Data Scientist, Innovation

Lead Data Scientist, Innovation

Job Location: Santa Clara, CA (preferred) or Remote- US-based

Job Term: Full-Time

The Opportunity

Picarro is transforming gas utility operations with innovative solutions for methane emissions management, risk-informed leak management, and network intelligence. As the Lead Data Scientist on the Innovation Team, you will be responsible for developing analytical prototypes and models that shape product capabilities and customer solutions. You will lead the innovation process for Picarro’s natural gas business Unit, coordaining across product, engineering, analytics, and business teams to manage a portfolio of innovation initiatives.

In addition to your technical contribution, you will play a key role in mentoring data scientists and analysts. You will support their growth through coaching, design reviews, and technical leadership while establishing strong analytical standards.

What You’ll Do

• Coordinate innovation activities across the natural gas business unit, working closely with technical and business stakeholders.


• Build cloud-native analytical workflows applying scientific sensor data and geospatial context to emissions and network analytics use cases


• Design scalable data processing and modeling infrastructure to support prototyping and solution development, with a clear path to production


• Apply statistical techniques such as Bayesian inference to quantify uncertainty and improve interpretability of results


• Provide technical leadership across innovation and analytics projects, setting standards for methodology and implementation


• Mentor data scientists and data analysts, supporting skill development, code quality, and collaborative problem solving

What You Bring

• 7+ years of experience in applied data science or environmental analytics


• Strong foundation in statistical modeling, Bayesian methods, and uncertainty quantification


• Hands-on experience using time-series and geospatial data


• Proficiency in Python and SQL, with experience using AWS, common data science and statistical libraries, and workflow orchestration tools


• Demonstrated ability to align technical work with business needs and coordinate across product and engineering teams


• Strong communication and mentorship skills, with experience guiding the work of data scientists and analysts


• Advanced degree (PhD or Master’s) in Statistics, Environmental Science, Physics, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent applied experience

Our total compensation packages include base salary, bonus eligibility, and equity. Salary range $150,000 to $195,000

The company reserves the right to require random drug testing for all applicable positions.