Berkshire Partners LLC
Data Scientist
Boston, MA Office or New York, NY Office
Exempt Position
Reports to: Limor Gultchin, Director of AI/Data Science
Position Summary
Berkshire Partners is seeking a Data Scientist to join its AI team. This role will support both portfolio companies and internal teams by building and deploying practical AI and machine learning solutions that drive measurable business value. The ideal candidate is an early-career AI professional who combines strong technical modeling skills with sound commercial judgment and thrives in a lean, high-accountability environment. This position reports to Limor Gultchin, Director of Data Science & AI.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities
- Execute clearly defined AI use cases in partnership with portfolio company operators and internal stakeholders, from problem scoping through data gathering and pre-processing, exploration and evaluation to model deployment and measurement of business impact.
- Build, test, and iterate on machine learning models, ensuring work is technically sound, well evaluated and production-ready where applicable.
- Investigate, clean, prepare, and document raw, messy, or incomplete datasets for analysis using Python (or equivalent) scripting; understand the provenance and quality of data sources, apply appropriate pre-processing steps, and communicate data limitations that affect model or analytical reliability.
- Support the deployment and integration of models into existing workflows and systems, including monitoring, evaluation, and designing for feedback loops that improve system performance over time.
- Communicate findings, uncertainty, model output quality, and recommendations in commercially relevant terms to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Actively and independently experiment with emerging AI tools, techniques, and frameworks to identify opportunities for application across the portfolio. Ability to evaluate model outputs systematically and design evaluation benchmarks and ability to argue for the relevance of GenAI tools vs. Machine learning vs. analytics or workflow automation solutions.
- Contribute to the evaluation of external AI tools and vendors, providing informed assessments of technical depth, model quality, workflow fit, data requirements and implementation risk.
- Demonstrate ownership over assigned initiatives, building trust with portfolio operators and internal stakeholders through consistent, high-quality delivery.
- Independently lead discrete projects as scope and experience grow, translating ambiguous business problems into pragmatic AI solutions.
Skills and Experience
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, or a related quantitative field; Master’s degree preferred for candidates with fewer than 2 years of industry experience.
- 1–3 years of experience in a data science, machine learning, or applied AI role (internships and research experience considered).
- Proficiency in Python and relevant data science libraries (e.g., scikit-learn, pandas, NumPy, PyTorch, or TensorFlow); strong SQL skills including JOINs, GROUP BYs, window functions, and subqueries.
- Experience building, evaluating and deploying machine learning models in a production or near-production environment, including thorough analysis of success metrics and failure modes.
- Familiarity with MLOps practices, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and version control (Git) and basic software engineering practices for reproducible analytical work.
- Solid grounding in core statistical methods – including regression analysis, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, bootstrapping, and probability distributions – with the ability to quantify and clearly communicate the uncertainty and reliability of analytical results.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to connect technical outputs to business outcomes.
- Clear and effective communicator, capable of presenting complex analysis to non-technical stakeholders; experienced producing effective data visualizations (bar charts, line charts, scatter plots) and synthesizing analytical results into clear memos and slide decks.
- Self-motivated and comfortable operating with a degree of ambiguity in a lean team environment.
- Curiosity about and fluency with emerging AI tools, large language models, and the evolving AI landscape, coupled with pragmatism about model limitations, mitigations and where AI adds real value.
- Embraces and actively promotes a team-oriented workplace.
The estimated base salary range for this position is $170,000 to $210,000. This position is also eligible for a discretionary bonus. The range posted is for a given job title, which can include multiple levels. Individual rates for the same job title may differ based on their level, responsibilities, location, skills and experience for a specific job.
Physical Demands
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 with or without reasonable accommodation. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to remain seated and/or stationary, often for prolonged periods. This position constantly operates a computer and other office productivity equipment, such as a calculator and printer. Requires the ability to read a computer screen as well as printed materials, concentrate for significant periods of time and to communicate information clearly. There is a low level of grasping, lifting, pushing, and/or pulling of objects of less than 50 lbs, and a moderate amount of bending and reaching for some job duties. The office environment has ambient room temperatures, lighting, and traditional office equipment.
About Berkshire Partners
Berkshire Partners is a multi-sector specialist investor in private and public equity, with a focus on U.S.-based, middle-market companies. The firm’s private equity team invests in well-positioned, growing companies across services, healthcare, industrials, and technology. Berkshire is currently investing from its Fund XI, which held its final closing in 2024 with approximately $7.8 billion in commitments. Since inception, Berkshire Partners has made more than 150 private equity investments and has a strong history of collaborating with management teams to grow the companies in which it invests. The firm's public equity group, Stockbridge, founded in 2007, manages a concentrated portfolio seeking attractive long-term investments. For additional information, visit www.berkshirepartners.com.
Berkshire Partners LLC is committed to providing equal opportunities in employment, and with regard to all individuals with whom we are in contact. It is our policy to prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type, and to treat all individuals equally without regard to an individual’s race, skin color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), reproductive health decision making (including the decision to use or access a particular drug, device, product or medical service for reproductive health), gender (including gender identity, gender expression, and gender nonconformity), age, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other category protected by applicable federal, state, or local law (collectively, “identity”).
