As others have said [uv] (https://github.com/astral-sh/uv) is likely a good option but since you’ve mentioned being a data scientist you might also check out [pixi] (https://prefix.dev/tools/pixi).

It’s built on top of conda so will likely have all the packages you might need.

It’s got quite a nice workflow, keeps things contained in the project directory, and adds a few conveniences over standard conda.