About the Applied Science Team

We're looking for applied scientists with deep expertise in machine learning, optimization, building data products, and/or statistics. As part of a small product team you will have full ownership over your domain, so you should be a person who dreams big, then executes well.  

At Thumbtack, the Applied Science team is responsible for a wide variety of problems spanning machine learning, statistics, and computer science:

• Improve customer and service provider matching. Matching and optimization algorithms are fundamental to Thumbtack’s product: we now service millions of matches per week. Identifying better matches between customers and service providers has an incredible impact on the experience of customers and professionals transacting on our platform.
• Model complex relationships in the presence of many confounding factors. Predictive modeling problems are everywhere across our product. Our team works to scope, design and implement machine learning models to support Thumbtack’s product.
• Characterize marketplace dynamics. Thumbtack’s marketplaces consist of thousands of active markets across our service categories and U.S. cities. Via exploratory data analysis and experimental design, our team works to understand trends and behaviors within these markets.
• Build a healthy marketplace. We evolve and manage the monetization mechanics of our marketplace, including defining the parameters that affect the prices we charge.

Challenge

Our team is at the forefront of a massive amount of user data. We need to think a lot about both scaling as well as how to provide experiences for a wide set of users that we don’t necessarily know a ton about immediately. We are building experiences into our apps to onboard, engage, and re-engage our users and are constantly experimenting to produce delightful and consistent user experiences.

We are looking for someone with deep expertise in marketplaces and pricing, to help us grow our platform and sustainably monetize with a fair pricing system. Our challenges include defining the structure and parameters of a dynamic pricing system, building a system where professionals can control their costs and business volume, and forecasting prices that professionals charge homeowners for work through our platform.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute experiments, collect and analyze data to characterize our product
• Architect and deploy machine learning systems to production
• Design and implement metrics that align with company goals
• Analyze a wide variety of data: structured and unstructured, observational and experimental
• Collaborate with engineering, marketing, and economists to use sound statistical practices.

What you'll need

If you don't think you meet all of the criteria below but still are interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box, and we're looking for someone excited to join the team.

• 3 plus years of industry experience, M.S. or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Math, Statistics, or other relevant technical field
• Expertise in pricing in digital marketplaces
• Expert knowledge of machine learning techniques: regression and classification, clustering, neural networks, boosted decision trees, etc.
• Ability to effectively read, write, and debug code in programming languages such as Python
• Good knowledge of probability and statistics, including experimental design, optimization, and causal inference
• Excellent written and verbal technical communication skills

Bonus points if you have

• Expert knowledge of probability and statistics, including experimental design, predictive modeling, optimization, and causal inference
• Experience with large-scale distributed systems
• Ph.D. in a relevant field

Thumbtack is a virtual-first company, meaning you can live and work from any one of our approved locations across the United States, Canada or the Philippines.* Learn more about our virtual-first working model here.

For candidates living in San Francisco / Bay Area, New York City, or Seattle metros, the expected salary range for the role is currently $180,000 - $250,000. Actual offered salaries will vary and will be based on various factors, such as calibrated job level, qualifications, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role.

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