Lead Data Scientist

Job Summary

Job Description

Medline Industries is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to drive the design, development, and deployment of AI and machine learning solutions that create measurable business impact. This role requires strong technical expertise in machine learning and Generative AI (GenAI). The successful candidate will collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver AI enabled business solutions from proof of concept to full-scale deployment.

Key Responsibilities:

AI Solution Development & Execution:

• Scope, design, and execute time-bound Proof of Concepts (PoCs), ensuring alignment with business goals.
• Conduct exploratory data analysis (EDA) to understand data distributions, uncover patterns, and generate actionable insights.
• Work with Product Managers to understand business objectives and success metrics for AI initiatives.
• Work closely with Data Engineers to identify and prepare the necessary data pipelines and infrastructure for model development.
• Partner with AI Engineers to implement ML models and GenAI solutions into applications and workflows effectively.
• Communicate findings and insights to non-technical stakeholders, including process experts and business leaders.

Technical Leadership & Solution Ownership:

• Lead the design and development of machine learning (ML) models, statistical models, and Generative AI (GenAI) solutions, guiding data scientists and developers through the full development lifecycle.
• Develop feature engineering pipelines and optimize model performance through rigorous experimentation and iteration.
• Co-own User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and pilot phases with Product Managers to ensure business requirements are met.
• Collaborate with AI Ops Engineers to ensure seamless deployment, monitoring, and maintenance of AI solutions in production.
• Stay accountable for model performance by regularly reviewing key metrics, driving retraining, and implementing improvements as needed.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement:

• Stay abreast of emerging AI trends and technologies, evaluating their applicability to Medline’s AI landscape.
• Advocate for and prioritize the adoption of high-impact AI capabilities in collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders.

Qualifications & Skills:

Education:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, Statistics, or a related field.
• Advanced degrees or relevant certifications are a plus.

Experience:

• 5+ years of experience in data science, delivering end-to-end AI/ML solutions in a business environment.
• Proven track record in developing and deploying ML models and GenAI applications.
• Strong experience collaborating cross functionally in a large organization.
• Hands-on experience with ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn) and cloud-based AI services (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Expertise in exploratory data analysis (EDA), feature engineering, experiment design, and model building.

Technical Skills:

• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python or R for data analysis and machine learning model development.
• Strong expertise in supervised and unsupervised learning techniques including classical machine learning, time series and NLP.
• Hands-on experience with large language models (LLMs) such as GPT, Claude, or LLaMA, including fine-tuning and prompt engineering.
• Proficiency in retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) using vector databases like FAISS or Pinecone.
• Familiarity with GenAI frameworks such as LangChain or LlamaIndex for enterprise applications.
• Experience with cloud-based AI platforms (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI) for scalable deployment.
• Understanding of model evaluation techniques and guardrails to ensure accuracy, reliability, and compliance.
• Working knowledge of MLOps practices, including model deployment, monitoring, and retraining to maintain long-term performance.

Soft Skills:

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts in business-friendly language.
• Strong problem-solving abilities with a proactive, results-driven mindset.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, matrixed organization with cross-functional collaboration.

Medline Industries, LP, and its subsidiaries, offer a competitive total rewards package, continuing education & training, and tremendous potential with a growing worldwide organization.

The anticipated salary range for this position:

The actual salary will vary based on applicant’s location, education, experience, skills, and abilities. This role is bonus and/or incentive eligible. Medline will not pay less than the applicable minimum wage or salary threshold.

Our benefit package includes health insurance, life and disability, 401(k) contributions, paid time off, etc., for employees working 30 or more hours per week on average. For a more comprehensive list of our benefits please click here. For roles where employees work less than 30 hours per week, benefits include 401(k) contributions as well as access to the Employee Assistance Program, Employee Resource Groups and the Employee Service Corp.

Every day, we’re focused on building a more diverse and inclusive company, one that recognizes, values and respects the differences we all bring to the workplace. From doing what’s right to delivering business results, together, we’re better. Explore our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion page here.

Medline Industries, LP is an equal opportunity employer. Medline evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, disability/handicap status or any other legally protected characteristic.