Senior Data Scientist (Recommendation Systems)

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Right Balance provides top-tier technology talent for innovative companies in the US. We’re in the top 50 companies to watch in LA.

Client Engagement Details

We're a digital platform for total well-being. We help our community feel their best in body and mind through on-demand yoga, meditation, Pilates, and fitness classes with world-class teachers.

Summary:

Our client is seeking a visionary yet hands-on Senior Data Scientist - Recommendation Systems to lead the design and development of a cutting-edge recommendation engine. This system will revolutionize how the members discover and engage with personalized yoga, meditation, and Pilates content, aligning with the company's mission to help people consistently practice. This role combines deep expertise in machine learning and AI with strategic thinking and collaboration. The ideal candidate will contribute to refining data infrastructure while designing advanced models to deliver a world-class personalization experience. You’ll partner closely with leadership, product managers, engineers, data scientists, and content creators to ensure the recommendation engine delivers high-quality, impactful experiences for our members.

Responsibilities:

• Strategize and Lead: Drive the vision, strategy, and execution of company's recommendation engine, building the framework and roadmap to optimize user engagement and content discovery
• Ground-Up Development: Design, prototype, and implement machine learning models for recommendation systems, including collaborative filtering, content-based filtering, and hybrid approaches, tailored to unique content ecosystem
• Collaborate Across Teams: Partner with leadership, product managers, engineers, and content creators to align technical solutions with user experience goals
• Data-Driven Innovation: Analyze large datasets to uncover insights about user behavior and preferences, using these insights to refine recommendation algorithms and drive strategic decisions
• Performance Optimization: Ensure the scalability, efficiency, and effectiveness of recommendation models through continuous testing, tuning, and performance monitoring
• Technical Leadership: Mentor and provide guidance to team members on best practices in machine learning and data science, fostering an environment of innovation
• Measure Success: Define and monitor key metrics (e.g., precision, recall, engagement) to evaluate and iterate on the system’s performance
• Build for the Future: Contribute to the long-term vision of personalization capabilities, ensuring the recommendation engine evolves alongside user needs and company goals

Cultural Values:

• Start with the why
• Drive change
• Practice resilience
• Embrace progress over perfection
• Communicate openly
• Win together

Location: This position is fully remote for anyone living in California, Arkansas, Minnesota, Florida, Tennessee, or Texas. Some travel may be required for in-person collaboration.

What’s in it for you?

1. Learn and evolve your skills using the latest and greatest technology tools in a rapidly growing company.
2. Learn from the best people around you. We constantly challenge the status quo and invent new ways of building a great product.
3. Work on challenging problems, innovate, and positively impact many people's lives while having fun doing it.

Required Qualifications

• Upper-intermediate to fluent speaking and writing English. Able to have a real-time conversation.
• 5+ years of full-time hands-on Data Science experience.
• 3+ years of full-time hands-on SQL experience.
• 3+ years of full-time hands-on Python experience.
• 0.5+ years of full-time hands-on AI Development experience.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, or a related field
• 5+ years of experience in data science roles with a focus on building recommendation systems or personalization engines
• Expertise in machine learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch) and statistical modeling techniques
• Strong programming skills in Python or R, with experience using SQL and big data tools (e.g., Spark, Hadoop, Databricks). Familiarity with AWS cloud services is a plus
• Experience building recommendation systems at scale, including collaborative filtering, neural networks, or hybrid techniques
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to Haves

• Familiarity with behavioral science concepts and their application in personalization is a strong plus
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent demonstrated ability.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are your typical clients?

The majority of our clients are venture-backed startups at the growth stage. Usually, at this stage, the company already achieved a product-market fit and is looking to expand rapidly. That’s where we bring the best engineering practices, strong architecture, the latest technologies, and consistent processes to help companies scale.

What is the length of your engagements?

Most of our long-term full-time engagements last multiple years. It allows you to evolve your career with the client company taking on more responsibilities.

What’s your company size?

The Right Balance team is 60+ engineers going to 100+ by the end of the year. The current client size team is 340+ people. The timing is great to be a part of a rapidly growing team making meaningful contributions.

What happens if the engagement is completed?

Most of our engagements are long-term in nature. That said, if the current engagement is ramping down, we’ll present you with more long-term opportunities to transition into.

What are your core values?

• Client First: we only win when our clients win. We treat client challenges as our own.
• Ownership: we embrace responsibility, taking on challenges, getting them to completion, and enjoying getting things done.
• Quality: we’re passionate about achieving quality outcomes by applying meticulous attention to detail.