Statistician

About Benson Hill

Here at Benson Hill, we’re driving a new movement—a movement to lead the pace of innovation in soy quality traits with AI-driven seed advancement, proprietary genetics, and rapid prototyping—all while addressing the specific challenges of end users in soy.

What makes this work possible? Innovative thinkers and doers like you. We’re looking for people who are passionate about plant science, big data analytics, and bringing the best out of teams. Join us to unlock the genetic potential of soybeans for better feed, food, and fuel.

Our team comes from a wide range of backgrounds. We’re a multidisciplinary team from fields like plant genetics, agronomy, breeding, animal nutrition, data science, software engineering, and more – all working together to Nourish Innovation™.

Our Purpose and Core Values

Our Core Values are a set of common principles we share that are fundamental to our company’s identity.

• Be Bold! We redefine boundaries by providing new solutions to difficult problems. Together we are driven to transform the future and will not allow the fear of failure to prevent us from innovating. We voice our opinions, embrace change, and challenge each other to think creatively, work effectively, and manage risk appropriately.
• Be Inspired! We have purpose in our work, we are curious, engaged, and have fun. We maintain an active growth mindset and are motivated by diverse people and thoughts. We are energized by all innovators and together we aim to make an impact and contribute to building a better world.
• Be Real! We are a performance-driven organization and hold each other accountable to deliver results through timely, candid, and well-intentioned feedback. We prioritize trust and integrity in all our activities, both internally and with our customers. Together we engage in honest communication and healthy debate that leads to mutual success through true alignment.

Department Overview

The Product Development & Analytics team leads the design and execution of the company’s breeding strategy and development of Benson Hill’s crop design platform, CropOS™ which combines machine learning and big data with advanced breeding methods to simplify and accelerate the product development process. The team partners with others across the company on the development of a portfolio of offerings, both digital and physical, that meet the needs of Benson Hill’s business.

Position Summary

We are seeking an innovative Data Scientist with a strong foundation in hypothesis testing and inference to analyze complex plant and animal phenotype datasets. You will combine rigorous statistical analyses with the latest techniques in predictive machine learning to push the limits of plant breeding. The ideal candidate should have hands-on experience with statistical tests, be comfortable applying inference techniques to large and small datasets, have experience training and evaluating predictive models, and be motivated to steward their work from concept to production.

You Will:

(Essential Duties and Responsibilities)

• Conduct regression analysis, ANOVA, mixed models, and other statistical techniques to drive business decisions using plant and animal trial data.
• Own data exploration, cleaning, and visualization to ensure data quality. Dig in and develop solutions for data issues when found.
• Develop data sets, features, and complex machine learning models to predict plant breeding outcomes.
• Implement and optimize data science workflows in Python or R, ensuring code quality and reproducibility.
• Document and communicate findings, emphasizing practical implications and scientific rigor.
• Identify opportunities for innovation and business improvements through applications of machine learning.
• Collaborate with various internal teams including scientists from other disciplines, data and software engineers, and project leaders.

You Have:

(Competencies and Qualifications)

Education

• Ph.D. (or Master’s degree with 3-5 years experience) in Statistics, Data Science, Biostatistics, Computational Biology, Physics, or a related field.

Experience

• Solid grasp of statistical tests, including t-tests, chi-square tests, ANOVA, mixed models, and non-parametric methods.
• Familiarity with experimental design and methods for addressing confounding variables.
• Experience applying machine learning (lasso, random forests, boosted trees, CNNs, etc.) across multiple domains and with a variety of business objectives.
• Experience in model performance benchmarking and improvement.
• Experience organizing and planning complex projects and ability to multi-task in a start-up setting
• Experience working in a collaborative research environment with scientists from diverse disciplines.

Software/Skillset

• Proficiency in Python and/or R for statistical analysis and modeling, with a strong understanding of data science libraries such as statsmodels, scipy, pandas, numpy, pyro, tidyr and dpylr.
• Familiarity with data aggregation and filtering using SQL.
• Knowledge of basic software engineering practices (version control, modular code, etc.).

Preference given to applicants with the following

• Experience with model fitting and inference on agricultural and animal trial data.
• Familiarity with tools for reproducible research (Jupyter Notebooks, Docker) and Amazon Web Services.
• Proficiency in Python.

We have a Total Rewards Package at Benson Hill that consists of more than just your paycheck. Total Rewards at Benson Hill covers Pay (salary and bonus), Health (employer benefit contributions) and Wealth (investments). Some of the perks include:

• A collaborative environment
• A flexible PTO program with a focus on work/life balance
• Competitive medical benefits and retirement savings plan
• Competitve Dental and Vision coverage
• Education reimbursement
• PAID parental leave
• And more….

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $87,680.00 - $120,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Parental leave
• Professional development assistance
• Referral program
• Vision insurance

Compensation Package:

• Employee stock purchase plan
• Yearly bonus

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift
• Monday to Friday

Ability to Relocate:

• St. Louis, MO 63132: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: In person