Principal Data Scientist

BICP, a San Diego-based consulting firm specializing in AI, Analytics & Data, is seeking an experienced Principal Data Scientist to join our team in a Forward Deployed capacity with one of our strategic clients in the apparel and retail industry.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role for a senior Data Scientist who combines deep technical expertise with strong business acumen. You will work closely with business, product, data, and technology teams to translate complex retail and consumer challenges into production-ready data science and machine learning solutions.

The ideal candidate has deep experience applying forecasting, optimization, consumer analytics, and machine learning within retail, apparel, DTC, or a related consumer environment.

This is not a pure research or advisory role. We are looking for someone who can move fluidly from understanding a business problem to designing the analytical approach, developing and validating models, and partnering with engineering teams to operationalize solutions.

You will also serve as a senior technical resource for the broader Data Science organization, helping coach and develop junior Data Scientists and raising the technical bar across the team.

What You'll Do

• Lead the design and development of advanced Data Science and ML solutions across forecasting, optimization, and consumer analytics.
• Develop predictive models that support areas such as demand forecasting, inventory and assortment planning, consumer behavior, retention, segmentation, and personalization.
• Apply optimization techniques to complex retail decision problems involving inventory, allocation, assortment, pricing, planning, and other business constraints.
• Build advanced consumer models to better understand customer behavior, preferences, lifetime value, purchase patterns, engagement, and retention.
• Partner directly with business stakeholders to translate ambiguous problems into clearly defined Data Science opportunities and measurable business outcomes.
• Work closely with Product, Data Engineering, ML Engineering, and Platform teams to move models from experimentation into scalable production environments.
• Design rigorous experiments and apply statistical and causal inference techniques where appropriate to measure impact and inform business decisions.
• Evaluate model performance, business impact, and tradeoffs, continuously improving solutions as business conditions and data evolve.
• Communicate complex modeling approaches and findings in a way that enables both technical and non-technical stakeholders to make better decisions.
• Serve as a senior technical thought partner to business and technology leaders across retail, merchandising, planning, digital, and consumer-facing functions.
• Coach and mentor junior Data Scientists through model development, experimentation, technical reviews, and problem-solving.
• Establish reusable approaches, standards, and best practices that improve the effectiveness of the broader Data Science team.
• Remain hands-on with data, modeling, experimentation, and analytical problem-solving while providing technical leadership across initiatives.

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years of progressive experience in Data Science, Machine Learning, Advanced Analytics, Statistics, Operations Research, or a related discipline.
• Significant experience operating at a Senior, Staff, Principal, or equivalent Data Scientist level.
• Strong experience within retail, apparel, DTC, consumer products, e-commerce, or another consumer-oriented business.
• Deep expertise in one or more of the following: Demand forecasting and predictive modeling, Optimization / operations research, Consumer behavior and customer analytics, Segmentation and personalization, Customer lifetime value and retention modeling or Experimentation and causal inference.
• Demonstrated ability to develop sophisticated models that have been operationalized and used to drive measurable business decisions.
• Advanced proficiency with Python and SQL and modern Data Science / ML frameworks.
• Strong statistical foundation and experience selecting the appropriate modeling methodology for complex business problems.
• Experience working with large-scale, cloud-based data environments and modern Data Science/ML platforms.
• Ability to work directly with business stakeholders, understand their underlying problems, and translate those problems into analytical and ML solutions.
• Experience partnering with Data Engineering and ML Engineering teams to productionize and scale models.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and business audiences.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring and coaching junior Data Scientists without needing to be their direct people manager.
• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science, Mathematics, Operations Research, Economics, Engineering, or another quantitative discipline.

Preferred Experience

• Direct experience in apparel, footwear, athleisure, fashion, or specialty retail.
• Experience developing forecasting or optimization solutions supporting merchandising, planning, allocation, inventory, or supply chain.
• Experience building consumer intelligence solutions involving segmentation, personalization, recommendations, lifetime value, retention, or next-best-action.
• Experience with platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, Azure, or equivalent modern data/ML environments.
• Familiarity with MLOps practices and the production lifecycle of machine learning models.
• Exposure to GenAI/LLMs and emerging AI capabilities is valuable, but the primary emphasis of this role is advanced Data Science and Machine Learning.

The Kind of Person Who Will Thrive in This Role

• You are equally comfortable writing code, developing models, challenging assumptions, working through an ambiguous business problem, and explaining your recommendation to a business leader.
• You understand that the most sophisticated model isn't necessarily the best model - the goal is to create solutions that improve decisions and generate measurable business value.
• You enjoy working close to the business, take ownership of problems rather than waiting for perfectly defined requirements, and can elevate the people around you through coaching and technical leadership.

About BICP

BICP is a San Diego-based AI, Data & Analytics consultancy that helps organizations close the gap between strategic priorities and the specialized capabilities required to execute them. Our Forward Deployed practitioners work alongside client teams, bringing deep expertise across AI/ML, Data, Analytics, Product, and Architecture to move initiatives from idea to implementation, production, and measurable business impact.