Lead Data Scientist

Who we are: Want to make an impact? Join our pack and come work (and play!) with us.
We believe everyone deserves the unconditional love of a pet—and at Rover, our mission is to make it easier to experience that love. Founded in 2011, the Rover app and website connect dog and cat parents with loving pet sitters and dog walkers in neighborhoods across the US, Canada, and Europe. We empower our community of trusted pet sitters and dog walkers to run their own pet care businesses on Rover with the tools and security of a global company to back them.
Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, we work closely with our teams in Barcelona, San Antonio, Spokane, and remote locations. We’ve got a reputation for being a great place to work, having been named among the 100 Best Companies to Work For in Seattle Business Magazine and Washington’s Best Workplaces in the Puget Sound Business Journal. We're an agile, fast-growing company, and our leadership comes from some of the world's most respected tech companies. 
At Rover, our furry coworkers are just as important as our human ones—and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Along with making the joys of pet parenthood more accessible, we’re committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community of pet people—and that starts with our employees.
Who we're looking for:We are looking for a Lead Data Scientist with experience in mentoring and leading larger projects, ensuring a high level of quality across the team. The ideal candidate will be excited to tackle a broad array of challenges in our two-sided marketplace, from machine learning to analytical problems, in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. We are particularly excited about candidates with expertise in Search, Ranking, and Recommendations, as we have ambitious initiatives in this space.

What does Data Science mean at Rover?At Rover we obsess over our customers’ needs, relying heavily on data to improve the customer journey, and to continuously optimize outcomes in our marketplaces. Our entire organization is metric driven and underpinned by data science and analytics. Data scientists are responsible for defining the right metrics, understanding nuanced marketplace dynamics, and developing models and algorithms that power our business and technology.
You will be joining the Booking Data Science team, which works specifically on problems of matching (mostly through search and recommendations) and retention (through search and other initiatives in collaboration with Lifecycle Marketing and Operations).

As a Lead Data Scientist in the Booking Data Science team you will:

• Iterate on Rover’s search ranking algorithm by developing new contextual features, experimenting with different objective function formulations and researching possible improvements such as with distance, location, past user history. 
• Lead larger cross-functional data science projects, building a roadmap of iterations and helping define milestones in collaboration with product, engineering and data engineering. Act as a project lead, organizing and mentoring more junior team members, while ensuring high quality output. 
• Dive deep into marketplace dynamics, extracting valuable insights and providing strategic recommendations to shape our product offerings, using your skills in data mining and data visualization.
• Implement best practices in machine learning model development, deployment and monitoring, by working with Data Platform and prioritizing operational improvements. 
• Design, build, and maintain robust data pipelines that serve as the backbone for informed decision-making, monitoring of our systems and features to our models.  
• Perform statistical analysis to draw inferences, forecast future trends, and predict user behavior. You will also use statistics to estimate the expected impact of interventions or to establish causal relationships when A/B testing is not possible. 

Your Toolset Includes:

• SQL - you would be comfortable leading a SQL 101 course
• Proficient Python and the most common data science libraries – scikit-learn, xgboost, numpy, scipy, pandas
• Data visualization (we use Mode as our data visualization tool, but you could have experience in any other tool or library such as Tableau, Sisense, Matplotlib, ggplot)
• Experience with big data technology and infrastructure (e.g. Spark, Redshift, AWS) a plus

Your Qualifications:

• At least 6 years of experience in a business setting as a data scientist and at least 1 year of mentoring or managing other data scientists 
• BS in a quantitative discipline; advanced degree (MS or PhD) a plus
• Understanding of foundational statistical concepts including probability, hypothesis testing, and experimental design
• Robust foundation and in-depth experience with one or more contemporary machine learning or predictive modeling algorithms, such as ensemble methods, natural language processing (NLP) techniques, clustering algorithms or deep learning methods. Specifically, solid experience with Search, Ranking and Recommendations will be preferred
• Experience working side-by-side with coordinated teams of developers, analysts, product managers, marketers, and operators
• Experience in a two-sided marketplace is a plus 

Why We’ll Hire You:

• You’re a deeply analytical thinker who is passionate about finding structure in data, and using data to drive real value to the end user (and thus the business).
• You are excited both about analysis and model building. You’re not afraid to tackle ambiguous analytical questions or impactful production-facing models, depending on business needs. 
• You are passionate about our core business. You will instinctively dig into every aspect of what it means to be a pet sitter and a pet owner on the Rover platform.
• You can take abstractly defined problems and work with (imperfect) data to drive decisions.
• You’re able to fit and interpret results of statistical models, as well as report on key assumptions and limitations.
• You show a pattern of being self-started, self-taught and self-directed.
• You favor open communication with willingness to ask and answer questions.
• You are output- and outcome-oriented.
• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to break apart complex processes for non-technical stakeholders.
• You play nicely with others (and dogs).

Benefits of Working at Rover.com:

• Competitive compensation
• Long-term incentive plan with a company performance-based cash payout
• Permanent contract
• Pension Plan
• Meal tickets through Cobee
• Generous PTO Allowance
• Hybrid schedule
• Private health insurance
• Discounted Gym Membership
• Bring your dog to work (and unlimited puppy time)
• Monetary help for adopting a dog plus yearly credit to use on our platform 
• Flexible work hours, sometimes you’ll need to be in at certain times, but on the whole, we’re pretty flexible when it comes to managing workload and time
• Grab snacks, fresh fruit, in our kitchen to keep yourself going 
• Regular team activities, including happy hours, game nights, and more

Rover is an equal-opportunity employer committed to promoting a diverse, inclusive, and inventive environment with the best employees. We’re driven by seeing our people succeed and grow, and we work to ensure everyone contributes to their fullest potential. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, protected veteran status, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances.