Staff Data Scientist - Merchant Services (Remote, North America)
- Americas
- Data Science & Engineering
About Shopify
Opportunity is not evenly distributed. Shopify puts independence within reach for anyone with a dream to start a business. Since 2006, we’ve grown to over 10,000 employees and generated over $496 billion in sales for 2 million merchants in 175 countries. Every 28 seconds, an entrepreneur on Shopify makes their first sale.
This is life-defining work that directly impacts people’s lives as much as it transforms your own. This is putting the power of the few in the hands of the many, is a future with more voices rather than fewer, and is creating more choices instead of an elite option.
About you
Moving at our pace brings a lot of change, complexity, and ambiguity—and a little bit of chaos. Shopifolk thrive on that and are comfortable being uncomfortable. That means Shopify is not the right place for everyone.
Before you apply, consider if you can:
- Care deeply about what you do and about making commerce better for everyone
- Excel by seeking professional and personal hypergrowth
- Keep up with an unrelenting pace (the week, not the quarter)
- Be resilient and resourceful in face of ambiguity and thrive on (rather than endure) change
- Bring critical thought and opinion
- Embrace differences and disagreement to get shit done and move forward
- Work digital-first for your daily work
About the role
Data science is a crucial part of Shopify’s mission to make commerce better for everyone. We’re the only team able to talk to all of our merchants; we represent their voice here at Shopify. not only when we build for them, but when we figure out what to build and how to build it. This principally includes two types of work: building products directly backed by data (e.g. machine learning models), and listening to their voice to figure out what to build and how to build it.
Our Data Scientists focus on pushing products and the business forward, with a focus on solving important problems rather than specific tools. We are looking for talented data scientists to help us better understand our merchants and buyers so we can help them on their journey.
Team Specific Details:
Within Merchant Services, our job is to build superpowers that put small businesses on a level playing field with the largest e-commerce players.
As a Staff Data Scientist, you are expected to play a crucial role pushing forward product development across multiple domains. Staff Data Scientists do this by informing high-level product strategy and execution, building a strong and broad operating picture allowing us to move quickly, and/or improving underlying algorithms, heuristics and rules powering individual products. We expect a very high degree of autonomy and proactivity, as well as the ability to compound the work of multiple data scientists into powerful conclusions.
Responsibilities:
Proactively identify and champion projects that solve critical problems for merchants
Partner closely with product, engineering and other business leaders to influence product and program decisions with data
Own the operating picture and use a strong analytical toolbox to highlight opportunities and guide execution
Build actionable KPIs, production-quality dashboards, informative deep dives, and scalable data products
Influence leadership to drive more data-informed decisions
Define and advance best practices within data science and product teams
Qualifications
7-10 years of commercial experience as a Data Scientist solving high impact business problems
Proficiency in SQL and experience with software engineering fundamentals
Experience with applied statistics and general quantitative problem-solving
Demonstrated ability to translate analytical insights into clear recommendations and effectively communicate them to technical and non-technical stakeholders
Curiosity about the problem domain and an analytical approach
Strong sense of ownership and growth mindset
Experience with one or more:
Deep understanding of advanced SQL techniques
Expertise with statistical techniques and their applications in business
Masterful data storytelling and strategic thinking
Deep understanding of dimensional modelling and scaling ETL pipelines
Experience launching productionized machine learning models at scale
Extensive domain experience in e-commerce, marketing or SaaS
All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
If you’re interested in helping us shape the future of commerce at Shopify, click the “Apply Now” button to submit your application. Please submit a resume and cover letter with your application. Make sure to tell us how you think you can make an impact at Shopify, and what drew you to the role.
As there are multiple positions, this posting will remain live until all positions have been filled. Successful candidates can expect to hear back from us within 2 weeks of application.
#LI-REMOTE
Our belief is that a strong commitment to diversity & inclusion enables us to truly make commerce better for everyone. We encourage applications from Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities, and/or people with intersectional identities. Please take a look at our Sustainability Reports to learn more about Shopify’s commitments to our communities, and our planet.
At Shopify, we understand that experience comes in many forms. We’re dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team - so if your experience is this close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying.
Our belief is that a strong commitment to diversity & inclusion enables us to truly make commerce better for everyone. We encourage applications from Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities, and/or people with intersectional identities. Please take a look at our Sustainability Reports to learn more about Shopify’s commitments to our communities, and our planet.
At Shopify, we understand that experience comes in many forms. We’re dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team - so if your experience is this close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying.
Our belief is that a strong commitment to diversity & inclusion enables us to truly make commerce better for everyone. We encourage applications from Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities, and/or people with intersectional identities. Please take a look at our Sustainability Reports to learn more about Shopify’s commitments to our communities, and our planet.
At Shopify, we understand that experience comes in many forms. We’re dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team - so if your experience is this close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying.
The shape of a Shopify career
Ben joined Shopify as a frontline Support Advisor with no background in programming or computer science. He’s now a Director of Engineering. Spanning 10 jobs on 7 teams in 9 years, Ben’s Shopify career path has twisted and turned as he’s worked relentlessly to pursue a career as an engineer and adapted to the pace of change—all fuelled by personal and professional hypergrowth.
Our mission as a company is to spread entrepreneurship and help individuals become their own bosses and take control over their lives. I truly believe this mission and value in extreme personal growth and development extends to what’s expected as a Shopifolk. Shopify doesn’t like to tell people what to do. Not only is your career in your own hands, a lot of your day-to-day is too, which can be jarring for many people. To thrive here, you need to be someone who’s willing to take big bets on yourself and figure things out on your own.
Director, Support & CX Engineering
Ben’s growth trajectory
2014-2016
- A support advisor for 2 years
- Studied dev skills. Learnt about our API. Became first API support person. Found bugs to fix.
- Eventually became a software dev
2017-2019
- Helped launch first finance product for merchants
- Became senior dev and launched new support contact centre
- Led a team as a dev manager
2020-2022
- Scaled a team from 4 to 60+ as a senior dev manager
- Became Director for Support and CX Engineering