Lead Data Scientist

Role Description

Apartment List is looking for a Lead Data Scientist to build, deploy, and improve machine learning models that power our two-sided rental marketplace. In this role, you’ll work on meaningful data science problems across demand- and supply-side modeling — from renter acquisition and intent signals to ranking, personalization, and marketplace optimization. You’ll take ownership of projects end-to-end, from problem framing through production launch and measurement, and collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, and Analytics along the way.

Here’s what you’ll do as part of the team:

• Translate customer, marketplace, and business problems into clear ML objectives, features, models, and measurement plans.
• Build, deploy, and iterate on production machine learning models across ranking, personalization, renter intent, demand-side acquisition, and supply-side optimization.
• Own projects end-to-end — from feature engineering and model development through A/B experimentation, launch, and monitoring.
• Apply a strong statistical mindset to model development, evaluation, causal inference, and tradeoff analysis.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Analytics to align on success metrics, deployment plans, and downstream impact.
• Communicate technical findings and model tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Leverage AI tools to improve your productivity across coding, analysis, documentation, and workflow automation.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of industry experience developing and deploying machine learning models in production, end-to-end.
• A degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Physics, or a related quantitative field.
• Deep proficiency in Python and SQL, with comfort across the full model development lifecycle.
• Familiarity with standard ML libraries and frameworks such as scikit-learn, XGBoost, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar.
• Experience working with cloud platforms (GCP preferred but not required).
• Strong grounding in statistical learning, experimental design, and model evaluation.
• Ability to work through feature engineering, feature selection, hyperparameter tuning, and model optimization independently.
• Comfort communicating and collaborating with cross-functional partners across Product, Engineering, and Analytics.

Requirements

• Experience in a two-sided marketplace or multi-stakeholder environment.
• Background in recommendation systems, ranking, personalization, or search.
• Familiarity with MLOps practices, model monitoring, Airflow, dbt, or similar infrastructure.
• Experience with performance marketing models, paid acquisition, or supply-side optimization.
• A master’s degree or higher in a relevant quantitative field.

Benefits

• Work on ML systems that directly shape the renter experience, property partner outcomes, and company performance.
• Build and own models end-to-end, from ambiguous opportunity through production launch and iteration.
• Exceptional colleagues: Our hiring bar is high, and your teammates are talented, motivated, collaborative, and intellectually curious.
• Have a strong voice within R&D and across the business, helping shape product, marketplace, and company strategy through data science.
• Help build and scale one of the most important technical capabilities at Apartment List.
• Work in a virtual-first environment that allows you to work from anywhere in the U.S.