Associate Director, Data Science at Verizon in Basking Ridge, NJ

Associate Director, Data Science Location: Basking Ridge, New Jersey When you join Verizon You want more out of a career. A place to share your ideas freely — even if they’re daring or different. Where the true you can learn, grow, and thrive. At Verizon, we power and empower how people live, work and play by connecting them to what brings them joy. We do what we love — driving innovation, creativity, and impact in the world. Our V Team is a community of people who anticipate, lead, and believe that listening is where learning begins. In crisis and in celebration, we come together — lifting our communities and building trust in how we show up, everywhere & always. Want in? Join the #VTeamLife. What you’ll be doing... As the Associate Director of Modeling & Decision Intelligence, you will lead an elite advanced analytics team partnering with our Global Supply Chain, Sourcing, Global Real Estate, Global Network & Technology and Fleet organizations. You will be the strategic architect responsible for moving our operations away from manual, reactive decision-making and toward a proactive, autonomous ecosystem. You will work with key stakeholders to generate hypotheses and create analytic models that answer our most impactful business questions. You are responsible for leading the design of data science products while thinking strategically about how these models meet the long-term goals of the business. You will leverage our full tech stack to develop resolutions to complex problems that require creativity, making decisions that directly impact Verizon's performance, predictability, and operational efficiency across multiple enterprise domains. You will not just manage daily operations; you will also shape the roadmap for how Verizon uses data to drive massive P&L impact across our network, asset, and infrastructure footprint. You will lead the development of precision engines—such as localized store/SKU demand sensing, margin optimization for returned devices, spatial DC network analysis, and real estate and fleet asset optimization—and act as the ultimate bridge between technical capability and executive-level business strategy. Strategic Leadership & Decision Design: Direct the team toward high-ROI business problems. Elevate data science from standard "predictive modeling" to Decision Intelligence, ensuring technical outputs are directly translated into actionable business cases for senior executives (e.g., inventory optimization, spend analytics, and procurement risk mitigation). Team Evolution & Mentorship: Lead, inspire, and upskill a high-performing team of data scientists and optimization engineers. Conduct regular technical and professional code/design reviews, fostering an environment that embraces AI-native development. Scale the Tech Stack & Innovation: Stay at the frontier of AI and advanced analytics. Guide the team in leveraging modern tools (Gurobi, Domino Data Lab, VS Code) and emerging technologies (LLMs, RAG, Agentic workflows) to build robust, scalable analytics products. Stakeholder Influence & Translation: Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership across Supply Chain, GN&T, Fleet, and Real Estate. Master the art of Executive Storytelling, translating deep statistical and mathematical programming outputs into clear strategic narratives. Ecosystem Governance: Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of the team’s models, ensuring that production-grade systems are governed, bias-free, reproducible, and seamlessly integrated into the business's consumption layer. What we’re looking for... You can visualize the big picture strategy, but can also break it down into the components to get the job done. You believe that the best decisions are based in data and you’re the one that knows how to tease out the key learning within a dataset. You have credibility with people because you are a specialist in all things data but you also know how to bring it down to the level that your audience can understand—that’s practical and will help the business improve. And you’re an effective and inspiring leader who brings out the best in others. You’ll need to have: Bachelor’s degree or four or more years of work experience. Eight or more years of relevant experience required, demonstrated through one or a combination of work and/or military experience, or specialized training. Experience in data science, with a proven track record in Supply Chain Analytics, Mathematical Optimization, or Predictive Modeling. Leadership experience managing and developing a team of data scientists and/or quantitative researchers. Deep proficiency in Python, SQL, and advanced statistical modeling. Even better if you have one or more of the following: Master's degree or PhD in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Statistics, Economics, or a related quantitative field. Strong business and financial acumen, with a demonstrated ability to tie analytical model outcomes directly to financial metrics (CapEx/OpEx reduction, ROI, and P&L impact). Functional understanding or experience working with data structures from core enterprise platforms like SAP S/4HANA (S4) (for real-time Supply Chain/Sourcing ERP) and IBM TRIRIGA (for Real Estate & Facilities Portfolio Management). Experience with geospatial analysis, routing optimization, or location intelligence frameworks (e.g., GeoPandas, Kepler.gl, or GIS tools) applied to network or fleet logistics. Experience with large-scale mathematical optimization solvers, specifically Gurobi or CPLEX. Experience managing enterprise-grade data science lifecycles within platforms like Domino Data Lab. AI-Native Workflow Experience: Familiarity with integrating LLMs, RAG architectures, or advanced coding assistants (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor) into data science workflows to accelerate delivery. Expertise in interactive visualization and delivery frameworks, such as Plotly, Streamlit, or Tableau, to democratize model consumption. Strong executive communication and negotiation skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence senior business stakeholders. If Verizon and this role sound like a fit for you, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every “even better” qualification listed above. Where you’ll be working In this hybrid role, you'll have a defined work location that includes working from home and a minimum of three days per week in the office, which will be set by your manager. Employees are responsible for maintaining compliance with hybrid work policies. Scheduled Weekly Hours 40 Equal Employment Opportunity Verizon is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to veteran status, disability or other legally protected characteristics. Benefits and Compensation Our benefits are designed to help you move forward in your career, and in areas of your life outside of Verizon. From health and wellness benefit options including: medical, dental, vision, short and long term disability, basic life insurance, supplemental life insurance, AD&D insurance, identity theft protection, pet insurance and group home & auto insurance. We also offer a matched 401(k) savings plan, up to 8 company paid holidays per year and up to 6 personal days per year, paid parental leave, adoption assistance and tuition assistance, plus other incentives, we’ve got you covered with our award-winning total rewards package. Depending on the role, employees have the opportunity to receive compensation in the form of premium pay such as overtime, shift differential, holiday pay, allowances, etc. Newly hired employees receive up to 15 days of vacation per year, which grows with additional service. For part-timers, your coverage will vary as you may be eligible for some of these benefits depending on your individual circumstances. The salary will vary depending on your location and confirmed job-related skills and experience. This is an incentive based position with the potential to earn more. For part-time roles, your compensation will be adjusted to reflect your hours. The annual salary range for the location(s) listed on this job requisition based on a full-time schedule is: $126,000.00 - $242,000.00.