Senior Data Scientist, Product Analytics

Lightspark is building open payments for the Internet—always-on payment solutions powered by Bitcoin, the only open, neutral network for moving value. With enterprise tools like Connect, UMA, and Spark, businesses can send and receive money instantly, securely, and at a fraction of the cost, anytime, anywhere. Lightspark is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, but serves the world.

We're looking for a Senior Data Scientist to join our Data Science team and drive data-informed decisions across Product, Finance, Compliance, and Strategy. You'll be the bridge between our data infrastructure and the business teams that depend on insights to grow the Money Grid. This role combines the analytical rigor of a data scientist with the technical self-sufficiency of an analytics engineer. You'll define metrics that matter, build the pipelines to track them, and translate complex data into actionable insights that shape our product roadmap and business strategy.

Own Key Metrics & Measurement

• Design and implement measurement frameworks for our core products (UMA, Spark, Lightspark Payments)

• Define success metrics for strategic partners like Nubank and SoFi

• Build dashboards and reporting that make data self-service for cross-functional teams

• Track product health, user engagement, retention, and transaction patterns

Enable Cross-Functional Decision-Making

• Partner with Finance on pricing analysis, margin optimization, and revenue forecasting

• Support Compliance with transaction monitoring rules, KYC/AML thresholds, and risk scoring frameworks

• Work with Product teams to prioritize features based on data-driven insights

• Provide strategic analysis to inform go-to-market decisions and partnership evaluations

Build Data Products & Pipelines

• Extend our data infrastructure to support new analytics use cases

• Build domain-specific data models and pipelines using dbt, SQL, and Python

• Create scalable, maintainable analytics code that others can build upon

• Collaborate with our Data Engineer to design efficient data architectures

Drive Data Culture

• Advocate for data-driven decision-making across the organization

• Train teams on how to use data tools and interpret metrics correctly

• Identify gaps in our data ecosystem and take ownership of fixing them

• Balance speed with quality—ship fast, iterate based on feedback

Required:

• 5+ years of experience in data science or related roles

• Expert-level SQL skills—you can write complex queries, optimize for performance, and design efficient data models

• Strong Python programming skills: you can build pipelines, automate analyses, and with production-quality code

• Proven ability to define metrics and measurement frameworks from scratch

• Track record of influencing product and business decisions with data

• Strong communication skills—you can explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders

• Self-starter mentality—you unblock yourself rather than waiting for others

• Understanding of statistical concepts (A/B testing, causal inference, experimentation)

Preferred:

• Experience with modern data tools like DBT, Airflow/Dagster, BigQuery/Snowflake/Databricks, Looker/Mode/Hex

• Experience in payments, fintech, or crypto/blockchain companies

• Familiarity with compliance, fraud detection, or risk analytics

• Background in both startups and larger tech companies

• Experience with product analytics tools (Amplitude, Mixpanel, Segment)

• Background in a quantitative field (Computer Science, Engineering, Math, Statistics, Economic)

Lightspark is on a mission to build an open payment protocol for the Internet at scale and therefore we’re committed to creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace to reflect the customers we serve. We welcome interest from individuals of all backgrounds and levels of experience who share our mission. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. 

We will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the State of California Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring.