Lead Data Scientist

Upwork ($UPWK) is the world’s work marketplace. We serve everyone from one-person startups to over 30% of the Fortune 100 with a powerful, trust-driven platform that enables companies and talent to work together in new ways that unlock their potential.  

Last year, more than $3.3 billion of work was done through Upwork by skilled professionals who are gaining more control by finding work they are passionate about and innovating their careers.  

Data Science is a growing team within our centralized Finance organization with a mission to build and deploy machine learning algorithms and statistical models which contribute to data-driven decision making in the service of improving user experiences, optimizing operations, and accelerating profitable platform growth. We are looking for a Lead Data Scientist to  unlock new capabilities for our customer value initiatives. In this role, you will develop nuanced views of lifetime value, identify actions and behaviors that impact value, and recommend and execute marketing and product interventions that drive increased value. This individual will drive insights and partner cross functionally with marketing, product management, engineering, and analytics to compel changes in our strategy.

Your Responsibilities:

• Tackle complex problems inherent to a global double-sided marketplace. Deliver insights that drive changes in product strategy.

• Deeply understand our Product, Marketing, and Trust & Safety efforts in order to build the most robust models and solve complex challenges in those areas

• Become the authority on customer value, applying data science techniques and analytical skill to unearth deep insights into the customer journey.

• Get hands on to deploy prototype models into production that customize product and marketing experiences

• Evangelize advanced data science techniques within the broader Analytics, Data Science, and Economics teams and mentor others seeking to develop more advanced capabilities 

What it takes to catch our eye:

• Ability to drive data product creation through the complete product lifecycle from building data pipelines to developing Machine Learning based proofs-of-concept and delivering scalable and end-user optimized data applications.

• Passion for getting into the details.

• Strong SQL skills.

• Demonstrated ability to turn data insights into compelling narratives that influence strategic decision making

• Experience with experimentation (A/B testing, causal inference).

• Proficiency in one or multiple BI tools such as Looker or Tableau.

• Strong proficiency in Python. 

• Previous experience in a marketplace or ecommerce business.

• A degree in Math, Physics, Statistics, Economics, Computer Science, or a similar domain

• 5+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, or a related role

• Experience building insights or models related to user segmentation, cohort analyses, mix modeling, fraud detection models, or  similar use cases

Come change how the world works.

At Upwork, you’ll shape talent solutions for how the world works today. We are a remote-first organization working together to create exciting remote work opportunities for a global community of professionals.  While we have physical offices in San Francisco and Chicago, currently we also support hiring of corporate full-time employees in 15 states in the United States. Please speak with a member of our recruitment team to determine whether you are located in a state in which we are hiring corporate full-time employees. 

Our vibrant culture is built on shared values and our mission to create economic opportunities so that people have better lives. We foster amazing teams, put our community first, and have a bias toward action. We encourage everyone to bring their whole selves to work and grow together through development opportunities, mentorship, and employee resource groups. Oh yeah, we’ve also got amazing benefits.