Senior Machine Learning Scientist

Whatnot (YC W20) is a livestream shopping platform and marketplace backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, and CapitalG. We’re one of YC’s top companies and one of the fastest growing marketplaces ever. We’re laser focused on creating an exceptional software company, team, and place to work. You can read our principles here.

Our mission: enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce. We’re building the future of ecommerce; an interactive community where creators can make a living off their passion.

Did we mention we’re growing? In January 2021, Whatnot had 10 ambitious employees. We started 2023 with 350+ employees and are continuing to grow. We’re hiring forward thinking problem solvers across all functional areas. We recruit thoughtfully, can adapt quickly, and are scaling fully remotely.

The e-commerce experience has been static for 20+ years and is one of the largest opportunities for disruption in the startup space today. Livestream shopping is a $300B GMV market in China and has grown 100% YoY. Retail is a $5T market opportunity!

We are looking for intellectually curious, highly motivated individuals to be foundational members of our Machine Learning and Data Platform team. You will partner across the company and use data to design scalable solutions based on a deep understanding of critical business goals. The ideal candidate will leverage data analysis, statistics and machine learning to lead initiatives end to end, including data & machine learning engineering.

• Build and help set direction across the entire machine learning development process to implement machine learning algorithms in production, including exploratory data analysis, data modeling, feature engineering, model training and tuning, testing, deployment, and monitoring.
• Partner closely across the business to identify improvements and influence decisions using data science methodologies and tools.
• Develop new production machine learning algorithms and systems that enrich the app experience with machine learning-powered experiences.
• Contribute across the data science and machine learning development stack: idea development, opportunity sizing, prototyping, testing, and deployment.
• Design and implement end-to-end data pipelines and data systems that support MLOps and business processes.
• Build high quality communication devices such as dashboards, notebooks, documents, presentations to convey insights across a broad audience.
• Define and advance standard methodologies within an experiment-driven culture.

Curious about who thrives at Whatnot? We’ve found that low ego, a growth mindset, and leaning into action and high impact goes a long way here.

As our next Senior Machine Learning Scientist you should have 5+ years of experience, plus:

• Proven history of knowledge in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Software Engineering or related technical field.
• Industry experience with a track record of applying scientific methods to solve real-world problems on consumer scale data.
• Experience leading work to develop and deploy machine learning- and data-based solutions in production.
• Extensive experience with Python and SQL for data science, machine learning, and software development e.g. numpy, scipy, pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch, LightGBM, Flask, FastAPI, Docker, Jupyter.
• Ability to work autonomously and lead initiatives across multiple product areas and communicate findings with leadership and product teams.
• Comfortability with data warehouses and transformation tools such as Snowflake, dbt, Dagster.
• Proficiency and experience in applied statistics and machine learning fields e.g. Experimentation and Causal Analysis, Recommendations, Fraud & Anomaly Detection, Natural Language, Computer Vision.
• Firm grasp of visualization tools, interactive and self-serving, such as dashboards and notebooks.
• Professionalism around collaborating in a remote working environment and well tested reproducible work.
• Above average documentation and communication skills.

• Competitive base salary and stock options
• Unlimited Vacation Policy and Company-wide Holidays (including a spring and winter break)
• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Short term disability & Long term Disability
  • Whatnot covers 99% of employee premium costs, and 75% of dependent care premiums for Medical
  • Dental and Vision sponsored 100% by Whatnot for employees and dependents
• Work From Home Support
  • Laptop provided by Whatnot and home office setup allowance
  • $450 work-from-anywhere quarterly allowance for cell phone and internet
• Care benefits
  • $1,350 quarterly allowance on food
  • $1,500 quarterly allowance for wellness
  • 16 weeks Paid Parental Leave and gradual return to work
  • $5,000 annual allowance towards Childcare
  • $20,000 lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses
• Professional Development
  • $2,000 annual benefit to invest in your professional development
• 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts provided by Betterment
  • Employer matching contributions of 100% of up to 4% of contributions on base salary

At Whatnot, we value diversity. We are an equal opportunity employer: we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We recognize that diverse teams make the strongest teams, and we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.