Sr Data Scientist

About Sun Country Airlines

We're not your average airline. We're agile, resilient, and full of uncommon opportunity. Here, you can grow as part of an ambitious team that safely and collectively supports each other, our travelers, and our community. Together, we're making travel more attainable. With more than 40 years of Minnesota roots, we're a unique hybrid low-cost carrier offering diverse services including scheduled flights to destinations across the U.S., Canada, Central America, and the Caribbean, as well as charter and cargo operations around the world. At Sun Country, you'll be part of a growing airline and an enthusiastic team focused on connecting our community with their favorite people and places.

Sun Country Airlinesprovides the resources and support our employees need to succeed. Besides working at a great and growing company, as a Senior Data Scientist you'll enjoy these benefits and more:

• Comprehensive benefit package including dental and vision
• PPO and high-deductible health plans
• Health savings account and Flexible Spending Account
• Starting day one free standby and discounted travel privileges for employees, family, & friends
• 401(k) match
• Paid Time Off
• Paid holidays
• Life and AD&D Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program including counseling for employees and their family
• Fitness incentive and Stop Smoking Support

Senior Data Scientist Overview:

The Senior Data Scientist is responsible for leading the design, development, and implementation of advanced analytical solutions that drive business value across the airline. This role leverages a natural curiosity and deep technical expertise to translate complex business challenges into actionable data-driven insights. The Senior Data Scientist partners closely with cross-functional teams, fostering strong collaborative relationships to ensure analytical solutions are aligned with business objectives and emerging industry capabilities.

Essential Roles and Responsibilities:

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Partner with business stakeholders to translate ambiguous business problems into well-defined analytical projects, including scoping, requirements gathering, and success metric definition
• Lead the full lifecycle of machine learning and AI solution development, including data exploration, feature engineering, model selection, training, validation, deployment, and ongoing monitoring to solve key business problems across the airline
• Own the process of model retraining, refitting, and performance tuning to ensure models remain accurate and relevant as business conditions and data evolve
• Write robust, production-quality code for model development, deployment, and automation using languages such as Python or R, and leverage frameworks like scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar
• Explore and analyze large, complex datasets to extract meaningful insights and identify opportunities for innovation
• Communicate technical concepts, model results, and actionable recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, supporting data-driven decision-making at all levels of the organization
• Collaborate with data engineers to design and optimize data pipelines, ensuring efficient data ingestion, transformation, and storage for analytical use
• Work independently to support the full life cycle of advanced analytics projects to include requirements gathering, design, data prep, development of analytic solutions and reports
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to junior data scientists and analysts, promoting best practices and fostering a culture of continuous learning and technical excellence
• Stay current with emerging tools, technologies, and methodologies in data science, machine learning, and AI, and proactively introduce innovative solutions to the team
• Build and maintain strong partnerships with IT, business intelligence, and operational teams to ensure seamless integration of analytical solutions
• Ensure all analytical solutions complies with data governance, privacy, and security standards
• Perform other duties as assigned by management

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related field
• 7+ years of experience in data science, analytics, or a related field, with a proven track record of delivering impactful analytical solutions
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python or R, and experience with SQL and data visualization tools
• Strong collaboration skills with a history of building effective partnerships across diverse teams
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels
• Excellent critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated ability to leverage AI tools and technologies to enhance efficiency, streamline processes, assist in problem-solving and decision-making, or drive business outcomes
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a team environment

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with cloud-based data platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Knowledge of machine learning frameworks and advanced analytics techniques
• Understanding of data governance, privacy, and security best practices
• Experience with emerging technologies such as AI, deep learning, or real-time analytics
• Master's Degree or PhD
• Experience in the airline or transportation industry

Compensation:

Range $140,000 to $170,000

Classification:

Full-Time, Exempt

Work Location:

Hybrid - Minneapolis, MN

Supervisory Responsibility:

None

Work Environment:

This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets.

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to stand; walk; use hands or finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms. The employee is occasionally required to sit; climb or balance; and stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

Other Duties:

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

AAP/EEO Statement:

It is the policy of Sun Country Airlines to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

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