Principal Data Scientist - Personal Lines, Auto (Hybrid)

At American Family Insurance, we believe people are an organization’s most valuable asset, and their ideas and experiences matter. From our CEO to our agency force, we’re committed to growing a diverse and inclusive culture that empowers innovation that will inspire, protect, and restore our customers’ dreams in ways never imagined.

American Family Insurance is driven by our customers and employees. That’s why we provide more than just a job – we provide opportunity. Whether you’re already part of our team in search of a new challenge or new to our company and ready for what’s next, you’re in the right place. Every dream is a journey that starts with a single step. Start your journey right here. Join our team. Bring your dreams.

Job ID: 

R30222 Principal Data Scientist - Personal Lines, Auto (Hybrid) (Open)

Compensation may vary based on the job level and your geographic work location.

Compensation Minimum:$143,800 AnnualCompensation Maximum:$251,900 Annual

Summary:

The Principal Data Scientist will serve as a key thought leader, expert, and leader in data science, modeling, and analytics for the Analytical Tools and Data (ATD) Team within Predictive Analytics, Auto Personal Lines. The ATD team’s primary partners are the product managers and ratemaking actuaries in Auto line performance management. The ATD Team support these partners analytical insights in order to better understand competitive market conditions, how products are performing and how to rapidly update pricing for in-market products to ensure sustained profitability and competitiveness. Additionally, they will help with the larger data science strategy across Predictive Analytics, collaborating with other teams as a resource and mentor.

Anticipates future business needs and pursues opportunities to create intellectual property, proprietary knowledge, and competitive advantage using big data. Applies advanced knowledge of statistics, machine learning, programming, simulation, and advanced mathematics to recognize patterns, identify opportunities, pose business questions, and make valuable discoveries to meet a variety of business challenges. Identifies opportunities for complex analysis and evaluates scenarios to make predictions on future outcomes and support decision making. Designs, develops, and evaluates predictive modeling frameworks, tools and advanced algorithms that lead to business solutions. Designs and drives the creation of new standards and best practices in the use of statistical data modeling and big data. Mentors less experienced peers. Leverages research and expertise to bring new skills and capabilities to the function. Displays leadership and externally represents the company to external professional communities.

Job Description:

Primary Accountabilities

• Creates innovative vision and strategy, along with business application and modeling framework, for new datasets and business problems.
• Ideates, architects and engineers advanced statistical models for the more complex business problems and makes recommendations for a technical solution approach. Evaluates which framework and method(s) are appropriate. Translates the abstract into concrete ideas and methods for use and implementation by others.
• Leads or guides a team through the technical phases of projects; and may direct the work of less experienced data scientists and modelers.
• Discovers insights and relationships from large/complex datasets through investigative research using advanced data science techniques.
• Explores data using a variety of advanced data science techniques to proactively identify relationships, create insights, and answer business questions or guide future model development.
• Builds the hypothesis, identifies research data attributes, and determines best approach to address business issues.
• Combines business acumen with data science capabilities to build complex predictive models to support business partner objectives and business needs.
• Builds complex programs for running statistical tests on data and for understanding correlation of various attributes.
• Incorporates industry and competitor insights as part of model development and enhancement.
• Serves as internal thought leader; provides mentorship, knowledge transfer, and training on new modeling tools and methodologies.
• Functions in a collaborative and consultative role.
• Interacts and leads discussions with division leadership to inform on industry trends and emerging research topics. Serves as internal expert for new areas of analytics exploration.
• Researches and maintains awareness of industry best practices and business strategies.
• Proactively brings in new and innovative ideas and approaches to develop business solutions.
• Influences strategic direction and analytics development through preparation of research papers and presentations on cutting-edge applications of advanced analytics.
• Monitors industry and competitor trends to determine potential impact to business strategies and predictive models.
• Identifies, leverages, and develops expertise in emerging technologies, open source tools, and new statistical techniques.
• Applies advanced design of experiment techniques, as needed, across various business experiments in order to provide cause and effect statistical assessments of initiatives that are driving performance.
• Stays current with research and literature related to field of expertise.
• Builds and maintains strong relationships with universities who are active in the field of expertise.
• Identifies areas of inquiry that are useful for field of study and have the potential to advance the field.
• Constructs a research program that moves areas of inquiry forward.
• Makes useful and novel contributions to field that advances its knowledge.
• Attends regional/national level conferences to present information, network, and seek out collaborators.
• Establishes visibility and makes scientific contributions to external professional communities, submitting research for peer reviews and publication as appropriate.
• Peer reviews the work of others.

Travel Requirements

• This position requires travel up to 10% of the time

Specialized Knowledge & Skills

• Demonstrated experience providing customer-driven solutions, support or service
• Mastery of a wide variety of programming languages and frameworks, demonstrating strong skills in the development, articulation and implementation of coding practices for the team.
• Demonstrated record of participation and recognition in field of study such as publications, reviewer of journal articles, conference presentations, workshop organizer, etc.
• Demonstrated expertise in a broad range of modeling techniques such as probabilistic graphical models, natural language processing, kernel methods, recommender systems, support vector machines, deep learning, media mix modeling, linear optimization, decision tree models, survival analysis, principal component analysis, and/or simulation modeling.
• Demonstrated experience with data visualization and applying visual techniques to explore and uncover underlying patterns in data.
• Demonstrated experience developing solutions for analytics projects, including participating in or leading business stakeholder interviews, business case development, solution definition, design and documentation, analysis and synthesis of recommendations.
• Extensive knowledge and understanding of managing data to scale using data summarization, query, and analysis software and tools.
• Demonstrated experience communicating business implications of complex data relationships and results of statistical models to multiple business partners, including development of impactful presentations that succinctly communicate analytic insights and recommendations for action.

Education/Licenses/Designations

• Preferred: Master's Degree in Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Computer Sciences or Engineering, or related field; PhD strongly preferred

Additional Job Information:

Top candidates will have P&C industry experience, preferably with Auto.

Candidates will also have demonstrated experience in Python/R, GCP/AWS, and SQL.

​Offer to selected candidate will be made contingent on the results of applicable background checks.

Offer to selected candidate is contingent on signing a non-disclosure agreement for proprietary information, trade secrets, and inventions

Relocation assistance may be available.

This position is a hybrid role that involves working a minimum of 10 days per month in the office. We know flexibility is important to our employees and their families, and we will continue to offer flexibility in this flex office/home role. This approach will guide us in balancing the needs of the business, customers and our employees.

Preferred locations for this role include:

Madison, WI; Chicago, IL; Boston, MA; Minneapolis, MN; Denver, CO; Phoenix, AZ; Nashville, TN; Atlanta, GA; Seattle, WA; Las Vegas, NV; St. Joseph, MO; Kansas City, MO; St. Louis, MO; Green Bay, WI; Milwaukee, WI; Akron, OH; Keene, NH; Jacksonville, FL

Internal candidates are encouraged to apply regardless of location and will be considered based upon the needs of the role.

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When you work at American Family you can expect benefits that support your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing. You will have access to comprehensive medical, dental, vision and wellbeing benefits that enable you to take care of your health. We also offer a competitive 401(k) contribution, a pension plan, an annual incentive, and a paid-time off program. In addition, our student loan repayment program and paid-family leave are available to support our employees and their families. Interns and contingent workers are not eligible for American Family Enterprise benefits.

We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.

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