Sr Data Scientist
PayPal•San Jose, CA
•Hybrid
About The Position
We are looking for a Senior Data Scientist to drive insights and optimization across merchant integrations and checkout experiences. This role sits at the intersection of data science, software systems, and AI, requiring a strong understanding of APIs/SDKs, user behavior, and experimentation. You will analyze and improve end-to-end merchant and user journeys, design robust experiments, and leverage modern AI techniques to enhance insights and decision-making.
Requirements
- 3+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Experience working with API-driven systems and SDK integrations.
- Ability to analyze end-to-end product flows, especially in web or mobile checkout environments.
- Strong understanding of user behavior and funnel analysis.
- Strong foundation in: Probability and statistics, Hypothesis testing and experimentation, Causal inference and experimental design.
- Proven experience designing and analyzing A/B tests and observational studies.
- Experience with: Prompt engineering for LLM-based applications, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures, Vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS, Chroma), Frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar.
- Strong proficiency in Python.
- Experience with: ML/AI frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face), Data processing (Pandas, NumPy, Spark), Backend/API development (FastAPI or similar).
- Solid understanding of distributed systems and scalable architecture.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in payments, e-commerce, or platform ecosystems.
- Familiarity with merchant onboarding or integration workflows.
- Experience working with large-scale behavioral data.
- Exposure to LLMOps or production AI systems.
Responsibilities
- Lead the development and implementation of advanced data science models.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to understand requirements.
- Drive best practices in data science.
- Ensure data quality and integrity in all processes.
- Mentor and guide junior data scientists.
- Stay updated with the latest trends in data science.
- Analyze and optimize merchant integration performance, focusing on: Checkout conversion, User behavioral lifecycle, Merchant interactions with payment solutions.
- Develop deep understanding of API- and SDK-based integrations to evaluate performance and identify friction points.
- Design and execute experimentation frameworks: A/B testing, Causal inference models, Incrementality measurement.
- Define and track key performance metrics (KPIs) across user and merchant journeys.
- Partner with product, engineering, and business teams to translate data insights into actionable improvements.
- Build scalable data models and pipelines to support analytics and experimentation.
- Apply modern AI techniques (e.g., LLMs) to enhance: User behavior analysis, Data interpretation, Internal tooling and workflows.
Benefits
- Generous paid time off
- Healthcare coverage for you and your family
- Resources to create financial security
- Support your mental health
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Number of Employees
5,001-10,000 employees
