Remote - Data Scientist - NLP

Overview

State Farm is seeking Data Scientists with experience in natural language processing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other advanced analytics methods to support the growing demand for data science solutions across the organization. We are looking for talented, motivated individuals who will partner with business areas to help drive results for the enterprise via the development and adoption of AI/ML solutions. We are not just offering a job but a meaningful career! Come join our passionate team!

A Day in the Life of a Data Scientist in the NLP CoE:

As a data scientist on the Natural Language Processing Center of Excellence (NLP CoE) team, you will advance State Farm’s efforts to leverage tools, techniques, and technologies to maximize the value out of our unstructured text data. The team uncovers insights and delivers solutions from calls, chats, file notes, surveys, and other sources of data where the business opportunity may not be readily apparent. In addition, we consult and educate on NLP best practices and recommended approaches to grow the knowledge base of NLP across the company. We also perform research and evaluate tools to keep State Farm on the forefront. We are looking for innovative, resourceful, and driven individuals who are up for the challenge!

Visit our Careers page for more information on our benefits, locations and the process of joining the State Farm team!

• Applicants are required to be eligible to lawfully work in the U.S. immediately; employer will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work authorization (e.g. H-1B Visa) for this opportunity.
  
  

Responsibilities

As a Data Scientist at State Farm, you will serve as a subject matter expert and consultant. In this role, you will share your knowledge and work to increase the use of NLP across the organization. Below are some of the tasks you can expect in the typical day of a Data Scientist:

• Develop and validate advanced analytic models, designed experiments, and other data-driven solutions
• Provide input into and/or build datasets to support AI/ML solution development
• Collaborate with other team members on scoping solutions and project decision points
• Present on technical topics to peers, leadership, and other stakeholders, including non-technical business partners
• Lead/mentor other data scientists, interns, and other technical work teams
• Make strategic recommendations on data collection, integration, and retention requirements, incorporating business requirements and knowledge of best practices
• Serve as a peer reviewer to other model development teams
• Establish and leverage a network of associates with business domain and data expertise
• Instill a business-oriented mindset that delivers business outcomes for State Farm’s AI/ML portfolio
• Assess model performance, investigate changes, and perform model updates as necessary.
  
  

Why Join Our Data Science Team?

At State Farm, we believe in fostering professional growth and development to help our team members develop to their full potential. Being on the NLP CoE Team will help promote your professional growth across multiple areas. First, you will enhance your business acumen by collaborating with a variety of business areas across the Enterprise for project work and consultation. Second, you will enrich your technical skills by facing challenges that require you to delve into new approaches to identify the right solution in a rapidly evolving data science landscape. Finally, you will strengthen your communication skills through interactions with technical and non-technical audiences. The diverse range of projects you will work on will refine your knowledge in AI/ML topics, software development practices, and tool development.

Qualifications

• Completed Masters, other advanced degrees, in an analytical field such as statistics, quantitative marketing, experimental psychology, operations research, management science, industrial engineering, etc., with 3 years of predictive model building experience
• NLP Expertise
• Proficiency in core NLP tasks: text classification, named entity recognition, sentiment analysis, topic modeling, summarization, etc.
• Experience with language models (e.g., Transformers, BERT, GPT, T5)
• Familiarity with semantic search, embeddings, and knowledge graph techniques
• Understanding of linguistic fundamentals (syntax, semantics, morphology)
• Familiarity with a breadth of methods (e.g. regular expressions, bag-of-words models
• Ability to communicate basic statistical concepts (e.g., statistical significance, confidence intervals, regression models) to business partners
• Experience building advanced analytic solutions using generalized linear models and at least one of the following: time series analysis, cluster analysis, tree-based algorithms, or neural networks
• Experience with designing, building, and implementing AI solutions (e.g., natural language processing, large language models, computer vision, generative AI)
• Programming and Tooling
• Strong coding skills in Python (essential for most NLP workflows).
• Familiarity with NLP libraries/frameworks: Hugging Face Transformers, spaCy, NLTK, Gensim, CoreNLP.
• Experience with data manipulation tools like Pandas and NumPy.
• Proficiency in using machine learning frameworks: TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn.
  

Other Things We Look For:

• Familiarity with experimental design concepts for business experiments
• Experience with cloud-based environments (e.g., AWS) or Linux
• Strong communication skills and the ability to manage multiple, diverse stakeholders across business areas and leadership levels
• Experience with gathering and interpreting business requirements for designing and scalable data science solutions in a regulatory environment (including but not limited to insurance, healthcare, and finance).
• Adept at navigating research literature
  
  

The Selection Process:

• After submitting your application, our recruitment team will carefully review your qualifications. If your profile aligns with our requirements, you may progress to the next stage of the selection process.
• The initial assessment will involve a video interview. This assessment will give you the opportunity to introduce yourself to them and showcase your data science fundamentals with some technical questions. Once you have completed and submitted the video interview our data science leadership will evaluate your responses.
• If selected to move forward, you will have the opportunity to participate in a live video interview with members of our hiring team. This interview will provide a chance for us to further assess your technical expertise and suitability for the role.
• Following the successful completion of the Hiring Team round, competitive candidates may be invited to the final stage of the process: a final loop interview. This round will involve interviews with members of our hiring panel, allowing us to gain deeper insights into your skills, and experiences.
  
  

REMOTE: Qualified candidates residing outside of a 50-mile radius from a hub location listed below may be considered for 100% remote work arrangements, based on business need and where a candidate currently resides or is currently located.

HYBRID: Qualified candidates residing within a 50-mile radius of a hub location listed below will be classified as a Hybrid employee. In a hybrid work arrangement, you will be able to work remotely most of the time, with in-office expectations of 1 time per quarter. This could consist of a multi-day event per quarter depending on your leader and business need. Any business travel to your assigned hub associated with your in-office expectation would be at your own expense. Your manager will share additional details with you regarding your department’s approach and what it means for you.

HUB LOCATIONS: Dunwoody, GA; Richardson, TX; Tempe, AZ; or Bloomington, IL

Our Benefits

Because work-life-balance is a priority at State Farm, compensation is based on our standard 38:45-hour work week!

Potential starting salary range: $110,000 - $180,000

Starting salary will be based on skills, background, and experience

High end of the range limited to applicants with significant relevant experience and high cost of labor geographical locations.

Potential yearly incentive pay up to 15% of base salary

At State Farm, we offer more than just a paycheck. Check out our suite of benefits designed to give you the flexibility you need to take care of you and your family!

• Get Paid! On top of our competitive pay, you are eligible for an annual raise and bonus.
• Stay Well! Focus on you and your family’s health with our robust health and wellbeing programs. State Farm pays most of your healthcare premium, and we offer multiple healthcare plan options, including a high deductible plan. All medical plans provide 100% coverage for in-network preventative care, AND you and your family have access to vision, dental, telemedicine, 24/7 mental health professionals, and much more!
• Develop and Grow! Take advantage of educational benefits like industry leading training programs, top-notch tuition assistance programs, employee resource groups, and mentoring.
• Plan Ahead! Plan for those big moments in life with benefits like fertility/IVF/adoption assistance, college coaching, national discount programs, interactive monthly financial workshops, free financial coaching, and more. You can also start a savings account or consider financing through our State Farm Federal Credit Union!
• Take a Little “You” Time! You will have access to our generous time off policies designed so you can plan around holidays, family events, volunteering, or just to take a relaxing day off. With the opportunity to initially earn up to 20 days annually plus parental leave, paid holidays, celebration day, life leave (40 hours/year), bereavement leave, and community service/education support days, there will be plenty of time for you!
• Give Back! We offer several ways to give back through our Matching Gift Program, Good Neighbor Grant Program, and the Employee Assistance Fund.
• Finish Strong! Plan for retirement using free financial advisors and a 401(k) plan with company contributions of up to 7% of your salary.