Data Scientist

Data Scientist

Department: Data & AI

Reports to: VP of Data & AI

Location: Kent, WA (in-person, on-site in our offices)

Pay range: $90-$110K DOE

Job Summary

At Buywander, the Data Scientist builds and runs the models, experiments and data foundation that Buywander's decisions run on. The role combines applied machine learning, rigorous experimentation, ownership of the quality and definition of our data, and the analysis that turns numbers into business decisions.

The mission is to move the company from lagging visibility and inconsistent definitions to trusted data, production models that improve over time, and faster, better-measured decisions.

Each Buywander Team Member lives the culture of Buywander and the 4H's.

• Happy – We bring positive energy to our work and support each other.
• Humble – We stay grounded, open to learning, and focused on the team over ego.
• High Performing – We set a high bar and hold ourselves accountable to results.
• (H)
  Loyal – We show up for each other and the company, with loyalty that goes beyond the ordinary.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Models and Experimentation

• Run our production decision models: monitor performance, report on results, and retrain and improve them over time, taking on more of the model's ownership as you grow.
• Design, run and read out experiments as part of our A/B testing and feature-flag program, including experiment metrics.
• Judge what the data can and cannot support, and say what you would do about it.

Data Foundation

• Keep our data pipelines clean, reliable and documented, and bring in new data sources as the business needs them.
• Maintain KPI and metric definitions and their documentation (name, definition, calculation logic, source, owner, refresh frequency, intended use).
• Know what exists in our data, what each table and column means, and where definitions conflict.
• Validate data when business logic or product behavior changes, and flag discrepancies before they reach a dashboard.
• Partner with engineering on changes to the data model and infrastructure.

Analysis and Decisions

• Run ad hoc analyses for leadership, operators and General Managers, and land on a clear recommendation.
• Frame each analysis around four questions: what happened, why, is it good or bad versus plan, and what action should follow.
• Maintain reporting that the company relies on, including the GM scorecard and operating dashboards in Meta Base.
• Communicate findings clearly in writing and in person, for audiences from floor managers to the board.

Performs additional responsibilities and strategic initiatives as assigned.

What Defines a Data Scientist

• Taking a model from idea to a monitored, improving system.
• Sound experiment design and knowing when the result is real.
• Writing reports and briefings for senior audiences, bottom line up front.
• Coordinating across partner teams such as Finance, Operations and Tech.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.

What success looks like

Success means leaders trust the numbers and the models, and decisions get better and faster because of them.

• You can trace any core metric to its source and resolve data issues without help.
• You handle day-to-day monitoring and reporting of our production model, and stakeholders come to you with data questions.
• A model improvement or experiment you ran has measurably improved a core business outcome.
• Our core KPIs are defined and documented in one place.

Requirements Background for the Position

• Master's degree in data science, statistics, analytics, computer science or a related field, plus 2 to 4 years of experience in data science, applied analytics or a similar role, ideally in e-commerce, marketplace, retail or operations businesses.
• Applied machine learning…