Sr. Data Scientist Charlotte- NC - Hawkins; Charlotte, NC

Overview

Since its founding in 1937, Krispy Kreme's focus has remained the same - making fresh doughnuts using our founder's original recipe. The brand's iconic Hot Light lets consumers know when doughnuts are being made in the shop so they can stop in and enjoy them hot, right off the line.

Krispy Kreme is looking for a Senior Data Scientist to join our Demand Planning team and help modernize our supply chain planning capabilities. We are in the process of building a new demand planning solution with the desire to connect it to future supply and logistics platforms. This job will support our Fresh Delivery and Retail shop network. The Sr. Data Scientist will serve as a hybrid data solutions architect, responsible for developing, scaling, and operationalizing the new platform's demand models within Krispy Kreme's enterprise ecosystem.

This role is critical to enabling Krispy Kreme's next generation forecasting capabilities and will be supporting accurate daily predictions, improved loadout decisions, and the architecture needed for long-term adoption. The ideal candidate has strong foundations in machine learning, time-series forecasting, data engineering, and supply chain planning along with the ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and transform raw data into high-impact business outcomes.

A TASTE OF WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING:

• Own and enhance the forecasting models developed in Lyric, including time-series, hierarchical, and ML approaches.
• Retrain, tune, and monitor predictions across our Fresh Delivery and Retail business and future product categories, ensuring scalability and reliability.
• Design and implement scalable data processing pipelines between Krispy Kreme systems and Lyric (Snowflake, Oracle DP Cloud, POS, etc.).
• Build data validation frameworks to ensure clean, trustworthy inputs for production forecasting.
• Solution & System Integration - Support initial implementation, rollout, and future enhancement of the demand planning system.
• Partner with Lyric's product and engineering teams to continuously improve platform capabilities based on Krispy Kreme requirements.
• Serve as a technical and analytical bridge between Krispy Kreme operations, planning teams, IT, and Lyric's data science group.
• Communicate complex model behaviors and results to non-technical audiences including supply chain leaders, planners, and operational teams.
• Identify opportunities to enhance forecast accuracy, reduce returns, and improve finishing position performance.
• Introduce new ML methodologies, optimization, heuristics, or automated decision-support tools.

• 5+ years in Data Science, Applied ML, or solutions architecture.
• Bachelor's degree in data science, Statistics, Computer Science or related field required. Master's degree preferred.
• Experience working with supply chain datasets—preferably in perishable, retail, food, or high-frequency replenishment environments.
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining production ML systems (time-series or causal models required).
• Experience with data engineering tools (SQL, dbt, Airflow, Spark, Snowflake, etc.).
• Experience collaborating with IT, operations, and planning teams on data pipelines and system integrations.
• Experience and familiarity with ETL tools.
• Strong data processing or data engineering exposure.
• Curiosity to problem solving and adaptability.
• Experience in DSD/merchandising networks and short shelf-life products strongly preferred.
• Exposure to optimization (linear programming, heuristics, routing, or inventory optimization).
• Prior experience with ML Ops, CI/CD for model deployment, or cloud-native DS tools.
• Exposure to demand and supply planning and logistics analytics.
• Strong technical proficiency in Python, SQL, and ML frameworks (Prophet, XGBoost, PyTorch, stats models, etc.).
• Ability to translate complex analytics into actionable business recommendations.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Problem-solving mindset with strong business intuition.
• Ability to work in fast-paced, cross-functional environments with evolving priorities.

* The above statements are intended to describe the general nature of work performed by the employees assigned to this job and are not the official job description for the position. The official job description will be provided during the application/interview process.

• Comprehensive benefits (medical, vision, and dental insurance)
• Employee discount program
• 401K plan
• Generous PTO Plan
• Company events
• Education Reimbursement
• Adoption Assistance
• Life Insurance
• FSA/HSA Plans
• Pet Insurance

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