Director, Data Science

Meet Upside

We created Upside to help communities thrive! Our retail technology uses the sophistication of online retail—profit measurement, attribution, and incrementality—to provide users with more value on their everyday purchases and brick and mortar businesses with new, profitable customers. We’ve helped millions of users earn 2 to 3 times more cash back than any other product, and tens of thousands of brick and mortar businesses earn measurable profit. Billions of dollars in commerce run through the Upside platform every year, and that value goes directly back to our local retailers, the consumers they serve, and towards important sustainability initiatives. Our mission, values, and commitment to inclusivity guide our team of more than 300 people worldwide, and the quality of our culture is reflected in the impact we’ve had on communities nationwide. You’ll join a Team whose experience hails from places such as Google, Uber, Amazon, Instacart, Capital One, and MasterCard with proven startup executives and venture capitalists.

Upside was named on Deloitte's 2021 & 2022 list of Fastest Growing 500 Tech Companies and #308 in Inc.’s America’s fastest growing private companies of 2022. Upside’s Series D funding was raised in March 2022 and led by General Catalyst at a $1.5 billion valuation. Other investors include Bessemer Ventures and Formation8.

Meet the Data team:

We are a close-knit group of hardworking, fast-learning individuals that believes in a data-driven approach to decision-making. We encourage a culture that emphasizes learning from mistakes. Our Data team debates and deliberates on the best ideas to improve our processes, and strives for an inclusive atmosphere that nurtures the psychological wellness of all of our teammates. We build and produce data science and machine learning models that are pivotal to Upside's mission.

About the job:

The Director, Data Science operates as a player/coach, engaging in analysis and R&D, as well as leveling up data literacy with each business partner. This role’s impact will reach across Finance, Marketing, Operations, Product, Engineering, and Sales to design experiments, develop prediction models, and perform causal analysis to inform strategy. As a leader, the Director will grow the team and impact the direction and evolution of the data practice and the company as a whole.

What you’ll do:

• Lead an initial team of 6 Data Scientists and actively recruit to grow the data science function
• Build partnerships across Upside and seek to understand data and modeling needs
• Establish team priorities, align with key objectives and deliver results
• Decide on technical experiment designs, statistical analysis and modeling methodology
• Communicate technical and quantitative concepts to non-technical audiences and tie recommendations to business goals and outcomes

What you need:

• 10+ years of predictive analytics, data science, or machine learning experience
• Exposure to personalization such as for product recommendation, rank order and offer pricing
• Experience with marketing experiment design, decisioning and optimization across channels (e.g. paid search, paid social, organic search, direct mail, radio and TV)
• Knowledge of transactions and payment fraud detection and risk management
• 5+ years of experience with managing a team
• Ph.D. or Master’s degree in a quantitative or similar field
• Experience in SQL, Python and a visualization tool (ideally Looker)
• Ability to simplify complex problems, synthesize data, and create compelling narratives to inform decision making
• Analytical and organizational skills, along with a strong attention to detail and eye for quality

Our technology stack:

• SQL
• Python
• Snowflake
• AWS
• Looker
• Jupyter
• Sagemaker

The fine print:

• Location: This is a fully-remote role that may sit anywhere in the United States. You're welcome to work from our DC, Austin, Chicago or New York office if you're in-region!
• Notice to recruiters and placement agencies: This is an in-house search with a dedicated recruiter. Please do not submit resumes to any person or email address at Upside. Upside is not liable for, and will not pay, placement fees for candidates submitted by any party or agency other than its approved recruitment partners.

At Upside, we believe that diversity drives innovation. Our differences are what makes us stronger. We‘re passionate about building a workplace that represents a variety of backgrounds, skills, and perspectives and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Everyone is welcome here. Come join us!