[atmosx]

> My side work is more in line with the type of work I am going for, so I'd like to be able to highlight those projects in an interview, but so far have avoided discussing them in depth or even putting them on my resume. As a result I feel I am categorized as being a great fit for a data eng role, but not enough experience for data science or machine learning.

In that case I think you should put the projects on you resume and politely try to steer the conversation to those projects. Theoretically they will be more interested in those projects, if that's what they'd want you do to.

> Generally speaking, do companies look down on candidates who take on side work in addition to their FT job?

I wouldn't discuss this in the interview but would ask my lead engineer when I'm settled. There's no need to discuss this a priori, except if you plan to prioritize side-projects (which doesn't make sense).