Senior Data Scientist – Portfolio Construction

Key Skills

Java Programming, Design of Experiment, Python Programming, Database, SQL, R Programming

Job Description

Founded in 2014, Opendoor’s mission is to empower everyone with the freedom to move. We believe the traditional real estate process is broken and our goal is simple: build a digital, end-to-end customer experience that makes buying and selling a home simple, certain and fast. We have assembled a dedicated team with diverse backgrounds to support more than 100,000 homes bought and sold with us and the customers who have selected Opendoor as a trusted partner in handling one of their largest financial transactions. But the work is far from over as we continue to grow in new markets. Transforming the real estate industry takes tenacity and dedication. It takes problem solvers and builders. It takes a tight knit community of teammates doing the best work of their lives, pushing one another to transform a complicated process into a simple one. So where do you fit in? Whether you’re passionate about real estate, people, numbers, words, code, or strategy -- we have a place for you. Real estate is broken. Come help us fix it.

About the Team

As a Senior Data Scientist at Opendoor, you will build models that determine which homes we acquire, how much we should pay for them, and how these decisions impact our margin, growth, and customer satisfaction targets. You will also help us discover the value of the homes that we own, so we can resell them on the market quickly and for the right price. You will rapidly iterate on new approaches to solve pricing problems all the way from idea to execution to evolution. Getting these decisions right is essential to our success as we innovate in new areas of real estate.

Our Teams:

Pricing Prediction - Responsible for all the core pricing prediction models, but in particular OVM (which predicts the value of a specific home right now) and HPA (which predicts the value of homes over time). If algorithmic pricing is the heart of Opendoor, this is the heart of algorithmic pricing.

Advanced Resale Optimization - Our ARO team optimally acquires an individual home and, once it’s acquired, will optimally resell an individual home given supply-demand, tradeoffs, etc

Portfolio Construction - Responsible for driving portfolio-wide optimization, including margin vs. revenue tradeoff, allocate fixed resources (e.g. marketing $$) to different markets, managing portfolio-wide risk given HPA forecast, etc.

Role Responsibilities

• Define the data strategy, including creating metrics with existing systems to understand our products and policies, and designing the next generation intelligent systems to improve our real estate pricing and operations practices
• Build models and policies to help teams achieve their business objectives
• Design experiments and conduct causal inference to determine effect of our initiatives
• Become a domain expert in real estate

Skills Needed

• 5+ years of industry experience designing, developing and shipping ML systems, post academia
• Advanced degree in a quantitative field
• Expertise in statistical inference and machine learning modeling
• Proficiency in working with complex and fast-evolving data sets
• Experience in product analytics and experimental design
• Strong written and verbal communication skills to influence non-technical audiences with analytical insights
• Proficiency in numeric programming (Python and/or R) as well as SQL or any other database languages

Bonus points if

• Fraud or incident detection
• Working with hardware and sensor data
• Time series analysis and forecasting 
• Optimization under uncertainty and risk management

For CO Residents Only, and in accordance with C.R.S. Sec. 8-5-101 et seq., the estimated base salary range for this role is $132,000-$171,000 per year. The estimated range is meant to reflect an anticipated salary range for the position in question based upon market data and other factors, all of which are subject to change. Individual pay is based upon location, skills and expertise, experience, and other relevant factors. For questions about this, our pay philosophy, and other available benefits, please speak to the recruiter if you decide to apply for the role and are selected for an interview.