Palo Alto, California, United States
Hybrid
At GEICO, we offer a rewarding career where your ambitions are met with endless possibilities.
Every day we honor our iconic brand by offering quality coverage to millions of customers and being there when they need us most. We thrive through relentless innovation to exceed our customers’ expectations while making a real impact for our company through our shared purpose.
When you join our company, we want you to feel valued, supported and proud to work here. That’s why we offer The GEICO Pledge: Great Company, Great Culture, Great Rewards and Great Careers.
Job Title: Staff Applied Research Scientist
We are seeking a highly experienced and strategic Staff Applied Research Scientist to lead the technical architecture and delivery of AI solutions that span multiple functional and technical boundaries at GEICO. As part of the AI Research team, you will define and own the vision for scalable, robust, and compliant AI/ML solutions; drive high-visibility, cross-functional initiatives from ideation through production; and mentor talent while aligning AI investments with business outcomes. You will drive innovation and operational excellence that accelerates transformation and delivers measurable value across the enterprise.
Key Responsibilities:
Identify High-Impact Opportunities: Proactively surface and shape high-value AI/ML initiatives by engaging with product, engineering, and operations to align technical roadmaps with strategic business goals.
Architecture & Technical Direction: Provide architectural leadership for AI/ML solutions impacting multiple stakeholders. Establish standards for scalability, reliability, observability, compliance, and cost efficiency across online and batch systems.
Development & Productionization: Lead end-to-end delivery of AI/ML solutions, including model design, data pipelines, feature stores, evaluation, deployment, A/B testing, and monitoring in real-time and batch environments. Ensure clear plans, milestones, and on-time delivery.
ROI Measurement & Experimentation: Establish robust mechanisms to quantify business impact, including KPI definition, experimentation frameworks, and causal inference approaches to guide decision-making and prioritize investments.
Innovation & Research Integration: Stay current with cutting-edge research in ML, GenAI, and optimization. Prototype and harden novel techniques that push the boundaries of innovation within GEICO’s insurance ecosystem.
Set technical direction for multi-quarter research initiatives; build evaluation frameworks, ensure reproducibility/responsible AI, and drive cross-functional adoption; shepherd patents.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Champion collaboration across Product, Engineering, Data Platform, Governance, Legal, and Operations to ensure responsible, compliant, and effective adoption of AI systems.
Mentorship & Capability Building: Mentor junior and senior scientists, elevate technical standards (coding, testing, documentation, reproducibility), and foster a culture of scientific rigor and engineering excellence.
Communication & Executive Engagement: Translate complex technical topics into clear narratives for technical and non-technical audiences. Present to senior stakeholders, set context, explain trade-offs, and build alignment and enthusiasm.
Qualifications:
BS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field, PhD is preferred.
At least 6+ years of professional experience delivering applied AI/ML solutions in production, including leading cross-functional initiatives with enterprise impact.
Strong proficiency in Python and SQL; deep experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Scikit-learn
Demonstrated experience establishing KPI frameworks, experimentation, and causal analysis to quantify model impact and inform prioritization.
Excellent stakeholder management skills with a track record of driving alignment and adoption across product, engineering, and business teams.
Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to set the right context and explain complex technical topics to varied audiences, including executives.
Preferred Skills:
Experience with recommendation system and survival modeling
Experience with GenAI and LLMs (e.g., prompt design, RAG, evaluation strategies, guardrails, red-teaming, human-in-the-loop workflows).
Research experience in computer science, statistics, machine learning, operations research, or related fields; record of patents, publications, or impactful open-source contributions.
Familiarity with insurance operations and model governance in regulated environments.
Work Locations: Candidates must be open to the following locations:
Bethesda, Maryland
Palo Alto, CA
New York City, NY
Seattle, WA
This is a unique opportunity to define the architectural direction for AI at GEICO, deliver enterprise-scale AI/ML solutions, and cultivate a culture of innovation and excellence. If you are passionate about leading high-impact AI initiatives and mentoring the next generation of Applied research scientists, we encourage you to apply.
Annual Salary
$130,000.00 - $260,000.00The above annual salary range is a general guideline. Multiple factors are taken into consideration to arrive at the final hourly rate/ annual salary to be offered to the selected candidate. Factors include, but are not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the role, the selected candidate’s work experience, education and training, the work location as well as market and business considerations.
The GEICO Pledge:
Great Company: At GEICO, we help our customers through life’s twists and turns. Our mission is to protect people when they need it most and we’re constantly evolving to stay ahead of their needs.
We’re an iconic brand that thrives on innovation, exceeding our customers’ expectations and enabling our collective success. From day one, you’ll take on exciting challenges that help you grow and collaborate with dynamic teams who want to make a positive impact on people’s lives.
Great Careers: We offer a career where you can learn, grow, and thrive through personalized development programs, created with your career – and your potential – in mind. You’ll have access to industry leading training, certification assistance, career mentorship and coaching with supportive leaders at all levels.
Great Culture: We foster an inclusive culture of shared success, rooted in integrity, a bias for action and a winning mindset. Grounded by our core values, we have an an established culture of caring, inclusion, and belonging, that values different perspectives. Our teams are led by dynamic, multi-faceted teams led by supportive leaders, driven by performance excellence and unified under a shared purpose.
As part of our culture, we also offer employee engagement and recognition programs that reward the positive impact our work makes on the lives of our customers.
Great Rewards: We offer compensation and benefits built to enhance your physical well-being, mental and emotional health and financial future.
The equal employment opportunity policy of the GEICO Companies provides for a fair and equal employment opportunity for all associates and job applicants regardless of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, familial status, disability or genetic information, in compliance with applicable federal, state and local law. GEICO hires and promotes individuals solely on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled.
GEICO reasonably accommodates qualified individuals with disabilities to enable them to receive equal employment opportunity and/or perform the essential functions of the job, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship to the Company. This applies to all applicants and associates. GEICO also provides a work environment in which each associate is able to be productive and work to the best of their ability. We do not condone or tolerate an atmosphere of intimidation or harassment. We expect and require the cooperation of all associates in maintaining an atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment with mutual respect by and for all associates and applicants.
Want to know if this job is worth applying to?
