Data Scientist (ML/AI, Azure, Spark)

We are Builders FirstSource, America’s largest supplier of building materials, value-added components and building services to the professional market. You’ll feel proud of the work you do here every day to transform the future of home building and help make the dream of home ownership more achievable. At BFS, we believe building a successful career is not solely defined by a degree. Your experience, skills, and passion are just as important, if not more so. As such, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace that welcomes candidates from all backgrounds and experience levels.

PURPOSE

The AI Data Engineer is a senior individual contributor embedded within a cross-functional AI product team, responsible for translating machine learning prototypes into robust, scalable, and maintainable production systems. This role sits at the intersection of software engineering, data systems, and artificial intelligence. Operating alongside ML scientists, product managers, and DevOps engineers, this role owns the design and implementation of data pipelines, service APIs, and cloud infrastructure that bring AI features to life. The engineer is expected to lead by example in code quality, architecture, and delivery velocity—mentoring peers through code reviews, pair programming, and knowledge sharing, without direct people management responsibilities. They will contribute directly to improving CI/CD workflows, observability, cost efficiency, and overall system resilience. This role requires a hands-on builder who thrives in a fast-moving, experimental environment, drives technical decisions through expertise and collaboration, and continuously identifies opportunities to modernize and streamline the AI platform. Success in this role means faster experiment-to-production cycles, greater reliability, and a measurable uplift in team capability and system performance. By promoting modern software practices and staying current with evolving technologies such as Generative AI and MLOps, the Senior Data Engineer will help shape and accelerate our AI roadmap and technical excellence.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize batch and streaming data pipelines for structured and unstructured data (e.g., PDFs, images, drawings).
• Understand the complexity of data and design systems and models to handle different data sources/formats, which include structured, semi-structured, and unstructured, as well as stream processing.
• Collaborate with data scientists and ML engineers to enable scalable model development and deployment.
• Develop infrastructure as code using Terraform and containerized environments.
• Ingest and normalize data from internal systems, APIs, and third-party data sources.
• Monitor and improve the reliability, performance, and scalability of data workflows.
• Help design secure, production-ready data platforms for real-time and batch processing.
• Integrate multiple data sources, including legacy systems and cloud platforms.
• Support early-stage experimentation as well as long-term scalable architecture.
• Document data sources and engineering flows to support transparency and reuse.
• Contribute to both project-based and product-focused initiatives.
• Address governance and security challenges associated with solutions.
• Must be able to work in an agile, rapid delivery environment.
• Other duties as assigned by manager.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

Minimum Requirements

_To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

_

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related technical field;
• 5+ years of professional experience in data engineering or backend software development
• 3+ years in a senior or staff-level role with demonstrated technical ownership.
• Exposure to ML/AI workflows, such as OCR, LLM-based text extraction, or computer vision, preferred.
• Experience working with Azure services in a production environment, preferred.
• Previous background in construction tech or industrial data systems is a plus.
• Or equivalent combination of education and experience.

COMPETENCIES

• Proficiency in Python; experience with other languages like C++, C#, or Java is a plus.

• Solid understanding of SQL and experience with databases (PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, Redis, Snowflake, etc.).

• Familiarity with modern ETL/ELT frameworks (Airflow, Beam, Spark, etc.).

• Skilled in building serverless pipelines using Terraform, Docker, and container orchestration.

• Experience with Azure (preferred), AWS, or GCP — including cloud storage, computer, and security services.

• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, Git workflows, and agile software development practices.

• Strong computer science fundamentals in data structures, systems design, and performance optimization.

• Excellent verbal and written communications skills and the ability to collaborate with engineering peers as well as non-engineering stakeholders and explain technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.

• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills

• Excellent interpersonal, influencing and negotiation skills.

• Self-starter with a problem-solving mindset and an eye for clean, maintainable architecture.

• Established strategic and critical analysis skills.

• Skill in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite

BFS COMPETENCIES

• Business and Financial Acumen

• Demonstrates depth of understanding for the P&L and financial analysis

• Teaches business and financial acumen to others.

• Understands KPIs and how BFS makes money.

• Know the different business segments and how they relate to one another.

• Understands customer sales and engagement.

• Demonstrates functional and/or technical expertise.

• Understands complex issues and demonstrates critical thinking skills.

• Understands how to maximize business results regardless of industry cycle.

• Results Driven

• Holds self and others accountable.

• Communicates and sets clear goals with plans to deliver.

• Manages competing priorities effectively.

• Demonstrates appropriate urgency.

• Drives to exceed expectations in alignment with our BFS SPICE values.

• Embraces and follows best practices.

• Demonstrates self-starter, can-do attitude.

• Strategic Thinking and Decision Making

• Leverages resources and teams around them to solve problems and create mutually beneficial outcomes.

• Demonstrates willingness and courage to make tough decisions in a timely manner.

• Balances short-and-long term priorities

• Demonstrates proactive versus reactive thinking.

• Asks questions to identify root cause and analyze situations more accurately.

• Servant Leadership

• Demonstrates humility by putting others first.

• Builds trust-based relationships.

• Leads by example with kindness and respect.

• Collaborates well across all areas of the business.

• Advocates for others

• Actively listens to understand the meaning and intent of what the other person is communicating.

• Demonstrates authenticity and encourages others to do the same.

• Emotional Intelligence

• Demonstrates situational awareness - knows when and how to adjust leadership style in different situations.

• Demonstrates self-awareness - understands strengths and weaknesses.

• Demonstrates empathy - puts themselves in other’s shoes.

• Assumes positive intent.

• Develops and Leads Others

• Drives alignment through clear communication of vision, goals and expectations.

• Invests time on a regular basis in performance feedback and developmental conversations.

• Fosters a respectful and inclusive environment.

• Empowers, motivates, and inspires others.

• Coaches and mentors others for their development.

• Guides and persuades others to deliver positive outcomes.

• Growth Mindset

• Demonstrates a growth mindset; takes appropriate risks, fails fast and forward, learns from mistakes.

• Perseveres and champions growth, even in the face of resistance, ambiguity, or possible failure.

• Thinks like an owner with an entrepreneurial spirit.

• Demonstrates and encourages intellectual curiosity.

• Continuous learner; seeks opportunities and knowledge for personal and professional growth.

• Sees possibilities over problems - actively seeks solutions.

• Innovation

• Encourages out-of-the box thinking to create new ways of doing things.

• Continuously seeks to improve and simplify pain points in the business.

• Anticipates, embraces, and leads change.

• Develops and executes breakthrough strategies.

• Integrity

• Does the right thing even under challenging circumstances?

• Communicates with honesty.

• Consistently treats others fairly and equitably.

• Demonstrates reliability and does what they say they will do.

• Conducts tough conversations and delivers difficult messages with kindness and respect.

WORK ENVIRONMENT / PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

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

_

• Subject to both typical office environment and outside locations with temperature and weather variations.
• Must be able to lift and carry up to 25 pounds frequently and on occasion up to 80 pounds.
• Occasional travel may be required.

Successful, innovative, and fulfilling careers are built here, and your professional development is a high priority. We invest in your future through the latest training, tools, and technologies. Highly collaborative, we work together to solve problems and find better ways to continually grow our business and careers every day. You’ll be empowered to try new things, gain new experiences, and build a career with unlimited horizons. The scale and depth of resources that being the #1 building materials distributor in the nation provides a variety of opportunities for you to explore - all in a friendly, people-first environment. Join us to be more, do more, and build more, together at BFS.

In addition to the base wage listed, this position is also eligible to earn an annual bonus subject to changes in plan design and documents and in accordance with applicable law. Eligibility and the amount of the bonus varies based on overall company success, thresholds met and other terms and conditions of the Company’s active bonus policy for the respective year.

At Builders FirstSource, we offer competitive, affordable benefits designed to make life better for you and the people you love. Our goal is simple — provide great plans that help you and your family to live happier, healthier and more secure lives. To view all our benefit offerings click here www.bldrbenefits.com.

Builders FirstSource is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, protected veteran status or status as an individual with a disability.

In compliance with the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), if you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation in order to apply for a position with Builders FirstSource, please call (214) 765-3990 or email: ADA.Accommodation@bldr.com. Please do not send resumes to this email address - it is intended only to be used to request an accommodation in submitting an application for a job opening.