job purpose: The Data Scientist will play a key role in advancing fairlife's vision of establishing a world-class Decision Intelligence ecosystem. This role entails supporting the design, development, and delivery of AI and ML models including production optimization, quality control and anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, supply chain forecasting, and real-time operational analytics. The role will drive innovation and excellence in data science capability, empowering fairlife to leverage data-driven insights for enhanced decision-making and operational efficiency. Increasingly, this work also includes applying large language models (LLMs) and AI agents to automate workflows and augment traditional models where they add value.

responsibilities:

• Collaborate with the Senior Data Scientist to design, develop, and deploy AI and ML models supporting analytics and business objectives
• Engineer and maintain scalable data pipelines for AI/ML workflows
• Enable AI adoption by developing reusable components, APIs, and automation scripts
• Support model lifecycle management, including monitoring, retraining, and performance optimization
• Implement MLOps best practices for version control, CI/CD, and automated deployment
• Assist in the development of advanced analytics dashboards and tools to communicate model results
• Apply prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and fine-tuning to build effective large language model (LLM) solutions
• Build and integrate LLM-powered agents to automate multi-step tasks and workflows that complement traditional ML models
• Ensure responsible AI practices, including fairness, transparency, and compliance
• Gather, clean, and analyze large and complex datasets to support AI initiatives
• Conduct experiments and statistical analyses to answer business questions and validate AI models
• Stay current with emerging AI technologies and recommend innovative solutions

skills/qualifications required:

• 2-4+ years of relevant experience in data science, AI engineering, or related fields
• Bachelor's or Master's in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Engineering, or a related STEM field
• Experience in data cleaning, exploration, and analysis
• Hands-on experience with machine learning and deep learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn)
• Proficiency in Python and SQL for data manipulation, analysis, and model development
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure/Fabric, AWS, or GCP) for scalable AI/ML deployment
• Experience with MLOps tools and practices (e.g., MLflow, Kubeflow, CI/CD pipelines)
• Experience applying large language models (LLMs), including prompt engineering and fine-tuning, and responsible AI practices
• Ability to visualize data and model results using tools like Power BI, Tableau, Matplotlib, or Seaborn
• Strong communication skills for collaborating with business and technical teams
• Exposure to building AI agents or agentic workflows (e.g., LangChain, LangGraph) a plus
• Experience in manufacturing and supply chain (preferred)

how fairlife nourishes you:

At fairlife, we believe in better - and that includes how we support our people. We offer a comprehensive suite of benefits and wellbeing resources designed to support you physically, emotionally, socially, and financially, both in and out of work.

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, effective day one!
• Supplemental health plans (hospital indemnity, accident, and critical illness insurance)
• Paid Time Off to recharge and support work-life balance
• Paid parental leave & adoption assistance (up to $10,000)
• Parental support & family care benefits, including childcare resources and lactation support
• 401(k) to support retirement planning with up to 9% in employer match
• Wellness reimbursement (up to $500 for qualified wellbeing expenses)
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for emotional wellbeing and work-life support
• Company-paid life insurance and short-term disability
• Employer HSA funding (for HDHP participants)
• Tuition reimbursement (up to $10,000) and student loan repayment ($200/month)
• Learning & development programs to unlock your full potential
• Rewards & recognition, matching gifts, free product, and Business Resource Groups

fairlife's nour!sh program is designed to meet you where you are - supporting your individual wellbeing journey while enabling you to do your best work every day.

location: Chicago, IL

reports to: Senior Data Scientist, Decision Intelligence

travel requirements:
exempt/nonexempt: exempt

*Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.

Base pay range:

$95,000-$110,000 USD

For Recruitment AgenciesAt fairlife, we manage the majority of our hiring internally through our dedicated Talent Acquisition team, which is actively engaged in direct candidate sourcing. Most of our roles are filled through applications submitted via our careers site or through direct outreach by our team.

As our recruitment is primarily handled in-house, we work only occasionally with external agencies, and only those on our existing, pre-approved vendor list. At this time, we are not reviewing or expanding that list.

Unsolicited resumes or submissions from external agencies not authorized by our Talent Acquisition team will be considered direct candidate applications. As such, fairlife will not assume responsibility for any placement fees associated with these submissions.