Data Scientist
about dscout
We are dscout. At our core, we are People Nerds. We empower our customers to meet the people who matter to them in the moments that matter most. Many of the world’s most influential tech companies use dscout to deliver better products and services, alongside customer-obsessed companies and agencies like Lyft, Nike, IDEO, and REI.
Product and UX experience professionals use our platform to build, field, and analyze user research via our web-based platform while scouts (research participants) share in-context moments from our native mobile apps on iOS and Android. For example, in the past 30 days we’ve conducted close to 500 research missions, had over 40,000 entries submitted by our scouts, and conducted over 500 real-time video user interviews.
our platform
Our platform is built on cutting edge technology with React.js frontend and Elixir backend tied together by GraphQL APIs with a small part done in Ruby/Rails and REST APIs. We make heavy use of PostgreSQL and Redis for our storage needs and we host our platform on Heroku. Another core part of our offering are two mobile apps - iOS and Android - that are written in Swift and Java respectively. We also employ WebRTC, Twilio, and Websockets for live video streaming and our Data Science team uses Python for NLP, video / audio processing, and data mining.
Eight years and 30K commits later, we've maintained a tidy code base that is well documented and battle tested by hundreds of thousands of users.
you are
We are looking for a Data Scientist to join the Data Science team within dscout’s Engineering Organization. As a member of the Data Science team, you will partly support the larger organization to make data-informed decisions and partly sit on the Labs team within Engineering (the Labs team is the R&D arm of Engineering responsible for product feature prototyping and integrations with external tools). You will work on a range of problems including text and video analysis, audience building, user evaluation, emotion/sentiment modeling, and customer and panel growth. You will be putting your critical thinking skills to use by developing end-to-end solutions to some of these problems using machine learning, statistics, and experimentation.
At dscout, we have a large set of video, audio, and text data from our scouts (what we call research participants). In these data points, scouts share their feelings and opinions on a variety of topics. You’ll get to use your data science skills to explore human behavior in-context. Being an early member of our data science team, you’ll be able to make an impact on our data science roadmap and will provide data expertise across the organization. If you are excited about helping make sense of human behavior and experience, we would love to talk with you!
the job
what you will do
- Lots of exploratory analysis on structured and unstructured data.
- Build, test, and re-train models for user evaluation and segmentation.
- Work with product managers to design and execute tests, to learn where our products can incorporate machine learning to help researchers get the most value out of their time on our platform.
- Write code to put your models into production.
- Support various internal teams as they tackle their own data projects - advise and coach others as they think about how to use data in their daily work.
- Think creatively about additional projects that can impact the business and collaborate with product, engineering, and leadership team in order to craft a data science and experimentations roadmap.
what you need to have
- Strong and demonstrated problem-solving abilities.
- Solid background in statistics.
- Strong programming skills preferably in Python, Ruby, or Elixir.
- Strong data munging abilities with SQL or Pandas.
- Experience building machine learning models and bonus for deploying them into production.
- Experience in one or more of the following specialities: Natural Language Processing, User Segmentation, Computer Vision, Video/Audio Processing, Analysis Tooling, Data Mining.
- Advanced degree in a quantitative field (Masters or PhD) or equivalent work experience.
what we provide
Here at dscout, we are a team of passionate research, sales, technical, marketing, design, success, and operations professionals. We are driven by the power of research—how in-context insights from real people can build products and services that are more people-centric. We value learning, sharing, and building. We deeply value being a diverse and inclusive team and company, and we are looking for team members who align with that belief. We are proud of what dscout is today and we would love the opportunity to build our future with you.
In addition to joining a smart and passionate team that provides a great learning opportunity, you will get:
- A strong compensation package with bonus structure. Your success is tied to company success. We are all in this together.
- An incredible set of core benefits as well as a 401k with match, solid PTO policy, and generous company holidays. We are committed to helping build your future.
- Exposure to the inner workings of a growing company. And open, transparent communication within our team. You will know what is happening and why it matters.
- An education stipend. Keep learning and sharpening your skills.
- A beautiful newly built Chicago Loop workspace, with lots of nearby places to eat, drink, and play. And of course close to all major commute lines.
- Plenty of snacks, drinks, and caffeine to keep you powered throughout the day, and a weekly happy hour to relax with the team.