Lead Data Scientist

Job description

At Evolve, we’re on a mission to make vacation rental easy for everyone. Our high-performing, customer-obsessed team runs on curiosity, communication, and accountability—working together to create exceptional experiences for our owners and guests. Whether solving big challenges, delivering outstanding results, or celebrating wins, we approach every day with purpose and passion. If you’re ready to join a mission-driven company where every teammate has the opportunity to thrive, Evolve might just be the place for you.

Why this role

At Evolve, data science is the engine that transforms insights into outcomes across the vacation rental ecosystem. From reducing churn to enabling Dollars-at-Risk scoring and LTV forecasting, our models power retention, revenue growth, and customer trust.

As a Lead Data Scientist, you will be responsible for leveraging data insights to impact strategy and tackling the most challenging prediction problems within the vacation rental industry. You will lead critical modeling initiatives (churn prediction, Dollars-at-Risk, anomaly detection, causal inference) while ensuring that LTV modeling continues evolving into a decision-ready tool. You will balance hands-on modeling with mentorship and leadership, ensuring prototypes become production systems and that the data science team delivers with rigor and consistency.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of science, engineering, and business — designing advanced models, leading experiments, and mentoring teammates, all while partnering with Product, Commercial Strategy, and FP&A to turn models into measurable business outcomes.

What You’ll Do

• Serve as a senior technical contributor and scientific lead for churn prediction, Dollars-at-Risk, anomaly detection, and LTV forecasting.
• Ensure LTV projections are integrated with churn, anomaly, and income signals to deliver a business-ready forecasting tool.
• Mentor and develop data scientists, providing code reviews, standards, and career guidance to expand impact beyond yourself.
• Partner with Product teams to design and evaluate experiments, and owner lever interventions.
• Lead causal inference analyses to better understand drivers of churn, retention, and LTV.
• Oversee deployment and monitoring pipelines, ensuring reproducibility, calibration, and incident readiness.
• Collaborate with Data Engineering/Infrastructure teams to maintain orchestration (GitLab CI/CD, Snowflake, AWS) and deliver production-ready ML systems.
• Establish and enforce best practices for modeling, documentation, monitoring, and governance.
• Effectively communicate complex findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Stay current on advances in ML/AI and bring forward innovative methods applicable to Evolve’s business.

What Makes You a Great Fit

• 7+ years of applied data science experience, including 3+ years leading ML projects in production.
• Prior leadership and/or mentorship experience with a strong record of code reviews, reproducibility, and standards enforcement.
• Proven track record of business impact from churn, retention, LTV, or anomaly detection models.
• Expertise in survival analysis, causal inference, uplift modeling, anomaly detection, and calibration.
• Strong programming experience with Python and SQL; experience with ML ops and orchestration (Airflow, GitLab CI/CD).
• Familiarity with cloud technologies, especially AWS (S3, EC2, SageMaker).
• Ability to partner cross-functionally with Product, Commercial Strategy, and FP&A.
• Excellent communicator — able to translate complex analyses into actionable business decisions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics, or related quantitative field; Master’s or PhD preferred.

Compensation

Annual base salary range: $141K - $184K, depending on experience and qualifications. This role is also eligible for a variable annual bonus based on both company and individual performance, plus equity grants aligned to the Lead level.

Location

All Evolve team members must live in one of our approved locations by their first day. We can hire from anywhere in the U.S. except D.C. and Hawaii. Some positions may also have restrictions based on compensation in the following states: California, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington. If you live in Colorado, you can work remotely anywhere in the state, at our downtown Denver office, or a hybrid of both! If you’re planning to move soon, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to review your application again.

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How we reward Evolvers

We’re intentional about offering benefits that empower every Evolver to thrive both professionally and personally because they’re more than perks—they’re investments in our customer-obsessed, high-performing team.

We believe in treating others as they want to be treated, providing benefits that deliver real value, and challenging the status quo to meet the diverse needs of our team. Whether it’s helping you take care of your health, plan for the future, or celebrate life’s milestones, our offerings are designed to support you every step of the way.

• Financial Wellness: Industry-competitive pay, equity in the company, and a 401(k) with a 4% immediate vesting match.
• Family Support: 16-18 weeks of paid parental leave for birthing parents and 10 weeks for non-birthing parents, plus infertility coverage.
• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans (100% employer-paid for individual enrollment), 10 free mental health visits, and pet insurance.
• Time to Recharge: Generous PTO, RTO (for full-time exempt employees), sick leave, holidays, and a personal holiday to celebrate what matters most to you.
• Travel Perks: Annual Evolve travel credit after one year and discounts on stays at all Evolve properties.
• Growth Opportunities: World-class onboarding programs, learning, and development resources to help you grow your impact.
• Connection: Employee Resource Groups celebrating our diverse communities at Evolve.

How we work together

With our core values as our guide, every Evolver helps shape the company we want to work for and the people we want to be. We’ve cultivated a culture of collaboration, care, and responsibility that we can all be proud of, and we’re excited to see what you’ll bring as your authentic self.

Still curious about who we are and what we do? Read more about our business and our culture at evolve.com.

EEO

At Evolve, we are committed to diversity and inclusion. As an equal opportunity employer, all qualified candidates will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), gender identity or gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, military service or veteran status, physical or mental disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Evolve participates in e-Verify for all positions.

If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation at any point in the hiring process, please let your recruiter know.