Five9 · 2 days ago
Vice President, Data Science
United States
Full-time
Remote
Director/Executive
$233K/yr - $512K/yr
12+ years expFive9 is a leading provider of cloud contact center software, and they are seeking a Vice President of Data Science to lead and grow their in-house data science team. This role involves directing the team on methodologies and practices in AI and data science, while also being hands-on in technical work and collaborating with various stakeholders.
Call CenterCustomer ServiceEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSales
Responsibilities
Technical Direction Setting: As an expert in the leading edge of AI and data science, you will direct the team on the methodologies, practices, algorithms, experiments and processes they perform
Hands On: You are expected to also be hands on, not just a manger, and be directly responsible for some amount of the technical work in addition to directing the team
Organizational Growth: You will be tasked with growing the team, and ensuring we have the right talent to accomplish our goals
Collaborator and Spokesperson: You will act as an internal and external spokesperson for data science, and collaborate with stakeholders across the company. Internally, you will be expected to meet with product managers, executives and estaff, and be able to converse effectively with them. You will also occasionally meet with customers to understand how Five9 products, and the data science behind them, impacts the customers. You are expected to participate in industry activities, including publication of blog posts and papers, along with participation in AI conferences
Qualification
Required
12+ years experience in data science or AI applied research, ideally at a best-in-class applied research organization
Deep Expertise in Modern AI/ML
Extensive hands-on experience with LLMs, agentic architectures, retrieval-augmented systems, transformers, and composite model pipelines
Strong understanding of commercial and open-source model ecosystems (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral), including evaluation, benchmarking, and tradeoff analysis
Proven ability to perform fine-tuning, supervised/unsupervised training, prompt engineering, prompt optimization, and model orchestration for real-world use cases
Experience designing evaluation frameworks, experiment methodologies, and robust model comparison workflows
Expertise in large-scale data collection, labeling, cleaning, and curation pipelines, preferably with conversational or unstructured text data
Familiarity with tools and techniques for data quality assessment, dataset versioning, and data governance
Strong proficiency in statistical analysis, A/B experimentation, causal inference, and performance measurement
Demonstrated success turning data insights into product improvements that drive measurable business outcomes
Ability to work with engineering teams using modern software practices (Python, data platforms, cloud-native environments, APIs, ML Ops tooling)
Understanding of production ML systems, deployment patterns, monitoring, and safety/guardrail design
Ability to collaborate effectively with product managers, engineering leaders, UX, and GTM teams to translate business needs into data science strategies
Adept at explaining complex technical concepts to executives, customers, and non-technical stakeholders
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including ability to publish thought leadership (papers, blog posts) and present at conferences
Passion for mentoring senior and junior data scientists, fostering technical excellence, and building a culture of experimentation and rigorous thinking
Experience engaging directly with customers to understand their needs, gather feedback, and translate insights into product or model improvements
Ability to define the data science strategy for AI Agents and customer experience products, aligning with corporate priorities and market opportunities
Comfortable being an active contributor—writing code, running experiments, reviewing research—while simultaneously guiding the team's overall direction
Experience hiring, scaling, and structuring high-performing data science teams across multiple geographies
Ability to build processes for experimentation, model evaluation, data quality management, and continuous delivery of data science innovation into product
Skilled at influencing E-staff and senior leadership, defending technical decisions, shaping product strategy, and representing data science internally and externally
Deep understanding of responsible AI principles, privacy considerations, and model safety, including evaluating risks when operating at enterprise scale
Advanced degree in a quantitative or technical field, such as: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Computational Linguistics, or a related field
Master's degree in one of the above fields with significant applied industry experience in AI/ML leadership roles
Benefits
Health, dental, and vision coverage, beginning on the first day of employment.
Five9 covers 100% of the employee portion of the health, dental and vision coverage and shares a high portion of the dependent cost.
Short & Long-Term Disability
Basic Life Insurance
401k saving plan with employer matching
Access to an innovative mental health support platform that offers personalized care and resources in areas such as: therapy, coaching and self-guided mindfulness exercises for all covered employees and their covered dependents
Generous employee stock purchase plan
Paid Time Off
Company paid holidays
Paid volunteer hours
12 weeks paid parental leave
Company
Five9
Five9 is a cloud-based call center software company that specializes in sales, marketing, and customer service. It is a sub-organization of Five Rivers Solutions.
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Five9 has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (13)
2024 (15)
2023 (13)
2022 (20)
2021 (15)
2020 (15)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$861.6MKey Investors
Oaktree Specialty LendingSapphire VenturesAdams Street Partners
2024-02-28Post Ipo Debt· $747.5M
2014-04-04IPO
2014-03-10Debt Financing· $30M
Leadership Team
Jonathan Rosenberg
CTO and Head of AI
Jim Alexander
VP, PMO and Quality Engineering
Recent News
Destination CRM
2026-01-16
2026-01-14
Company data provided by crunchbase