Entry-Level Data Scientist – AI Chatbot Development

Job Description

The Asia Group (TAG) is now accepting applications for a Entry-Level Data Scientist – AI Chatbot Development to join our Team. This role will be based in Washington, DC.

The Asia Group is a dynamic strategic advisory firm that positions clients, ranging from Fortune 100 multinationals to innovative startups, for success in established and emerging markets across the Indo-Pacific region. Our team includes a diverse mix of partners and staff possessing decades of government, private sector, academia, and military experience. Our corporate philosophy emphasizes teamwork, collegiality, creativity, and entrepreneurialism. Our operational culture is fast paced and demanding yet strives to be flexible and fun. Beyond the pursuit of professional success, our leadership actively embraces the challenges and opportunities associated with growing a highly successful firm, including by investing time and energy in mentoring and leading staff.

The Entry-Level Data Scientist will support TAG+ by analyzing datasets, developing simple predictive models, and contributing to the overall data strategy. This role is an excellent opportunity for a recent graduate or someone changing careers who is looking to gain hands-on experience in a fast-paced environment. The successful candidate will have a strong foundation in statistical analysis and natural language processing (NLP), along with a desire to learn and grow within the rapidly evolving field of AI and data science.

Job Requirements

Qualifications

• Education: Master's degree in data science, computer science, computational linguistics, mathematics, statistics, or a related field or equivalent experience.
• Experience: Experience: 0-2 years of experience, including demonstrated internship or project experience in NLP, machine learning, or building applications with large language models.

Technical Skills:

• Proficiency in Python for data analysis and AI/ML development.
• Familiarity with NLP and LLM concepts, including tokenization, embeddings, semantic search, and prompt engineering.
• Exposure to RAG architectures and vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, Chroma, FAISS).
• Experience with LLM APIs and frameworks (e.g., OpenAI API, OpenRouter, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face).
• Experience with SQL for database querying.
• Familiarity with version control systems such as Git and GitHub
• Understanding of machine learning concepts and evaluation techniques.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) a plus but not required.
• Preferred: Experience with local fine-tuning LLMs using Peft or LoRA

Soft Skills:

• Eager to learn and stay current with a rapidly changing AI landscape.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Effective communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to adapt to change and/or a fluid working environment

Job Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist in the development of data models and machine learning algorithms.
• Assist in the development and optimization of AI chatbot systems, including building and refining Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines to ensure the chatbot returns accurate, contextually relevant responses.
• Create, curate, and manage vector embeddings and knowledge bases that power chatbot retrieval, ensuring source documents are properly chunked, indexed, and kept up to date.
• Clean, process, and analyze structured and unstructured data to identify opportunities for platform improvement.
• Evaluate platform performance by designing test cases, tracking key metrics (e.g., response accuracy, hallucination rate, user satisfaction), and recommending pipeline adjustments.
• Support prompt engineering efforts by drafting, testing, and iterating on system prompts and instructions to improve chatbot tone, accuracy, and behavior.
• Conduct research on emerging LLM techniques, tools, and best practices (e.g., fine-tuning, agentic workflows, new embedding models) to inform the team's chatbot strategy.
• Collaborate with team members and developers to integrate chatbot components with APIs, databases, and cloud infrastructure.
• Document processes, maintain data integrity, and contribute to internal knowledge-sharing.

Job Benefits

We value professionals who are proactive in exploring new ways to work smarter. Ideal candidates will be comfortable using artificial intelligence tools — or excited to learn how — to increase efficiency, enhance analysis or deliverables, and generate innovative solutions. Familiarity with generative AI platforms or a growth mindset toward emerging technologies is a plus.

Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States and are expected to work in-person at the TAG DC office five days per week. Please note that the Asia Group maintains a dog-friendly office environment. Dogs are often present in our workplace, and candidates should be comfortable working in close proximity to them as part of our standard in-person work setting. TAG provides competitive benefits, including premium health insurance, generous paid time off, 401(k) matching, and commuter allowances, with regular training opportunities available to its employees. For this role, TAG offers a salary of $75,000-$80,000 with eligibility for a discretionary end-of-year bonus. All interested candidates must apply via the application portal on our website. Due to the volume of applications received, responses from our recruiting team may be delayed. No phone calls or emails, please.

Legal Notices

Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws: Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA); Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA). As a participant in E-Verify, we are required to provide the following notices: E-Verify Participation Poster and Right to Work Poster.

Assistance for Applicants with Disabilities

The Asia Group is committed to fair and equal employment of applicants and employees with disabilities. If you have a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act or other applicable laws, and you need to discuss a reasonable accommodation to apply for a role, please call +1 (202) 350-3200 and ask to speak with Human Resources.