Data Scientist (Demand Forecasting)

As a Data Scientist specializing in demand forecasting at Datacrew.ai, you will be an integral part of our expanding analytics team. Your primary responsibility will involve developing, implementing, and refining forecasting models using a combination of time series, statistical, and machine learning techniques. These models will be utilized for predicting demand at both granular (SKU/branch-level) and aggregate levels across various industries, with a specific focus on food and retail sectors. Working closely with business stakeholders, you will gather requirements and identify relevant data sources including historical sales data, external datasets, and calendar information. Your role will also entail feature engineering to incorporate variables such as seasonality, holidays, promotions, weather conditions, and other external factors into the forecasting models. Data analysis, preprocessing, and validation will be essential steps to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the models developed. Collaboration with data engineering and business teams will be essential to deploy the forecasting models into production environments and automate recurring forecasts. Evaluating model performance using metrics like MAE, RMSE, and MAPE will guide iterations for continuous improvement. Additionally, you will be responsible for creating comprehensive documentation, dashboards, and presentations to communicate model outcomes and recommendations to technical and non-technical audiences. To excel in this role, you should hold a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, Operations Research, or a related field, along with 4-5 years of experience in a data scientist or forecasting/analytics role, preferably in retail, QSR, FMCG, manufacturing, or related industries. Proficiency in time series forecasting methods such as ARIMA/SARIMA, Exponential Smoothing, Prophet, and machine learning models like XGBoost/LightGBM, Random Forest, as well as strong programming skills in Python (utilizing libraries like pandas, scikit-learn, statsmodels, Prophet) are essential. Experience in feature engineering, data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, PowerBI, matplotlib, seaborn), and SQL will be beneficial for this role. Additionally, familiarity with deploying forecasting solutions, retail or restaurant analytics at product/SKU and store/branch level, big data tools, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), and deep learning models for time series (e.g., LSTM, GRU) are considered advantageous. If you are a proactive problem solver with a keen attention to detail, possess strong communication and collaboration skills, and have the ability to translate business requirements into analytical solutions, we encourage you to apply for this full-time, permanent position with us at Datacrew.ai.,