Senior Data Scientist, Forecasting

Key Skills

Java Programming, Python Programming, C++, C Programming, Scala Programming, Looker, MATLAB Programming, Tableau, R Programming

Job Description

Our mission at Duolingo is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. But we’ve got more left to do — and that's where you come in!

Duolingo is the most popular language-learning application in the world, with over 500 million learners and over half a billion exercises completed daily. Beyond our core learning product, we have also entered into literacy with Duolingo ABC and English proficiency testing with the Duolingo English Test.

We are passionate about educating our users, making fact-based decisions, and finding innovative solutions to complex problems. We offer meaningful work, limitless learning opportunities, and collaboration with world-class minds. Come brighten your life and over half a billion more!

Use data to generate forecasts that drive strategic decisions and guide product development for learners worldwide.

You will:

• Own Duolingo's user forecast, using sophisticated statistical methods to inform company-wide strategic decisions and drive business results
• Work closely with heads of product, engineering, marketing, and finance in a high-visibility role that ensures alignment across the company on business-critical initiatives
• Collaborate with data scientists and product managers launching hundreds of experiments each quarter to ensure that the forecast balances business as usual with fast-paced innovation
• Continuously identify best-in-class methodologies and innovative solutions to improve and grow the forecasting practice at Duolingo
• Manage cross-functional relationships to gather inputs to the forecast (e.g. marketing spend) and communicate outputs (deviance from prior forecasts, etc.)
• Own dashboards, reports, and codebase related to the user forecast
• Ensure the integrity of our tracking and data

You have:

• 5+ years of data science experience, particularly with digital consumer products with millions of users
• BA/BS in a quantitative field (e.g.: statistics, economics, computer science) or commensurate work experience at a high-growth start-up or top technology company. The best candidates will have a technical background and want to be close to the financial core of the business.
• Expertise in time-series modeling and forecasting key metrics for a public company (DAU, revenue, etc).
• Expert-level skills in SQL, R/Python, and statistical methods to analyze and model behavioral data
• Strong communication/presentation skills with a track record of communicating complex analyses to executives/ senior management clearly and concisely
• Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with business units (Marketing, Finance, etc) to coordinate forecast inputs and communicate outputs
• Ability to travel to Duolingo's Pittsburgh, PA headquarters every quarter

Exceptional candidates will have:

• MS or PhD degree in a quantitative field (e.g.: statistics, economics, computer science)
• Experience with “big data” technologies like BigQuery, Redshift, Hadoop, Hive and applied experience with predictive modeling on large datasets
• Experience with freemium business models, and/or products that achieve user growth through word of mouth
• Experience articulating business questions and using available data to find answers that translate into business recommendations
• Ability to thrive in a high-growth environment
• Demonstrated self-direction, with a desire both to learn new techniques and teach others
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with imperfect datasets
• Programming experience in Java or Scala a plus