with big data tools, databases, and scalable architectures (e.g., SQL, Spark, Hadoop). Familiarity with data quality and governance practices at scale.
• Advanced programming skills in Python or another scripting language, with expertise in tools and libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, TensorFlow, or PyTorch.
• Strong decision‑making skills, making informed choices through appropriate consultation and understanding implications across team and downstream systems.
• Commitment to continuous learning and pushing the boundaries of AI and machine learning innovation. Proactively seeks feedback and maintains a growth mindset.

Company Overview

UKG is the Workforce Operating Platform that puts workforce understanding to work. With the world's largest collection of workforce insights and people‑first AI, our ability to reveal unseen ways to build trust, amplify productivity, and empower talent is unmatched. This expertise equips our customers with the intelligence to solve any challenge in any industry—because great organizations know their workforce is their competitive edge. Learn more at ukg.com.

Equal Opportunity & Accommodations

UKG is proud to be an equal‑opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive work environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, age, disability, marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, veteran status, and any other legally protected status under federal, state, or local anti‑discrimination laws.

Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview Process: For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email View email address on ca.talent.com.

Compensation

The pay range for this position is $124,200 CAD to $167,650 CAD. The actual base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job‑related knowledge and work location. In addition to base pay, employees may be eligible to participate in a performance‑based bonus plan and to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation.

Quebec Candidates

• While French is required for Quebec roles, use of the English language is also required due to the global nature of the business and the need to interact with UKG US headquarters and international sites.