Our hiring partner, a leading direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand experiencing rapid growth, is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to spearhead a new strategic initiative: Inventory Science. This groundbreaking effort is focused on optimizing the acquisition and utilization of inventory across the rental lifecycle, leveraging data science and machine learning best practices to achieve key business objectives including demand forecasting, pricing optimization, and experimentation.

In this role, the individual will play a critical leadership position, driving technical projects in the inventory space and collaborating with stakeholders across the organization. This is a unique opportunity to shape the data science strategy for a business model that is redefining retail—combining the complexity of e-commerce with the unique dynamics of a subscription rental service.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned data science leader with deep technical expertise, strong business acumen, and a passion for solving complex optimization problems. They bring a proven track record of delivering impact through demand forecasting, pricing models, and rigorous experimentation, and they thrive on mentoring teams and translating technical insights into strategic business outcomes.

Role Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

1. Lead the development, deployment, and management of machine learning and statistical models to address diverse business needs across the inventory lifecycle.
2. Drive the design and execution of A/B testing frameworks, analyzing experiments with statistical rigor and troubleshooting ML model behavior to ensure reliable performance.
3. Conduct causal inference studies and exploratory analyses to measure the impact of strategic initiatives, informing data-driven decision-making at scale.
4. Manage timelines and deliverables for multiple technical projects simultaneously, balancing competing priorities and ensuring timely, high-quality execution.

Analytics & Experimentation

1. Demonstrate deep expertise in experimental design, hypothesis testing, and statistical analysis to validate model performance and business impact.
2. Build and maintain robust forecasting models for demand and pricing, adapting techniques to the unique characteristics of a rental business model.
3. Evaluate and benchmark model performance using appropriate metrics, ensuring models are fit for purpose and continuously improving.

Collaboration & Communication

1. Collaborate effectively within data science and analytics organizations, communicating across multiple functional and technical areas including Product, Engineering, Merchandising, and Operations.
2. Translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for non-technical stakeholders, influencing strategic business decisions.
3. Serve as a technical mentor and sounding board for other team members, fostering a culture of learning, experimentation, and excellence.
4. Partner with engineering teams to operationalize models, ensuring seamless integration into production systems and workflows.

Role Qualifications

Technical Expertise

1. Experience: A minimum of 7 years of job experience in data science or machine learning, with a proven track record of delivering impactful solutions in complex business environments.
2. Statistical & Analytical Skills: Strong statistical foundation including hypothesis testing, distributional analysis, uncertainty estimation, and causal inference methodologies.
3. ML Techniques: Experience with a wide range of machine learning techniques including tree-based models, clustering, neural networks, and time series forecasting. Deep understanding of model evaluation including troubleshooting, metrics selection, and benchmarking.
4. ML Tools & Libraries: Strong familiarity with ML tools and libraries including scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Jupyter Notebooks.
5. Programming: Strong proficiency in Python and SQL, with experience writing production-quality code and leveraging version control (Git).
6. Core ML Concepts: Deep understanding of fundamental machine learning concepts including train/dev/test splits, overfitting, scoring metrics, and model validation strategies.
7. AI-Augmented Development: Experience using coding agents such as Claude Code or Cursor to accelerate development workflows is a plus.

Leadership & Communication

1. Serves as a technical mentor and sounding board for other team members, providing guidance on complex problems and career development.
2. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
3. Strong interest in understanding the business domain and tailoring ML solutions to the uniqueness of the rental business model, with a focus on translating technical capabilities into business value.

Problem Solving

1. Ability to analyze complex, ambiguous problems and develop creative, pragmatic solutions that balance technical sophistication with business reality.

Preferred Experience

1. Experience in technology organizations within e-commerce, fashion, or adjacent industries.
2. Proven track record in demand forecasting and pricing optimization.
3. Experience with AI-augmented development tools and workflows.

Education

1. Master's or PhD degree in Computer Science, Analytics, Data Science, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent job experience.

The Perks

Our client offers a comprehensive suite of Perks & Benefits to all eligible employees. Availability and eligibility may vary based on employment status and location, but generally include competitive medical, dental, and vision coverage, generous PTO, substantial employee discounts, and robust retirement savings plans.