Data Scientist

Key Skills

AWS, Deep Learning, Experimentation, Github, Jupyter Notebook, Neuroscience, Python Programming, PyTorch, TensorFlow

Job Description

ABOUT YOU

• Fluency in Python–used often, derided occasionally, and considered its eponymous reference to the best of British sketch comedy
• Proven data science experience–primary or equal contributor, multiple smaller projects, management of steak-holders (so projects come out ‘well-done’)
• Comfort with the statistics and methods deployed in classification problems–that is, the ability to see the random forest for the trees
• Familiarity with NLP/NLU–even if this posting’s language is a bit unnatural, we suspect you’ll understand our process
• Experience with image classification–pictures are worth ~1,000 lines of code, according to a bastardization of Ibsen and Brisbane
• Experience calling machine learning APIs via REST or client libraries - and determining that their responses lack wit, guile, and tact
• Agile experience (worked with Kanban, Scrum, Extreme Programming)–or a sound literary understanding of Steve Martin’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” even if you don’t speak French
• Growth mindset – You had better be funnier after the first 90 days...
• Willingness to learn our systems (wait, we have systems?)
• Full-time availability–but if you have cool side projects that increase human agency, we totally want you to keep working on it...we’ll even help!
• Demonstrated ability to work independently/autonomously
• Ability to communicate effectively and work exclusively in English. This is a must, our ability to crack jokes in other languages is decidedly de rigeur...

BONUS POINTS FOR

• Experience with self-managed data science projects–show us your cool side hustles, especially if they increase human agency or include obscure references!
• Software development background - We need help with syntax in English too...
• Experience building and training image classifier models–extra double-secret bonus points for identifying Schroedinger’s cat in a video
• JavaScript / Node.js experience–require(‘sense of humor’)
• Clean Code, Unit Tests, Lather, Rinse, Repeat
• Experience managing clients and client relationships–because, y’know, they pay us...
• Experience in Startups–because, y’know, we kinda are one, or actually more like several startups all rolled into one!

Equity

Working at AE means receiving equity in some of our client projects and in the Skunkworks projects we incubate. The equity granted is priced at a value of $0 when you receive it. If it were otherwise, you’d be forced to pay taxes. But to be clear, there are no free lunches, only the choice of who pays for your sandwich.

At AE, the equity you receive is not free to AE. We invest millions annually in Skunkworks projects - paying our employees to build technology for which no client pays a bill. We receive equity from certain clients, which means we accept less in terms of our billable rate. We then pass that equity on to our employees. Sure it’s priced at $0 on day 1 - a call option on a stock trading at $100 with a strike price of $100 is priced at $0 today for tax purposes, but you’d want to receive that option. If you received that option on a dozen stocks, you’d be fairly confident that some of them would be worth a lot more than $0.

Offering this equity (by investing in Skunkworks or offering clients a lower rate) comes out of AE’s margins. Theoretically, we should be lowering salaries to compensate. But we’re competitive on that front as well. Over the long-term, we believe AE employees who stick around are likely to fare extremely well monetarily (no legal promises). We think long-term. You should too when you choose your employer.

We are looking to hire people who think long term. People create exponentially more value here in their 3rd or 4th year rather than their 1st or 2nd, and that only increases. The value you create leads to more equity issued every year, and you retain it while you remain at AE or at a Skunkworks co that spins out, in order to free up equity for others, which is how we afford to be generous with the equity.

* Disclaimer: If you leave AE on good terms, you can retain 20% of your equity if you continue to send leads our way, share our core values, etc. If you leave AE for your own AE-incubated Skunkworks project (or someone else’s), you retain 100% of your equity. Folks create exponentially more value here in their 3rd and 4th years than their 1st or 2nd - we want folks who think long-term like we do.

Location

• LA office