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 people who understand that behind every data point there is a pet and a person. When you develop and deploy an algorithm, you are not just producing a score or rule set, you are altering the customer experience and impacting the business in measurable ways. You should be excited to tackle a broad array of problems facing a two-sided marketplace and work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. 

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. 

As a Data Scientist on the Booking Data Science team, you will:

• Collaborate closely with business, product, marketing, and operations teams to pinpoint opportunities for enhanced efficiency in our marketplace.
• Support business expansion by localizing existing models, such as search rankings and marketplace business intelligence to serve new markets. 
• 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.
• Perform statistical analysis to draw inferences, forecast future trends, and predict user behavior.
• Develop and refine models that aim to improve matching efficiency and to retain customers on our platform, utilizing predictive analytics and machine learning techniques.
• Design, build, and maintain robust data pipelines that serve as the backbone for informed decision-making, monitoring of our systems and as algorithmic inputs.
• Design, setup and analyze marketplace experiments (e.g. A/B testing, before-after analyses) of your data science pipelines, often in close collaboration with product managers and engineers. 

Your Toolset Includes:

• Intermediate SQL – you know about window functions, complex joins, and love to write efficient, readable queries. 
• Data visualization fundamentals 
• Basic working knowledge of Python or R to develop and evaluate models.
• (nice to have) Experience with big data technology (e.g. Spark, Redshift, AWS)

Your Qualifications:

• At least 1 year of experience in a business setting as a data scientist or analyst
• BS in a quantitative discipline; advanced degree (MS or PhD) a plus
• Understanding of foundational statistical concepts including probability, hypothesis testing, and experimental design
• (nice to have) Robust foundation and some practical experience with one or more contemporary machine learning methods is a plus.
• (nice to have) Experience in a two-sided marketplace is a plus.
• We welcome candidates wanting to transition from a quantitative academic discipline into data science.

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

• Competitive compensation
• 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.