Senior Analyst, AI [T500-30618]

Talent500 is hiring for one of its clients.About Five Below:At Five Below, our growth is powered by the people who embrace our purpose and by a retail model that brings trend-right value to customers in every market we serve.We are a fast-growing retailer with more than 2,000 stores, along with a digital presence through our website and mobile app.It all starts with our purpose and then, The Five Below Way, which is our values and behaviors that each and every associate believes in.It's all about culture at Five Below, making this a place that can inspire you as much as you inspire us with big ideas, super energy, passion, and the ability to make the workplace a WOW place!Five Below is seeking a detail-oriented AI Analyst to join our AI team and serve as the critical bridge between business stakeholders and technical AI teams. In this role, you'll gather and translate business requirements into actionable AI specifications, analyze data to uncover insights that drive AI initiatives, and ensure AI models and systems meet quality standards through rigorous testing and validation. You'll work across the organization to identify AI opportunities, validate model performance, and ensure our AI solutions deliver measurable business value across our 1,500+ stores and digital channels.AI Requirements Gathering & Analysis:Partner with business stakeholders across merchandising, supply chain, marketing, store operations, and e-commerce to identify AI opportunities and gather detailed requirements.Conduct workshops, interviews, and collaborative sessions to understand business pain points, processes, and objectives that can be addressed through AI.Translate complex business needs into clear, actionable AI/ML requirements and user stories for data scientists, AI-ML engineers.Define success metrics, acceptance criteria, and KPIs for AI projects to ensure alignment with business goalsCreate detailed business requirement documents (BRDs), functional specifications, and process flow diagramsPrioritize AI use cases based on business impact, feasibility, and strategic alignmentServe as the liaison between business users and technical teams, ensuring clear communication and mutual understanding.Data Analysis & Insights:Perform exploratory data analysis (EDA) to understand data patterns, identify anomalies, and assess data quality for AI model developmentAnalyze large datasets from multiple sources including POS systems, e-commerce platforms, inventory systems, and customer databasesCreate data visualizations and dashboards to communicate insights to stakeholders and support data-driven decision-makingConduct statistical analysis to validate hypotheses and identify trends that inform AI model designProfile and assess data sources to determine their suitability for AI/ML applicationsIdentify data gaps, quality issues, and opportunities for data enrichment to improve model performanceWork with data engineers to define data requirements and ensure proper data collection and storageGenerate regular reports on AI system performance, business impact, and ROI metricsAI Testing & Quality Assurance:Design and execute comprehensive test plans for AI/ML models including functional, integration, performance, and user acceptance testing (UAT)Validate AI model outputs against business requirements and acceptance criteria to ensure accuracy and reliabilityPerform model performance testing using appropriate metrics (accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, AUC-ROC, RMSE, etc.)Conduct bias detection and fairness testing to ensure AI models don't discriminate or produce unintended outcomesTest AI systems across different scenarios, edge cases, and data distributions to identify potential failuresDocument test cases, test results, and defects in a clear, organized manner using Jira.Work closely with data scientists and AI/ML engineers to reproduce, troubleshoot, and resolve model issuesValidate data quality, feature engineering, and model training processes to ensure robust AI solutionsConduct A/B testing and champion/challenger tests to compare model performance and validate improvementsMonitor deployed AI models for drift, degradation, and anomalies, raising alerts when performance deviates from expectationsRequired Qualifications:Bachelor's degree in Business Analytics, Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, Statistics, or related field5+ years of experience as a Business Analyst, Data Analyst, QA Analyst, or similar role, preferably with exposure to AI/ML projectsPreferred Retail experience.Strong analytical skills with experience in data analysis, statistical analysis, and data visualizationProficiency in SQL for querying and analyzing data from multiple data sources. Preferable experience with Databricks.Experience with data visualization tools (Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or similar)Hands-on experience with Python or R for data analysis and scriptingKnowledge of AI/ML fundamentals including supervised/unsupervised learning, classification, regression, and model evaluation metricsExperience with testing methodologies and creating test plans, test cases, and test scriptsProficiency with collaboration and documentation tools (Confluence, Jira, Microsoft Office, Google Workspace)