Senior Data Scientist, Personalization

The Senior Data Scientist plays a pivotal role in advancing REI’s data-driven strategy by developing sophisticated personalization and product recommendation algorithms that enhance customer experience and drive long-term engagement. This role leverages cutting-edge data science techniques to optimize REI’s multi-channel business objectives, identifying high-impact opportunities that elevate our brand, deepen member relationships, and support our social and environmental commitments.

With a strong foundation in machine learning, statistical modeling, and optimization, the Senior Data Scientist will design and implement scalable solutions that tailor product offerings, content, and experiences to individual customer needs—ultimately increasing customer lifetime value and contributing meaningfully to REI’s bottom line.

This role requires a creative and passionate problem-solver who thinks strategically, understands the technical nuances, and acts with urgency. The ideal candidate will have deep experience in solving complex marketing and customer engagement challenges and will understand the downstream impact of upstream data and process decisions. Models and acts in accordance with REI’s guiding values and mission.

• Defines ambiguous or semi-structured problems related to customer engagement and personalization and determines the most effective data science approach in collaboration with cross-functional teams.
• Partners closely with product, marketing, and business teams to influence strategy and execution. Builds consensus and advises Sr. Manager/Director levels. Actively mentors and develops junior team members.
• Applies deep understanding of software systems, data pipelines, and customer behaviours to select optimal methodologies for personalization and recommendation systems.
• Leads medium to large-scale projects focused on customer-centric solutions, requiring both technical and business domain expertise. Delivers measurable improvements in customer experience and retention.
• Independently launches and deploys data science solutions that personalize customer journeys and optimize product recommendations with minimal assistance.
• Drives scientific innovation and system-level changes that support long-term personalization strategies. Makes thoughtful technical trade-offs to balance short-term impact with long-term scalability.

Required Skills & Experience

• Masters + 4 yrs experience or BS and 8 yrs exp.
• Understands challenges in business area, applicability of relevant data science disciplines, and system interactions.
• 5+ years’ experience implementing large scale end-to-end marketing programs
• Able to keep others current on current scientific advancements.
• Experience working with raw and prepared data sources in a variety of RDBMS systems (Snowflake, Oracle, TeraData, Redshift etc) and NoSQL environments such as Hadoop, Spark, Athena.
• Fluency with statistical and machine learning algorithms such as decision trees, neural networks, collaborative filtering, clustering, survival analysis, graph theory, etc.
• Knowledge of and experience working within cloud computing environments such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to successfully communicate ideas and sell strategic plans to senior executives while influencing adoption and successful implementation.