Lead Data Scientist, Product

About Descript: Descript (descript.com) is building a simple, intuitive, yet profoundly fully-powered editing system designed for the age of generative artificial intelligence. We have engineered a revolutionary ecosystem to record, transcribe, edit, and mix spoken audio and video assets like a standard text document. Backed by industry giants including OpenAI Startup Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, and Spark Capital, our collaborative team of 150 innovators sits in possession of both absolute product-market fit and a deeply passionate community, ensuring every new team member has a measurable influence on our global scale.

Position Overview

We are seeking an exceptionally intuitive, business-savvy, and statistically rigorous Lead Data Scientist to join our foundational product intelligence collective under a permanent, full-time remote framework within the United States. Operating as the founding product data expert on our growth squad, you will step up to claim absolute experimental design ownership, Product-Led Growth (PLG) modeling, and business strategy analytics accountability to scale our core platform mechanics. Shifting completely away from static reporting routines, basic dashboard clicking, or generic administrative alignment meetings, you will run an active automated telemetry, opportunity sizing, and multi-variant A/B test laboratory—partnering face-to-face with executive product managers, cloud core engineering blocks, data pipeline specialists, and growth marketing leaders. This position requires an analytics authority with 5 to 8 years of experience who structures data layers fluidly natively using Data Scientist principles, evaluates product user ecosystems cleanly across highly performant script pipelines, and directs corporate experimentation frameworks confidently to unlock next-generation product value.

Key Responsibilities

• Foundational PLG Strategy Analysis: Conduct deep-dive operational analyses to identify core user trends, shaping product activation pathways, retention behaviors, and B2B expansion opportunities.
• Advanced Experimentation Design: Act as the key brain buddy for product and engineering squads, designing, deploying, and analyzing daily A/B tests and crafting creative tracking scripts for tricky multi-variant scenarios natively utilizing Data Scientist workflows.
• Self-Service Analytics Architecture: Leverage advanced AI tools to design, maintain, and automate trusted self-service data surfaces, empowering stakeholders to measure opportunities and interpret experiment outcomes independently.
• Success Metrics Governance: Establish and own absolute execution rigor across cross-functional product loops by managing core operational performance tracking, telemetry requirements, and feature scaling guardrails.
• Programmatic Data Extraction: Author highly optimized relational queries and build clean analysis workflows to evaluate complex product conversion pipelines and corporate monetization loops.
• Data Culture Up-Leveling: Define and socialize company-wide experimentation benchmarks, data standards, and statistical validation practices across the wider organization.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• A minimum of 5 to 8 years of verified professional history operating within a data scientist, product analyst, or technical quantitative research capacity.
• Mandatory Specialty Track: At least 3 years of direct experience working specifically within a dedicated product growth, monetization, or conversion optimization function.
• Outstanding technical command of structured relational databases, displaying masterful SQL writing alongside high proficiency in either Python or R scripting languages.
• Profound understanding of mathematical statistics, hypothesis testing parameters, and advanced A/B testing methodologies.
• Excellent communication and collaboration attributes, with a proven ability to translate complex statistical variance data into actionable product strategies for non-technical leaders.
• Location Context: Position operates under remote parameters open to individuals working anywhere within Remote, US or on-site at our San Francisco, CA headquarters.

Preferred Strategic Indicators (Nice to Have)

• Prior professional exposure operating within a high-growth, fast-moving technology startup or AI software engineering framework.
• Deep intuition regarding software-as-a-service (SaaS) business models, customer acquisition funnels, and enterprise conversion loops.

What We Offer

• Premium Corporate Compensation Blueprint: Highly competitive base salary range of $200,000 – $250,000 / year, calibrated meticulously against your technical experience, location, and statistical skill depth.
• Comprehensive health, medical, dental, and insurance programs engineered to safeguard your total physical and mental peace of mind.
• A flexible, supportive remote work setup allowing you to run elite analytics projects from your optimized home office anywhere in the US.
• Direct visibility, high architectural influence, and the definitive opportunity to shape an elite AI media workspace at an incredibly early evolutionary stage.
• Access to progressive technology infrastructure, ongoing personal development tracks, and collaboration loops with a world-class engineering team.