Data Science Internship (Current PhD) - Summer 2027

Neighbor•Lehi, UT

15h

About The Position

Neighbor is seeking a Data Scientist Intern to join their Data & Analytics team for Summer 2027. This internship is ideal for a PhD student looking to apply their research skills to real business challenges. The intern will work on improving existing machine learning models for lifetime value, unit economics, and forecasting, as well as assist Product, Marketing, and Sales teams with A/B test design and interpretation. The work directly influences decisions within a marketplace operating in nearly every U.S. city. The intern will report to the Data & Analytics manager and receive regular code review and hands-on mentorship. The tech stack includes Python, dbt, and Dagster on Redshift and Athena, with a Cube semantic layer and Superset for BI.

Requirements

Currently enrolled PhD-level candidate in a quantitative field (Computer Science, Statistics, Math, Physics, Data Science, etc.) completing PhD by May 2028.
Transcript required.
Demonstrated research, coursework, or project experience applying statistics and machine learning to real-world or complex datasets.
Strong SQL and fluent Python for modeling.
Academic or project-based experience with A/B testing design or statistical hypothesis testing.
Strong grounding in inference, with the ability to explain confidence intervals, p-value changes, leakage in validation splits, and data limitations.
Strong problem-solving mindset and eagerness to diagnose and improve existing code and statistical models.
Intellectual stubbornness in a productive direction.
Clear communication with non-technical stakeholders, explaining results and uncertainty without overclaiming or using excessive jargon.

Nice To Haves

Experience with dbt or semantic layers like Cube.

Responsibilities

Improve lifetime value and unit economics models by retraining, re-engineering features, and validating predictions.
Audit inherited models to identify issues like leakage, stale assumptions, performance degradation in specific segments, and ineffective features.
Build forecasts for operators, including demand and supply by market, revenue, and influencing factors.
Partner with Product, Marketing, and Sales to design A/B tests before launch.
Analyze test results, make clear calls, and candidly communicate the capabilities and limitations of each design.
Become a subject matter expert on Neighbor's product, users, and marketing lifecycle.