AI Data Scientist

Join our startup-to-scaleup journey as an AI/ML Data Scientist. In this fully remote role, working from anywhere in Canada, you’ll be part of an interdisciplinary team innovating our flagship assessment platform, Casper, with AI.

Working at the intersection of machine learning innovation and ethical AI in higher education, you’ll work on complex, ambiguous problems, and lead the end-to-end design, build, and deployment of an AI-powered evaluation system.

This role offers you, a machine learning professional with advanced proficiency in Python and deep knowledge of ML libraries, the chance to work without a predefined playbook and grow your career with a people-focused company that values work-life balance, invests in learning, and creates products with real-world impact on education, admissions, and social equity.

Imagine a world powered by everyone’s full potential.

That’s what we’re building at Acuity Insights.

Our company was founded on the need for a higher education admissions method that looks beyond academic performance and considers the whole student—their unique qualities, experiences, and strengths.

Today, our solutions help discover, nurture and realize people's potential, supporting holistic success from admissions to graduation for students, education programs, and higher education institutions across North America, the U.Incorporating Casper's insights into the admissions process results in a larger applicant pool, enables student success, and graduates better professionals. Since 2014, Casper has been adopted by over 600 higher education programs, and more than 1 million applicants have registered to take the test.

With our core education program management solution, One45, we help medical schools and other health professions programs optimize the complex processes and critical components of their curriculum and student assessments to generate data-informed insights needed to graduate competent future healthcare professionals.

With our fast-growing data and insights solution, Analytics, we leverage critical integrations with our data warehouse and powerful dashboards to provide medical schools with deep insights and intelligence on student and program performance, powering real-time decision-making and continuous quality improvement.

As an AI/ML Data Scientist, you will join our Research team, which includes experts from the humanities, social sciences, and hard sciences. Research underpins our company’s mission and provides data-driven, ethical insights. The team has been at the forefront of developing assessment methodologies that move beyond traditional metrics and ensure our products' scientific integrity and reliability.

In this role, you’ll report to Jill Derby, our Senior Research Manager, and partner closely with Cole Walsh, our Research Scientist, on your initial project. You’ll also collaborate closely with key team members from Rating, Content and New Product Development, as well as with product directors, product marketing managers, and design and engineering teams.

In your first 12 months, you get to lead the development of our first AI-powered evaluation system for the Casper platform, leveraging machine learning to transform how we assess applicants. You’ll oversee the entire process, from data collection and validation to model training, implementation, and monitoring, while addressing challenges like aligning with human rater standards and ensuring demographic fairness.

As our AI/ML Data Scientist, you’ll also help build a world-class AI and machine learning practice, define processes, tackle uncharted problems, and shape how AI/ML capabilities are embedded within Acuity Insights. Drawing from your expertise, you’ll lead transformative AI projects, set performance benchmarks, and embed fairness and explainability at every stage. p>

As an AI/ML Data Scientist, your key areas of day-to-day contribution are:

Collaboration & Communication

• Drive cross-functional alignment: Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and other Research team members to ensure AI initiatives align with strategic goals and technical requirements. Clearly communicate complex AI processes and outcomes to technical and non-technical audiences, fostering transparency and trust. Partner with team members to gather insights and refine AI models based on ongoing collaboration and testing.

Data Science & Machine Learning

• Design and train models: Lead the design, training, and optimization of machine learning models for evaluating responses in Casper assessments. Analyze large datasets, evaluate model performance against benchmarks, and ensure alignment with human rater standards. Stay current with industry advancements, incorporating the latest techniques and frameworks to improve model accuracy and scalability. Oversee the full lifecycle of AI model development, from data preprocessing and feature engineering to deployment and monitoring. Establish and track key metrics to assess AI model performance, fairness, and impact on business objectives.

1. Machine Learning Expertise: You have worked in machine learning and data science or related roles or initiatives in which you’ve trained, retrained, and monitored ML systems. While not required, formal education or study in Statistics, Computer Science, or related fields can enhance your ability to understand complex concepts and effectively communicate with internal teams and external partners in a scholarly context and academic environment.
2. Technical Proficiency: Advanced Python skills are essential, as it will be your primary programming language. Familiarity with SQL, R, and ML libraries (e.g., li>
3. Data Engineering and Modeling: You understand data structures, have constructed and optimized data pipelines, and applied data modelling techniques. Familiarity with software architecture, though not required, can strengthen your collaboration with the engineering team and help integrate the AI model into internal applications.
4. Analytical Depth: Solid foundation in probability, statistics, algorithms, and benchmark-driven approaches to evaluate AI quality, accuracy, and fairness.
5. Collaborative Mindset: You bring high emotional intelligence and a passion for working collaboratively and cross-functionally to harness diverse expertise, leverage multiple perspectives to solve complex problems and explore more robust and innovative solutions and align with organizational goals.
6. Innovation and Problem-Solving: You have a history of tackling complex, undefined problems and thrive in ambiguous and uncharted territories, exploring innovative solutions to technical challenges.
7. Communication & Storytelling: You have a knack for effectively translating complex AI models and insights into clear, compelling and data-informed narratives for technical and non-technical audiences that instill trust and confidence and help drive alignment.

   Our Commitment to Inclusion and Belonging

   We strive to be a workplace where every person feels respected, valued, and fully supported. Our environment and supporting policies are designed to foster a culture of belonging, equity, and work-life balance. We embrace each team member's unique strengths and lived experiences, recognizing that diversity enriches our environment and drives our success.