Senior Applied Economist Causal Inference & Forecasting

Navan is seeking a Senior Applied Economist to join the Data Science & Machine Learning team. This is a foundational "first-of-its-kind" role at Navan designed for a technical leader who can bridge the gaps between hands-on machine learning rigorous economic theory and driving business outcomes.

In this role you will be the primary architect of our internal economic "brain." You will move beyond point-estimate forecasting to build sophisticated models that account for market nuances uncertainty and causal drivers. You will partner closely with Finance Treasury and FP&A to steer the company’s financial trajectory while providing the strategic frameworks that Sales and Pricing teams use to maximize customer adoption and revenue.

What You’ll Do:

• Next-Generation Forecasting: Uplevel our existing forecasting pipelines (currently built on Prophet). You will integrate econometric rigor to improve accuracy and crucially provide a range of likely outcomes (probabilistic forecasting) that Finance and Treasury can rely on for risk management.
• Causal Inference & Strategy: Design and execute experimental and quasi-experimental frameworks to identify the "levers" of the business. You will answer critical questions regarding price elasticity product feature attribution and the ROI of sales incentives.
• Strategic Blueprinting: Partner with Sales and Account Management to create data-driven frameworks for pricing and customer retention. You will translate complex causal models into actionable blueprints for go-to-market teams.
• Production-Level Data Science: Work hands-on within our ML infrastructure. You will write production-quality Python code to deploy models into our AWS and Snowflake-based ecosystem ensuring your insights are automated and scalable.
• Internal Advisory: Act as the subject matter expert on economic literature and methodology translating technical findings into strategic recommendations for executive leadership.

What We’re Looking For:

• Education: An advanced degree (PhD preferred Masters required) in Economics Statistics or a related quantitative field with a heavy emphasis on econometrics or causal inference.
• Experience: 4+ years of post-academic experience in an applied research finance or data science role ideally within a high-growth tech environment or fintech.
  • Technical Proficiency:
    • Deep expertise in Python and its data science ecosystem (pandas statsmodels scikit-learn etc.).
    • Advanced SQL skills with experience querying large-scale data warehouses like Snowflake.
    • Experience working in production environments and a strong understanding of the ML lifecycle is nice to have.
• Econometric Mastery: Proven ability to apply advanced methods (e.g. Synthetic Control IV Diff-in-Diff Structural Modeling) to messy real-world datasets.
• Self-Starter Mentality: Experience functioning in "underdefined" spaces. As our first economist you must be comfortable setting the roadmap.
• Communication: The ability to explain not just the "what" but the "why" and the "what if." You can communicate uncertainty and risk to a CFO just as clearly as you can discuss model architecture with an ML Engineer.
• Preferred Qualifications:
  • Prior experience in Fintech Payments or Travel industries.
  • Experience building and scaling "first-of-their-kind" functions within a data organization.

How does Navan ensure its pay and bonus plans are competitive?

What We Do

Navan (Nasdaq: NAVN) is the leading all-in-one business travel payments and expense management platform that makes travel easy for frequent travelers. From finding flights and hotels to automating expense reconciliation with 24/7 support along the way Navan delivers an intuitive experience travelers love and finance teams rely on. See how Navan customers benefit and learn more at navan.com.

Why Work With Us

At Navan we’re never satisfied with the status quo and we know breakthrough ideas come from diverse perspectives. We are committed to cultivating a workplace that reflects the diversity of the customers we serve while fostering leadership and innovation.

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