They want someone that can independently scope and execute projects under guidance of more senior Data Scientists.
PhD level education is not necessary. We would prefer more on-the-job experience with data to more education
For the analytics background we need, we should look for candidates talking more about trends, assessing model performance and accuracy, data analysis and exploratory data techniques, traditional regression like logistic and linear regression.
Ideally looking for someone with balanced experience in both modeling and analysis and interpretation of results to provide insights, dashboards, surface analysis results to clients/customers/users.
We could also look for candidates who talk about designing data workflows, designing features, designing solutions.
We will need someone who can design a solution as well as write the code for it.
Gen AI /LLM experience is not required but is a bonus.
I would prefer candidates with the stats background over a candidate with Gen AI background at this phase of the project.