What We Do

At Uptake, our purpose-built products ingest and analyze sensor and enterprise data, transforming it into actionable insights and immediate outcomes. Together with our customers across a variety of industries, we drive real business value and set new standards for productive, secure, safe and reliable operations. We are based in Chicago, and deeply involved with our community.

Why Work Here

Uptake is a values-driven organization, and we are excited about what we do. We’re flexible, honest, hardworking, and collaborative. As a team, we bring our diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences together to solve tough, important problems. We support and challenge one another to bring out the best in each of us, and we might have a little fun along the way. We’re also proud to be one of Chicago’s best places to work in 2018 according to Forbes and Great Place to Work Institute!

We offer generous benefits including health, dental, vision, parental leave, 401K match, and unlimited vacation. We are lifelong learners, and our Uptake University program offers training and professional development on a wide variety of topics. We also have employee-led community groups including Women@Uptake, Pride@Uptake, Science@Uptake, Parents@Uptake, and many more. Learn more at https://www.uptake.com/careers.

What Data Scientists Do Here

Data science is at the core of what we do at Uptake. We collaborate with engineering, UX, product, and other teams to contribute insights and data science best practices to all parts of the business. A Director of Data Science will responsible for helping lead the Data Science Department in new business strategies, sets vision for the department as a whole and leads DS Managers in the execution of this.

Typical day to day tasks for a Data Science Director might include:

• Management of multiple data science teams with various focal points; directly manages Leads and Managers of these teams.
• Develops long-term goals and vision for the department and communicates to stakeholders.
• Manages risks for multiple teams and department
• Plans ways to reduce attrition and creates long-term plan to improve hiring process and retention

What We Are Looking For

• Passion for driving data science solutions across an organization! We want candidates who have significant experience leading and setting technical direction for Data Science Managers and their teams.
  • Recognized as an expert in a particular subject/vertical relevant to Uptake’s products and industries
  • Proven hands-on experience and success in managing data science teams
  • Demonstrated ability to provide feedback and guidance with respect to machine learning and modeling
  • Recognized via professional or academic awards (example: Most Valuable Employee, scholastic grants)
  • Expressing detailed knowledge of and genuine interest in Uptake’s unique methods, products, data, and technology within a cover letter.
• Ability to influence executive level stakeholders and drive their thinking about future product development.
• Architects and leads others in the development of larger software development initiatives and/or has strong knowledge in machine learning and one or more specialized or performant languages such as R, Matlab, or Python
  • Contributing to influential Open Source Projects like sklearn, XGBoost, tidyverse, Tensorflow, pytorch, Kafka, Spark, Elasticsearch etc.
  • Made a high quality data science project available in a public forum like GitHub or Kaggle
  • Published work in Data Science related journals or conferences such as ICML, NIPS, JML, KDD, and INFORMS
• Experience working and communicating with other parts of the organization outside of the data science department and demonstrated ability to make well reasoned decisions about the execution of data science applications and integrations.
  • Deploying data science capabilities that are used across an organization
  • Teaching data science to non-data scientists in an academic or professional setting
  • Elaborating in a cover letter or resume ways that they have professionally collaborated with others in the organization and the impact that collaboration had on the organizations KPIs
• Demonstrated effectiveness leading and managing large data science teams or departments!
• Some ways previous successful candidates have demonstrated this are:
• 10+ years demonstrated experience providing mentoring, leadership, and support to direct reports
• Demonstrable track record of growing talent within your organization
• History of initiating and driving internal policies for your department

• Candidates must be authorized to work in the US.

Nice to Have

• Experience writing code in one or more of: C++, C, Java, Scala, or Spark
• Experience working in one of the following industry areas:
• Industrial technology
• Agriculture
• Mining
• Energy
• Transportation
• Have made substantive contributions to open source projects in the areas of data science or machine learning
• Demonstrated thought leadership in data science or machine learning, such as publications, speaking at data science related conferences, coordinating data science industry organizations, or patents.
• Have made substantive contributions to Kaggle in the form of kernels, competition entries, or tutorials

Uptake welcomes and encourages applications from all individuals, without regard to any prohibited ground of discrimination, including from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.