Data Scientist, Lyft
Optimization, Real-Time Supply Management
CA$108-135k
3+ days a week in office
Ride sharing company
Posted today
Ride sharing company
1001+ employees
Posted today
CA$108-135k
3+ days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To improve people’s lives with the world’s best transportation.
Role
Who you are
- Advanced degree (MS or PhD, PhD preferred) in a quantitative field like Operations Research, Applied Math, Computer Science, Statistics, Engineering, or a related area; or equivalent work experience
- Passion for solving unstructured and non-standard mathematical problems, with 2+ years of hands-on experience in optimization (preferred), causal inference, or machine learning
- End-to-end experience with data, including querying, aggregation, analysis, and visualization
- Proficiency with Python
- Strong ability to collaborate and communicate with others in a team setting
- Experience seeking out and adopting new methods and techniques
- Experience designing, running, and analyzing A/B tests to validate hypotheses and inform decision-making
What the job involves
- As a Data Scientist specializing in Algorithms, you'll partner closely with product, engineering, and operations leaders to build and scale incentive systems, shape long-term mechanism design strategy, and deliver on critical business goals tied to marketplace efficiency and driver earnings.
- Candidates with strong optimization backgrounds — think mathematical programming, control theory, or operations research — are a great fit, though we welcome strong candidates from machine learning or causal inference as well.
- The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced environment and brings a hands-on, entrepreneurial mindset to drive results
- Collaborate with engineering and product teams to design, implement, and iterate on new features and algorithmic improvements for driver incentives and pay mechanisms
- Design, develop, and deploy optimization models, algorithms, and systems for problems such as budget allocation, multidimensional cost-curve development, and incentive targeting
- Write production model code; collaborate with Software Engineers to implement algorithms in production
- Perform exploratory data analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the marketplace and its users
- Communicate findings and facilitate launch decisions with technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Ensure robust experimentation and causal inference methodologies are applied to measure the impact of new features and strategies
Our take
Lyft has aimed for consistent growth, making sure to pitch itself as a more reliable and friendly ride-sharing option than its main competitor, Uber. Uber has a greater market share and operates globally, but Lyft hopes to compete by its focus on ride-sharing over Uber's more diversified business approach and as a more rider-friendly and greener alternative to Uber.
Operating only in the USA and Canada, Lyft is in a position of being less affected by global events than Uber but also more vulnerable to local conditions. As an example, while it doesn't face the regulatory hurdles around employment rights that Uber does, it is unable to balance out the cost of the unusually expensive US auto insurance across its operations.
In 2022, Lyft acquired PBSC Urban Solutions, a bike-share equipment and technology supplier, allowing Lyft to compete in new verticals and reaffirming its commitment to green transportation. It has also trialled and launched Lyft Assisted, where drivers help passengers from their door into the car to get to medical appointments. These developments chime well with Lyft's unique selling point as a friendlier and more environmentally aware ride-sharing app, whilst the acquisition of European competitor Freenow could add 6 million new riders to its platform in 2026.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-2% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 14 rounds)
Jun 2018
$600m
LATE VC
Mar 2018
$200m
LATE VC
Total funding: $4.9bn
Company benefits
- Great medical, dental, and vision insurance options
- Mental health benefits
- In addition to 12 observed holidays, salaried team members have unlimited paid time off, hourly team members have 15 days paid time off
- 401(k) plan to help save for your future
- 18 weeks of paid parental leave. Biological, adoptive, and foster parents are all eligible
- Pre-tax commuter benefits
- Lyft Pink - Lyft team members get an exclusive opportunity to test new benefits of our Ridership Program
- Family building benefits
- Lyft Pink - Lyft team members get an exclusive opportunity to test new benefits of our Ridership Program
Company HQ
China Basin, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
John Zimmer
(Co-Founder)Originally an Analyst at Lehman Brothers, Zimmer then founded Zimride which was a private ridesharing company that pivoted into Lyft.
Logan Green
(Co-Founder)Founded Zimride, a private ridesharing company which later pivoted into Lyft.
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