Staff Data Scientist GM Motorsports

Job Description

The Role

The Staff Data Scientist is a senior technical leader responsible for driving the design delivery and adoption of advanced analytics and machine learning solutions across NASCAR IndyCar and other GM racing programs. This role sits within Motorsports Product and Machine Intelligence and partners closely with race engineering vehicle performance strategy and IT to turn data into competitive advantage on and off the track.

You will set technical direction for data science in motorsports mentor junior and senior data scientists and own high-impact initiatives from concept through production and operationalization.

What Youll Do

• Technical leadership
  • Define and evolve the data science roadmap for GM Motorsports in alignment with program and competition priorities.
  • Architect end-to-end ML and analytical solutions (from data ingestion and feature engineering to model deployment and performance monitoring).
  • Establish and enforce best practices in experimental design model development validation and MLOps within the team.
• Project ownership & delivery
  • Lead high-visibility projects (e.g. race strategy models performance prediction simulation telemetry analytics audio/vision-based models) from problem framing through delivery.
  • Translate ambiguous racing and business questions into clear problem statements analytical plans and measurable success criteria.
  • Own technical decision-making including method selection trade-offs and risk mitigation.
• Motorsports domain impact
  • Partner with race engineers competition leaders and program managers to identify the most valuable AI/ML opportunities.
  • Build models and tools that directly support race weekend decision-making vehicle development and long-term performance analysis.
  • Ensure solutions are usable in real workflows: robust interpretable where needed and integrated into existing tools and systems.
• Team development & mentorship
  • Provide technical mentorship and code/analysis review for junior and senior data scientists.
  • Raise the bar on engineering rigor (testing reproducibility documentation model monitoring).
  • Help define career paths skill expectations and standards for the data science discipline within GM Motorsports.
• Collaboration & communication
  • Communicate complex analytical concepts and model behavior to non-technical stakeholders in clear actionable terms.
  • Work cross-functionally with data engineering software engineering IT and program leadership to deliver integrated solutions.
  • Contribute to a culture of experimentation learning and evidence-based decisions.
• Standards & governance
  • Champion data quality governance and responsible AI practices in model development and deployment.
  • Contribute to and help maintain shared libraries templates and tooling that accelerate future projects.
  • Support documentation and knowledge-sharing across teams and programs.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• Education & experience
  • Masters or Ph.D. in Computer Science Data Science Statistics Electrical/Mechanical Engineering Applied Mathematics or a related quantitative field; equivalent experience considered.
  • Typically 7 years of hands-on experience in data science / machine learning roles with significant experience leading projects or initiatives.
  • Demonstrated experience in complex high-stakes domains (e.g. motorsports automotive aerospace manufacturing or similar).
• Technical skills
  • Expert-level proficiency in Python and core data/ML libraries (e.g. NumPy pandas scikit-learn PyTorch and/or TensorFlow).
  • Strong foundation in statistical modeling machine learning and experimental design.
  • Experience building and deploying production ML systems (CI/CD for ML model serving monitoring).
  • Proficiency with SQL and working with large complex datasets (telemetry time series logs sensor data etc.).
  • Familiarity with cloud platforms and modern data stacks (e.g. Azure Kubernetes feature stores ML pipelines).
• Motorsports / automotive
  • Experience with time-series telemetry simulation data race strategy or vehicle performance analysis is strongly preferred.
  • Ability to quickly learn and reason about race engineering concepts and constraints (e.g. setup tire strategy fuel aero regulations).
• Soft skills
  • Proven ability to lead without authority influence technical direction and drive outcomes across teams.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills including the ability to present to engineering leaders and executives.
  • Track record of mentoring and developing other data scientists.

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)

• Prior experience in motorsports (NASCAR IndyCar F1 WEC etc.) or high-performance automotive programs.
• Experience with audio processing computer vision or multimodal modeling applied to noisy real-world data.
• Hands-on experience with vector search embeddings and retrieval-augmented systems.
• Experience designing real-time or near-real-time analytics/ML systems supporting operational decisions.
• Contributions to internal tooling open-source projects or technical publications.

About GM

Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better safer and more equitable for all.

Why Join Us

We believe we all must make a choice every day individually and collectively to drive meaningful change through our words our deeds and our culture. Every day we want every employee to feel they belong to one General Motors team.

Benefits Overview

From day one were looking out for your well-beingat work and at homeso you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources.

Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)

General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.

All employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to sex race color national origin citizenship status religion age disability pregnancy or maternity status sexual orientation gender identity status as a veteran or protected veteran or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal state and local laws.

We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. Applicants in the recruitment process may be required where applicable to successfully complete a role-related assessment(s) and/or a pre-employment screening prior to beginning employment. To learn more visit How we Hire.

Accommodations

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