Senior Data Scientist, Strategic Analytics & Data Science

Zillow

97d • $145,500 - $232,500

About The Position

Zillow Group’s Strategic Analytics & Data Science team provides a metrics-driven lens on Zillow’s company strategy and uncovers the insights that move it forward. Our team has an unmatched 360-degree view of Zillow’s various lines of business and company-wide strategy which we use to identify and solve strategically important data problems. Our team tackles ambiguous, high-priority problems at Zillow in partnership with product leadership, strategy and partnerships team, and other data science teams across the company. We’re innovators, data storytellers, and AI accelerators who thrive on independent thinking and driving measurable business outcomes. We’re hiring a Senior Data Scientist to join the Strategic Analytics & Data Science team. In this role, you will own end-to-end workstreams—translating ambiguous, cross-functional problems into structured analyses or science problems, leading deep-dive projects that uncover trends and behaviors, and partnering with senior leaders to shape Zillow’s strategic planning and long-term roadmap. You’ll also mentor junior colleagues, codify best practices, and leverage AI/automation to accelerate insight delivery.

Requirements

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with an emphasis on data-supported storytelling, with experience influencing and communicating to senior stakeholders.
• Able to work across silos and influence business partners to set realistic goals and focus on data-driven solutions.
• Ability to use strategic thinking to identify emerging problems and prioritize among workstreams.
• Desire to work on a team influencing others to advance Zillow’s strategy rather than owning a specific product long term.
• Experience delivering value amid ambiguity; for example, translating ambiguous business questions into concrete data science solutions.
• A proven track record of owning technically complex data projects end-to-end, from initial business question through delivery.
• Expertise in exploratory and deep-dive analysis: synthesizing large and noisy datasets to uncover trends, patterns, and meaningful business insights.
• A strong understanding of statistical concepts, metric design and measurement, and inference techniques.
• Experience across one or more science domains such as predictive analytics and modeling, experimental design and causal inference, machine learning, optimization, data engineering and visualization, or others.
• Strong proficiency in SQL, Python/R, along with experience with visualization tools / packages and working with big data in a cloud environment (AWS, Databricks, etc.).
• Hands-on experience using AI tools (e.g. Cursor, ChatGPT, Genie, Gemini) to enhance productivity.
• Demonstrated ability to create compelling data visualizations to support storytelling.
• An undergraduate or Master’s degree in a quantitative field (e.g. mathematics, engineering, statistics, finance, or similar).
• 5+ years of work experience as a data scientist, working on problems involving quantitative data analysis, experimentation and data problem-solving, preferably in a consumer-facing product.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Statistics, Computer Science, Economics, or related field.
• Prior work on cross-functional or centralized data teams with diverse stakeholder sets.
• Experience with modern data orchestration tools (Airflow, dbt) and cloud data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks).
• Prior experience in real-estate analytics a plus.
• Experience with data visualization tools or dashboarding tools a plus.

Responsibilities

• Craft clear, concise written and verbal narratives that distill complex data into actionable insights for audiences ranging from ICs to the C-suite.
• Act as a trusted advisor: present findings, explore alternatives collaboratively, and guide stakeholders toward data-driven decisions.
• Scope, estimate, and execute strategic analyses (e.g., cross-business and cross-functional projects ranging from broad company-wide analyses to deep-dives to support individual business initiatives).
• Produce clear design docs, run kick-offs and checkpoints, and coordinate handoffs to line-of-business data partners.
• Apply statistical methods, causal inference and measurement, and modeling techniques to identify trends and strengthen storytelling.
• Lead exploratory projects to identify customer trends, behavioral patterns, and opportunity segments across Zillow’s products and marketplaces.
• Resourcefully discover and integrate disparate big data sources to build holistic views of customer and agent behavior.
• Design and execute segmentation studies that inform product, marketing, and partnership strategies.
• Use state of the art AI tools such as Cursor, ChatGPT, or Gemini to enhance your own and the team’s productivity.
• Prototype AI/ML-powered proof-of-concepts that automate routine analyses or surface strategic signals.
• Coach and mentor more junior data scientists: conduct code reviews, share frameworks and best practices, and elevate team standards for reproducibility and documentation.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverages.
• Parental leave and family benefits.
• Retirement contributions.
• Paid time off.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Master's degree
• Number of Employees: 251-500 employees