Principal Data Scientist - Modeling and Experimentation

Job Description

Airbnb uses data science extensively to build machine learning models (e.g., for Relevance), and statistical models (e.g. customer lifetime value). We are looking for a Principal Data Scientist who can uplevel models and experimentation tools and methodologies used across the company.

Controlled Experiments are the fundamental building block for product decision-making at Airbnb. Our A/B testing platform, the Experiment Reporting Framework , automates experiment setup, assignment, delivery, and analysis, making experimentation easy and fast. Our platform is used by over 60% of all engineers, data scientists, and product managers every week, across every major product area at the company, with more than 1,000 experiments in flight at any given time.

Responsibilities:

• Work with data scientists across the company to help model building for challenging problems in a multi-sided marketplace, relevance, fraud, customer-lifetime-value
• Work closely with engineering and data scientists to design and implement new features and methodologies for experimentation. For example incorporating multiple testing and sequential testing, and implementing variance reduction techniques.
• Research challenging experimentation questions to inform our approach to experimentation. Example projects include how to design experiments in a marketplace system with cannibalization (e.g. market level tests, clustering), how to extrapolate from short-term proxy metrics to long-term impact, and how to measure impact of large-scale changes (e.g. the impact of changing our webpage design system).
• Mentor and partner with embedded data scientists on individual teams to share best practices and address their key experimentation problems.

Pr eferred Qualifications:

• 8-10 years of industry experience and a PhD in Statistics or equivalent
• Significant industry experience in controlled experiments
• Proficient in R or Python
• Understanding of engineering systems and tools needed to apply statistical methods at scale

Recent blog posts about experimentation at Airbnb:

• Selection Bias in Online Experimentation
• Scaling Airbnb’s Experimentation Platform
• 4 Principles for Making Experimentation Count

Benefits

• Stock
• $2,000 yearly employee travel coupon
• Competitive salary
• Paid time off
• Medical, dental, & vision insurance
• Life & disability coverage
• 401K
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Apple equipment

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status