Earnest empowers ambitious professionals to make confident financial decisions and build the life they envision.
Earnies are committed to helping borrowers move forward with confidence by offering smarter borrowing options with a clearer path to taking control of their debt. If you’re as passionate as we are about our mission, read more below, and let’s build something great together.
The Lead Data Scientist will report to the Data Science Manager
As the Lead Data Scientist, you will:
- Build and own end-to-end pricing systems—from experimentation to production—that directly shape revenue and unit economics.
- Lead high-impact pricing experiments and apply advanced methods to uncover what truly drives conversion, retention, and profitability.Act as a go-to expert in pricing and demand modeling, influencing strategy across Product, Risk, Finance, and Marketing.
- Drive cross-functional initiatives from idea to launch, partnering closely with engineering to deliver scalable, real-world solutions.
- Turn complex analyses into clear, compelling insights that guide leadership decisions.
- Mentor teammates and help raise the bar on experimentation, modeling, and technical rigor.
About You:
- You bring 6+ years of experience in data science, pricing, or quantitative modeling (or an advanced degree with relevant experience), with strong fluency in Python/R and SQL.
- You’ve built and shipped pricing or demand models that drive real business impact, and you’re comfortable owning problems end-to-end.
- You have deep expertise in pricing optimization, elasticity, and econometrics, and know how to apply causal inference and experimentation in real-world settings.
- You thrive in cross-functional environments, influencing partners and translating complex work into clear, actionable insights.
- You enjoy mentoring others and raising the bar for how teams approach modeling, experimentation, and decision-making.
Even Better:
- Experience in fintech, lending, or financial services with ownership of pricing models.
- Familiarity with financial metrics, risk-adjusted returns, and capital markets.
- Experience working with cloud platforms and modern data tools (e.g., AWS, DBT, Airflow, Looker).
- Exposure to LLMs or NLP applied to pricing or financial use cases.
A little about our pay philosophy: We take pride in compensating our employees fairly and equitably. We are showcasing a range of your potential base salary based on the roles location. The successful candidate’s starting pay will also be determined based on job-related qualifications, internal compensation, candidate location and budget. This range may be modified in the future.
Earnest believes in enabling our employees to live their best lives. We offer a variety of perks and competitive benefits, including:
- Health, Dental, & Vision benefits plus savings plans
- Mac computers + work-from-home stipend to set up your home office
- Monthly internet and phone reimbursement
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)
- 401(k) plan to help you save for retirement plus a company match
- Robust tuition reimbursement program
- $1,000 travel perk on each Earnie-versary to anywhere in the world
- Competitive days of annual PTO
- Competitive parental leave
What Makes an Earnie:
At Earnest, our people bring our cultural principles to life. These principles define how we work, how we win, and what we expect of ourselves and each other:
- Every Second Counts: Speed is our competitive advantage. Our customers need better solutions, and the faster we execute, the greater our chance of success.
- Choose To Do Hard Things: We win by tackling the hard things that others avoid, fueled by grit and resilience.
- Pursue Excellence: Great companies, teams, and individuals never settle and are proud of the work that they do. What’s good enough today won’t be good enough tomorrow. Excellence isn’t a destination; it’s a mindset of continuous improvement.
- Lead Together: Our success comes from how we work together. Leadership is not about titles—it is about action. We take ownership, drive results, and move forward as a team.
- Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously: We take our work seriously, not ourselves. The stakes are high, but a sense of humor keeps us grounded, creative, and resilient.
At Earnest, we are committed to building an environment where our employees feel included, valued, and heard. Our belief is that a strong commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging enables us to move forward with our mission. We are dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team and encourage anyone to apply if your experience is close to what we are looking for.
Earnest provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability or genetics. Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for the position in a manner consistent with the Fair Chance Ordinance.
Top Skills
What We Do
We empower past, present, and soon-to-be students to maximize their financial futures through thoughtful guidance and impactful products. We build tools that help people feel in control of their financial future, including: 1. Student Loan Refinancing - break free from high interest rates or monthly payments. 2. Private Student Loans - low rates, people-first service, and flexible payments. 3. Debt Management - manage all your accounts and become debt-free sooner. 4. Scholarships - access to thousands of scholarships to help students pay less.
Why Work With Us
We strive to maintain and strengthen diversity and inclusion through employee-led Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that empower our Earnies to step into leadership roles and drive our culture. Through ERGs, and with the support of our Executives, we provide a safe space for all Earnies to be their true selves.
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