Data Scientist

Description

Affinaquest empowers colleges and universities to unlock their data potential. Offering unparalleled business intelligence, advanced data analytics, and innovative CRM software native to the Salesforce platform, Affinaquest equips clients to be the architects of their success – surfacing opportunities for increased and more personal engagement, resulting in meaningful revenue growth. Our approach to innovation is not about reinventing the wheel – it's about transforming it. Together, we drive the quest for affinity and create lasting relationships that shape our clients’ futures. 

KEY FACTS 

• Market-leading Salesforce ISV in Institutional Advancement and Collegiate Athletics 
• The preferred next-gen Advancement solution of the “Top 300” fundraising institutions. 
• Serving over 50% of the Power-5 athletic programs. 
• 10+ years in data warehousing, data quality, lifecycle hygiene, analytics, and CRM.

POSITION DESCRIPTION SUMMARY

Affinaquest seeks a data scientist to join our Product Engineering team. In this role, you'll work on our Client Data Platform (CDP) and analytics platform, applying machine learning and software engineering practices to empower institutions in fundraising and athletic operations. We analyze client data to uncover actionable insights that drive our clients’ missions forward. 

You'll work with Azure Machine Learning, Snowflake, dbt, Python, and Airflow to enhance our data stack and evolve our machine learning outputs from our current supervised learning models to emerging unsupervised and prescriptive analytics. 

We’re looking for someone with a strong software engineering background, fluent in modern tooling and open frameworks, who will collaborate with Product Engineering peers and client innovation partners to shape our platform’s evolution and value to our clients. A passion for technical curiosity for uncovering hidden metrics, fresh statistical insights, and untapped value within data.

In this role, you'll have a heavy hand the architecture, processes, and tools behind our machine learning and data analytics initiatives, delivering predictive models and backend data discovery processes that pave the way for future modeling. 

Working closely with Product Leaders and Data Engineers, you'll ensure your models offer accurate, actionable insights, while actively participating in Scrum ceremonies with your team to refine user stories and acceptance criteria. 

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Reports to: Sr Manager of Product Engineering

Other key relationships: Product Leaders and the Product Delivery Team 

Requirements

MANDATORY QUALIFICATIONS TO APPLY 

• BS degree in data science, computer science, engineering, or equivalent experience
• 5+ years’ experience with software development best practices, including unit testing and code review processes.
• 3+ years’ experience in data manipulation within SQL.
• 2+ years’ experience in model selection, validation, and model performance metrics.
• Pragmatic approach to problem solving that prioritizes delivering working solutions to real problems.
• Strong understanding of the full lifecycle of model development.
• Demonstrated history of solving impactful business problems using statistics, machine learning, and data analysis.
• US-Based 

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACTIVITIES INCLUDE

• Utilize Azure Machine Learning, including Automated ML, for model prototyping.
• Utilize Airflow for workflow automation and orchestration of data pipelines.
• Perform data warehousing functions within Snowflake and transform data using dbt.
• Serve as the subject matter expert in Python and the evolving data science stack—from core libraries like Pandas, NumPy, and Scikit-learn to advanced frameworks like XGBoost and emerging alternatives to drive continuous model innovation and optimization.
• Implement MLOps practices to streamline the deployment and management of machine learning models.
• Develop and evolve machine learning models, initially focusing on supervised learning and progressively incorporating unsupervised and prescriptive analysis techniques.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders and clients to understand business requirements and deliver data-driven solutions.
• Communicate results and insights to stakeholders through clear, end-user–oriented reports and presentations.
• Drive innovation and contribute to our client’s success with impactful data science solutions.

IDEAL ATTRIBUTES

• Azure Data stack experience
• Experience with advancement/fundraising, ticketing data, the sports domain, or retail analytics
• Technical curiosity for uncovering hidden metrics and statistical insights. You enjoy understanding the data and finding meaningful related untapped value from the data.
• Experience with time series forecasting
• Causal modeling over observational data
• Tableau dashboards and KPI tracking

POSITION LOCATION

• Corporate Headquarters ( ASU SkySong, Scottsdale, AZ ) or Reston, VA Office

- Hybrid Office Policy: Employees near an office must be there on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to foster community and engagement.

TRAVEL REQUIRED

• None

Affinaquest is an equal-opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status.