Senior Decision Scientist (Experimentation & Decision Enablement)

Summary: Vanguard is advancing decision optimization capabilities to improve the quality, transparency, and impact of business decisions. This role plays a critical part in that effort by generating high-quality evidence on what works and ensuring those insights are effectively applied within a decision product used by business leaders.

As a Senior Decision Scientist, you will design and execute experiments and structured analyses to evaluate business interventions, and you will work closely with the decision product to input assumptions, interpret outputs, and translate results into actionable guidance. You will serve as a bridge between analytical systems and business users—ensuring that decision outputs are understood, trusted, and effectively used.

This role is ideal for someone who combines strong statistical intuition with practical judgment and enjoys working directly with stakeholders to drive better decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and execute experiments to evaluate the impact of business and operational decisions
• Apply structured analytical approaches, including quasi-experimental methods where appropriate, to generate evidence in real-world settings
• Partner with stakeholders to identify high-impact opportunities for testing and learning, prioritizing where evidence will reduce decision uncertainty
• Input assumptions, parameters, and experimental findings into the decision product to inform model outputs
• Interpret decision outputs generated by the analytical engine and translate them into clear, actionable guidance for business users
• Communicate results, including implications, trade-offs, and uncertainty, in a way that builds trust and supports decision-making
• Partner with Data Scientists to ensure experimental insights and learnings are incorporated into the evolution of the analytical engine
• Ensure decision outputs are aligned to real-world workflows and are usable within business planning and operational contexts
• Balance statistical rigor with operational feasibility when designing and executing experiments

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree (or equivalent experience) in a quantitative field; advanced degree preferred
• Experience designing, executing, and analyzing experiments or structured analytical studies in business environments
• Familiarity with causal inference concepts, including quasi-experimental approaches, or demonstrated ability to develop these skills
• Strong understanding of experimental design, statistical inference, and measurement frameworks
• Proficiency in Python, R, or similar tools for data analysis
• Ability to interpret analytical outputs and translate them into actionable business insights
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence decision-making
• Comfort working in ambiguous, real-world environments where trade-offs between rigor and practicality must be managed

Special Factors

Sponsorship

About Vanguard

At Vanguard, we don't just have a mission—we're on a mission.

To work for the long-term financial wellbeing of our clients. To lead through product and services that transform our clients' lives. To learn and develop our skills as individuals and as a team. From Malvern to Melbourne, our mission drives us forward and inspires us to be our best.

How We Work

Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection. We believe our mission-driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long-term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.