Data Scientist

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is seeking a Data Scientist to support the Firm’s leadership, legal practices, Knowledge Department, and other administrative functions with data-driven insights. The role applies statistics, machine learning, deep learning, and NLP across structured and unstructured data, and contributes to the Firm’s AI efforts through advanced work with the Data Science Team in Knowledge & Innovation.

What you will do

• Partner with legal teams and relevant operational staff to identify opportunities for data use that improve decision-making and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of client representations
• Collaborate with functional departments including Finance, Talent, Business Development, and IT to analyze data and build solutions aligned to operational objectives
• Develop regression and classification models using established and emerging data science methodologies
• Chain, fine-tune, and deploy pre-trained language models such as BERT, Llama, and Qwen for NLP tasks including text classification, named entity recognition, and generative use cases like summarization, clause and document generation, and question-answer exchanges
• Design and deploy document segmentation and embedding approaches to enable information retrieval and retrieval augmented generation (RAG)
• Conduct advanced quantitative research using ML and NLP to understand patterns in large datasets, identify relationships, detect data anomalies, and classify data
• Configure practice-specific AI workflows and language technologies, including complex pipelines, prompt engineering, prompt chaining, and text operations
• Create highly visual reports and user interfaces that present quantitative insights in formats that are modern, accessible, and appropriate for non-technical business professionals
• Stay current with advancements in LLMs, NLP, deep learning, and ML research, then apply relevant techniques to production models
• Document development processes, codebase, and best practices to support knowledge sharing and maintain a reproducible environment
• Work with other technical resources to refine data pipelines for recurring categories of analysis and data-driven solutions
• Handle assigned projects under the direction of CKIO and other executive staff

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in data science, mathematics, statistics, computer science, engineering, finance, or a related field
• 2+ years in a data science, machine learning engineering, artificial intelligence, or equivalent role, or a PhD in a related field
• Highly proficient with statistical programming (Python, R) and databases (SQL, Pinecone)
• Proven experience developing and validating linear and non-linear regression and classification models
• Expertise in data transformation, data science, and visualization libraries (pandas, scikit-learn, matplotlib, Seaborn)
• Ability to translate business problems into technical logic and practical solutions
• Ability to communicate complex results clearly to non-technical audiences

Preferred skills

• Experience with natural language processing and libraries such as Hugging Face’s Transformers, spaCy, and NLTK
• Ability to design and develop object-oriented machine learning systems beyond Jupyter notebooks
• Solid understanding of deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch
• Proficiency with version control systems such as Git or equivalent tools
• Prior coursework in deep learning, natural language processing, or information retrieval (significant plus)
• Master’s degree in data science, computer science, statistics, computational linguistics, or engineering (preferred)
• Experience in the legal field (significant plus)

Technologies

• Python, R, SQL, Pinecone
• pandas, scikit-learn, matplotlib, Seaborn
• Hugging Face Transformers, spaCy, NLTK
• BERT, Llama, Qwen
• TensorFlow, PyTorch, Git, Jupyter

Role details

• Location: New York, NY (hybrid)
• Salary: USD 150,000 - 175,000 per year (estimated base range at the time of posting)
• Employment status: Exempt, not overtime pay eligible
• Work authorization: Simpson Thacher will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position

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