Associate Data Scientist

About Sunbelt Rentals

Sunbelt Rentals in Fort Mill, South Carolina, is a leader in the equipment rental market, offering a wide array of construction and industrial tools combined with expert service by a skilled team. The company values its employees highly, providing comprehensive on-the-job training and competitive benefits to support career growth.

Role Overview

The Associate Data Scientist will collaborate with the current Data Science team to build, maintain, and analyze machine learning and large language model (LLM) systems. The position emphasizes deployment and monitoring of AI tools, production model management, and business impact analysis.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and sustain LLM-based applications deployed in production environments.
• Create, refine, and manage automated workflows requiring multi-step reasoning and decision processes.
• Implement retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, manage prompts, and apply evaluation methods.
• Oversee real-time performance, cost efficiency, latency, and quality of LLM deployments.
• Design safety measures including guardrails and validation schemes for AI outputs.
• Deploy, monitor, and update machine learning models through CI/CD pipelines.
• Detect data drift or model decline and activate retraining protocols when necessary.
• Maintain feature pipelines, model registries, and systems to track experiments.
• Optimize inference processes for cost-effectiveness and enhanced performance.
• Produce documentation and test frameworks for production ML systems.
• Analyze usage data and business impact of AI implementations.
• Conduct experiments to assess novel models, prompts, and agent designs.
• Work alongside stakeholders to convert business challenges into AI-driven solutions.

Candidate Requirements

• Possession of a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related discipline.
• Between 1 and 3 years of professional experience in data science, machine learning engineering, or equivalent fields, including internships.
• Strong command of programming in Python and SQL.
• Hands-on experience with large language models like OpenAI, Anthropic, or open-source variants, and skillful prompt engineering.
• Familiarity with at least one agentic AI platform/framework such as LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, Semantic Kernel, or comparable tools.
• Practical experience in deploying models or applications within production settings using cloud services, containerization (Docker), and APIs.
• A solid grasp of machine learning principles including model training, evaluation, version control, and monitoring procedures.

Physical and Working Conditions

The role may require physical activities such as bending, squatting, crouching, reaching, and lifting up to 25 pounds. Certain tasks might involve prolonged driving, handling heavy equipment, and working in harsh weather or during non-standard hours, all conducted in adherence to safety guidelines. Reasonable accommodations are provided in compliance with ADA/ADAAA standards.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this role is $85,680 to $117,810 annually. Starting compensation depends on factors such as the specific job position, regional location, qualifications, and experience level.

• Health, dental, and vision insurance plans
• 401(k) retirement plan match
• Volunteer time off
• Disability insurance (short-term and long-term)
• Accident, life, and travel insurance plus flexible spending accounts
• Tuition reimbursement opportunities
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Service length recognition awards

Benefits eligibility begins the first of the month after 30 days of employment. Paid time off includes vacation (12 to 25 days based on service duration), 5 sick days, 6 holidays, 2 half-days holidays, 2 floating holidays, 1 inclusion day, and 1 volunteer day.

Diversity and Inclusion

Sunbelt Rentals is committed to equal opportunity employment, welcoming applications from minorities, women, disabled individuals, veterans, and other protected groups.