The Senior Data Scientist owns the analytics engine behind KIBO's service - the price-verification benchmarking and the risk-scoring that turn import-declaration data and international trade data into defensible, inspection-ready outputs and the reporting delivered to the customs administration. It is the pivotal quantitative role, and includes building the customs-revenue baseline analysis that underpins the program.
Key Responsibilities
- Data integration. Build and maintain pipelines that ingest customs declaration data (ASYCUDA/SYDONIA) and commercial international trade-price data, reconciling schemas, units and currencies into a single analytical warehouse.
- Price-verification analytics. Construct the benchmarking that compares declared values against international reference prices - surfacing likely under-invoicing while respecting the WTO Customs Valuation framework - and document the method so findings are defensible.
- Risk scoring. Design, train and monitor the models and rules that score declarations for anomalies in value, tariff classification and origin, and that prioritize shipments for inspection.
- Revenue-baseline analysis. Produce the customs-revenue baseline analysis used to establish reference metrics with the authorities.
- Generate the recurring risk-assessment reports and the monthly reporting delivered to the customs administration, with clear, auditable lineage from source data to conclusion.
- Feedback loop. Incorporate field-inspection results back into the models to improve hit-rates over time.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience in data science, quantitative analytics, applied statistics, or machine learning, including production experience building models and data pipelines using real operational data.
- Strong Python and SQL skills, with hands-on experience using tools such as pandas, scikit-learn, or equivalent analytical/modeling libraries.
- Experience with anomaly detection, statistical benchmarking, supervised or unsupervised modeling, model monitoring, and performance evaluation.
- Demonstrated ability to work with large transactional, logistics, financial, trade, or similarly complex operational datasets, including reconciling heterogeneous sources, schemas, units, and currencies.
- Ability to clearly document analytical methods, explain findings, and defend quantitative outputs to non-technical stakeholders, auditors, or government counterparts.
- Strong data-governance practices, including reproducibility, data lineage, version control, quality checks, and appropriate handling of sensitive data.
Preferred Qualifications
- Exposure to customs, international trade, tariff/HS classification, import/export data, valuation, or commercial trade-price data.
- Familiarity with ASYCUDA/SYDONIA data structures or other customs, logistics, or government data systems.
- Experience standing up analytics capabilities in data-constrained, emerging-market, public-sector, or operationally complex environments.
- Experience with cloud data warehouses and workflow orchestration tools such as Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Airflow, dbt, Prefect, or similar platforms.
- #LI-NA1
What Success Looks Like in Your First Few Months
During your first months, you will:
- Stand up the analytical environment and ingest initial customs and trade-data samples.
- Deliver an initial customs-revenue baseline analysis and prototype the price-verification benchmarking and risk-scoring.
- Produce the first risk-assessment reports that support inspection getting under way.
Reporting and Working Relationships
Reports to the Engagement / Delivery Lead; takes valuation-methodology guidance from the Customs & Valuation Subject-Matter Expert; partners with the Senior Full-Stack Developer on data access and tooling; consumes inspection results from the field via the Technical Manager and Data & IT Liaison.
What KIBO Offers
- Competitive compensation and a comprehensive benefits package.
- High-impact, mission-driven work supporting the modernization of a national customs administration.
- The opportunity to help design a platform with long-term economic, operational, and public-sector impact.
- A collaborative, multidisciplinary team of customs, technology, data, and engineering specialists.
- Significant ownership and influence during a critical program build-out phase.
- Opportunities for professional growth as the platform and program expand.
If you are motivated by mission-driven work and want to help establish the architecture behind a transformative customs-modernization program, we encourage you to apply.
