Sr Data Scientist- Conversational AI & NLU

The Senior Data Scientist – Conversational AI & NLU is responsible for designing, developing, evaluating, and optimizing conversational AI solutions across chat and voice channels. This role focuses on GenAI-driven conversational experiences, agentic multi‑turn conversations, and rigorous evaluation of NLU and LLM-based systems, while serving as a primary interface between business stakeholders and data science delivery teams. Key Responsibilities Design, develop, and optimize GenAI-powered conversational AI solutions using advanced prompting strategies, structured evaluation frameworks, continuous monitoring, and solution performance reporting Build and improve agentic, multi-turn conversational experiences with robust context management, memory strategies, and conversation state handling Own experimentation and evaluation of NLU, LLM, and conversational AI solutions, including hypothesis definition, metric design, error analysis, and recommendation of targeted improvements Act as the primary data science partner to business stakeholders by gathering requirements, clarifying objectives, translating needs into actionable analytical and modeling tasks, and driving execution to measurable outcomes Assign, coordinate, review, and provide technical guidance on work delivered by onshore and offshore data scientists, ensuring analytical rigor, consistency, and timely delivery Support end-to-end delivery of conversational AI and NLU capabilities for IVR and chat solutions, including intent understanding, entity extraction, dialogue flows, and conversational quality assessment Analyze conversation data such as chat logs, call transcripts, and speech-to-text outputs to identify gaps, failure modes, and optimization opportunities across user journeys Define and report solution-level KPIs related to conversation success, containment, task completion, accuracy, customer effort, and overall experience quality Ensure conversational AI solutions align with enterprise standards, governance, and regulatory expectations, particularly in highly regulated environments Required Qualifications Master’s or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, or a related quantitative field 5+ years of experience in data science, with at least 3+ years focused on conversational AI, NLU, or NLP-driven systems Strong programming and analytical skills in Python, applied primarily to modeling, experimentation, and evaluation Hands-on experience with LLM Evaluation frameworks like RAGAS, DeepEval, LangSmith, etc. Proven ability to design, run, interpret, and communicate the results of NLU and conversational AI experiments, translating insights into concrete model and conversation improvements Experience supporting text- and voice-based, multi-turn, actionable conversational experiences within contact center or customer-facing platforms Strong communication skills with demonstrated ability to explain complex analytical concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders Preferred Qualifications Hands-on experience with Amazon Connect, Amazon Bedrock, or Amazon Lex Practical experience applying LLMs and GenAI techniques to conversational or customer experience use cases Familiarity with IVR analytics, conversational logging frameworks, call transcripts, and speech-to-text data analysis Experience working in banking, financial services, or other regulated enterprise environments Hours & Work Schedule Hours per Week: 40 Work Schedule: Monday - Friday Hybrid: 4 days per week onsite, 1 day remote Pay Transparency The salary range for this position is $124,000 - $165,000 per year, plus an opportunity to earn an annual discretionary bonus. Actual pay is based on various factors including but not limited to the work location, and relevant skills and experience. We offer competitive pay, comprehensive medical, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, maternity/paternity leave, flexible work arrangements, education reimbursement, wellness programs and more. Note, Citizens’ paid time off policy exceeds the mandatory, paid sick or paid time-away policy of every local and state jurisdiction in the United States. For an overview of our benefits, visit https://jobs.citizensbank.com/benefits .