Principal Data Scientist

Electra

$175K — $215K *
Enterprise Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, statistics, engineering, or related fields
  • 15+ years of experience in applied data science for complex engineered systems, focusing on reliability modeling and test data
  • Proven track record delivering impactful data science solutions in product development and reliability
  • Strong expertise in statistical modeling and machine learning techniques
  • Advanced skills in Python and SQL, with experience in building reproducible workflows
  • Exceptional stakeholder management skills to align and influence teams effectively
  • Strong communication skills for conveying complex methods to non-experts

Responsibilities

  • Own and evolve Electra's product data science strategy alongside product leadership
  • Develop analytical frameworks to connect lab results to product performance and reliability
  • Establish metrics for product health and drive their adoption across teams
  • Build and deploy advanced models for reliability and product behavior
  • Create anomaly detection systems for product performance monitoring
  • Utilize causal inference methods to understand failure drivers and performance changes
  • Translate model outputs into actionable recommendations for stakeholders
  • Collaborate with teams to enhance test plans and maximize learning from experiments
  • Define standards for data quality and conduct repeatable analyses across runs
  • Create scalable analytics tools and data products for lab-wide use

Benefits

  • 100% paid premiums for employee medical, dental, vision, and insurance plans
  • Reasonable use PTO for work-life balance
  • $1,800 in annual employer contributions to health savings accounts
  • 12 weeks of paid parental leave for family support
  • 401k with 5% matching contributions, fully vested from the start
  • Eligibility for incentive stock options
Full Job Description
What you will do:

Electra is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to join our Product team and elevate how we use data to guide product decisions, accelerate learning, and improve system performance and reliability. This role will partner closely with Test Engineering and Reliability Engineering while engaging lab-wide stakeholders across Process, Manufacturing, Quality, R&D, and Operations to build data products, models, and analytical frameworks that scale.

Responsibilities include:
  • Own and evolve Electra's product data science strategy in partnership with Product leadership, Test, and Reliability teams
  • Develop analytical frameworks that connect lab results → product performance → reliability outcomes, enabling informed tradeoffs and faster iteration
  • Establish metrics and leading indicators for product health (e.g., performance, degradation, failure modes, yield, stability) and drive adoption across teams
  • Build and deploy advanced models for reliability and product behavior, including (as applicable): Survival analysis / Weibull, degradation modeling, and lifetime prediction
  • Anomaly detection and early warning systems for test stand and product performance drift
  • Causal inference / quasi-experimental methods to understand drivers of failure and performance changes
  • Translate model outputs into clear, decision-ready recommendations for technical and business stakeholders.
  • Partner with Test Engineering to improve test plans, sampling strategy, and experiment design (DOE) to maximize learning per test hour and reduce cycle time.
  • Define and promote standards for data quality, instrumentation signals, metadata capture, and repeatable analysis so results are interpretable and comparable across runs.
  • Collaborate with Reliability Engineering to strengthen failure mode analytics, root cause investigations, and reliability growth tracking.
  • Create scalable analytics tools and "data products" (dashboards, pipelines, notebooks, model services) used by stakeholders across the lab.

What we need you to bring to the team:
  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, statistics, engineering, or related fields
  • 15+ years of experience in applied data science for complex engineered systems, with focus on reliability modeling, test and experimental data
  • Proven track record delivering high-impact data science solutions in product development, reliability, test engineering, or other complex physical systems (e.g., energy, manufacturing, industrial, hardware, chemicals/materials)
  • Strong expertise in statistical modeling and machine learning, with depth in areas such as reliability statistics (Weibull, survival analysis), degradation and lifetime modeling, time-series analysis, anomaly detection, and signal processing
  • Advanced software and data skills, including Python and SQL, with experience building reproducible analytics workflows (version control, testing, documentation) and clear data visualizations and dashboards for technical and business audiences
  • Familiarity with deploying analytics at scale (e.g., batch scoring, APIs, MLOps patterns) and translating analytical outputs into reusable tools and data products
  • Demonstrated ability to drive high-confidence decisions from imperfect or limited data, using sound assumptions, sensitivity analysis, and engineering judgment degradation analysis, and translating analytical insights into product and business decisions
  • Exceptional stakeholder management skills with the ability to align diverse teams, drive adoption, and influence without authority
  • Strong communication skills (written and verbal) with the ability to explain sophisticated methods and results to non-experts
  • Comfort operating in a fast-moving environment with shifting requirements, balancing near-term deliverables with long-term strategy
  • Experience working with sensor-heavy systems, industrial test stands, or manufacturing data at scale

Compensation:

  • The anticipated starting pay range for this position is $175,000-$215,000 and may be more or less depending upon skills, experience, and education.

Benefits For You:
  • 100% paid premiums across all medical, dental, vision, telemedicine, short-term disability, long-term disability, and basic life insurance plans
  • Reasonable use PTO
  • $1,800 in annual employer HSA contributions (health savings account)

Benefits For Your Family:
  • 100% paid premiums across all medical, dental, vision, and telemedicine plans
  • 12 weeks of paid parental leave

Benefits For Your Future:
  • 401k with up to 5% matching contributions which vest 100% on day one
  • Eligibility for incentive stock options


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