Job Description

DATA SCIENTIST

Information Technology

Victoria or Vancouver Lower Mainland

12-month term

The Opportunity

At BC Ferries, data is helping shape the future of one of British Columbia's most essential transportation networks. Every day, millions of data points are generated across our vessels, terminals, customers, and operations. We're looking for a curious, innovative Data Scientist who is excited to turn that data into meaningful insights, predictive models, AI-powered solutions, and digital products that improve how we serve coastal communities.

As part of our Enterprise Optimization, Data & Insights team, you'll work on high-impact initiatives that span forecasting, machine learning, artificial intelligence, digital twins, operational optimization, customer experience, and enterprise analytics. This is an opportunity to apply advanced data science in an environment where your work will influence strategic decisions, improve operational performance, and help shape the future of BC Ferries.

If you're passionate about solving complex business problems, building production-ready machine learning solutions, and collaborating with talented business and technology professionals, we'd love to hear from you.

The Role

Reporting to the Executive Director, Enterprise Optimization, Data & Insights, you add value to the team by key areas of oversight such as:

• Assisting in collecting, processing, and analyzing large datasets to uncover insights;

• Supporting the development and implementation of machine learning models and algorithms;

• Collaborating with other data expertise and cross-functional teams to understand business needs and contribute to data-driven solutions;

• Creating data visualizations and reports to communicate findings to stakeholders;

• Conducting exploratory data analysis to identify trends and patterns;

• Maintaining data quality and integrity throughout the data lifecycle;

• Supporting the establishment and maintenance of data governance practice, ensuring compliance with data policies and standards;

• Staying updated with the latest trends and advancements in data science and machine learning;

• Investigating approved data use cases and lead the design, research, development and delivery of data products, models and deliverables by collaborating directly with teams/individuals across the company;

• Productionizing predictive and descriptive machine learning models in the field of time series analysis and forecasting for demand forecasts;

• Exploring, designing, and building AI prototypes to significantly improve customer experience;

• Using advanced statistics to develop, build and maintain data models to explain subtle trends in business performance;

• Working collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team environment establishes and maintaining professional networks with subject matter experts;

• Presenting results to senior leadership in a compelling and clear manner to drive business decision-making;

What you bring to the team

• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Economics or other related discipline

• Certifications such as Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist Associate, IBM Data Science Professional Certificate etc.

• Minimum 4+ years of recent and related experience in developing advanced analytics and machine learning solutions using Python, SQL, and modern data science tools

• Experience building predictive models using techniques such as regression, decision trees, random forests, gradient boosting, support vector machines, principal component analysis, deep learning, and time series forecasting

• Experience working with structured and unstructured data, statistical modelling, natural language processing, and advanced AI and machine learning techniques

• Familiarity with cloud platforms, big data technologies, Git-based version control, and production-ready analytics environments

• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to present complex analytical findings in a clear and compelling way.

• Strong knowledge with relational databases & structured query language (SQL)

• Experience with cutting-edge machine learning and deep learning models, techniques and tools

• Understanding of natural language processing (NLP), time series analysis or reinforcement learning

• Experience in algorithms like logistic regression, gradient boosted machines, decision trees, random forests, support vector machines (SVM), principal component analysis (PCA), deep neural networks

• Ability to process and analyze structured and unstructured data

• Experience with one of the major cloud computing platforms such as Google Cloud

• Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure

• Experience launching, planning and executing data science projects

• Proven experience and solid understanding of mathematical and statistical modelling; inference, Bayesian methods, likelihood estimation, sampling theory and hypothesis testing

• Working experience with distributed version control systems such as Git and GitHub

• Familiarity with big data tools (Spark, Hadoop)

Join us!

If this sounds like your next great career move, please submit your cover letter and resume by August 16, 2026 at 11:59pm.

Additional information

The target salary range: $83,500 - $104,300 per annum. The starting salary is determined based on the successful candidate’s knowledge, experience and internal equity.

"We sail to serve and connect the people and the coast of BC” 

At BC Ferries, our people are at the heart of delivering safe and reliable service along 1,600 km of coastline. Every day, we connect communities and move tens of thousands of passengers and vehicles across our 25 routes through the dedication, expertise and hard work of our teams. Guided by a shared commitment to safety, service, inclusion and local commitment, we offer meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and the chance to make a positive impact. Whether you work onboard our vessels, in our terminals or behind the scenes, you'll play an important role in connecting people, supporting communities, and keeping coastal BC moving.   

We support employment equity and diversity in the workplace and we encourage applications from all qualified individuals including women, visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, persons of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity or expression (LGBTQ2S+), and others who reflect our ever-changing workplace.  

We appreciate the interest of all applicants; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.