Despegar

Marketing Science Manager

Posted 16 Days Ago

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Hiring Remotely in Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Remote or Hybrid

Senior level

Software • Travel

The Role

The Web & App Personalization Manager will lead the design and optimization of personalized recommendation models, drive conversion and revenue across web and app channels, and collaborate cross-functionally to enhance user experience through data-driven strategies and experimentation.

Summary Generated by Built In

We are looking for a Marketing Science Manager to own the design, development and business impact of our personalization decisioning models across the full customer journey.

This role sits at the intersection of data science, product, marketing and growth, with full accountability for how algorithms drive conversion, marketing ROI efficiency, and cross & upsell.

Scope

Responsible for the end-to-end personalization and marketing science agenda, leading a team of data scientists to design, deploy and optimize machine-learning models that drive relevance, conversion and incremental revenue across web, app, CRM and paid media, ensuring algorithms are embedded into real business decisions and balance short-term performance with long-term user value.

- Lead web and app personalization through recommendation systems that improve search-to-purchase conversion, AOV and overall user experience.

- Build Next Best Action models for cross-sell and upsell, powering consistent, automated personalization across email, push, WhatsApp and call center channels.

- Drive performance marketing science, including attribution, incrementality, budget allocation and investment optimization across coupon and user incentive strategies.

- Define where and how algorithms versus rules should guide decisions, ensuring models are actionable, explainable and scalable.

Experimentation, Measurement & Incrementality

- Operate with a strong experimentation-first mindset across all personalization initiatives.

- Design A/B tests and control groups to measure true incremental impact.

- Separate correlation from causation in model evaluation.

- Define clear success metrics aligned with business outcomes (gross booking, revenue, margin, ROI).

Web & App Personalization Governance

- Own the web & app personalization strategy end-to-end across countries.Bring governance, structure and clarity to a highly impactful but sensitive lever.

- Define and manage clear ownership of web/app placement rules, processes and guardrails.

- Create a simple but robust approval process.

- Share learnings and frameworks across countries and teams.

Cross-functional Leadership

- Act as a strategic partner to Product, Marketing, Growth, CRM and Commercial teams.

- Translate business problems into data science roadmaps and priorities.

- Align stakeholders on trade-offs, limitations and expected impact of models.

- Influence without authority through clarity, credibility and results.

The core challenges of this role

- Complex business, partners and user balance: we operate critical and sensitive channels, often involving multiple stakeholders that need to push their own business results (eg., business units, external partners, media sales, etc), requiring to sustain a unifying and balancing strategy.

- Incrementality vs vanity metrics: Many models can “look good” on paper; this role must ensure they drive real incremental value, not cannibalization.

- Operationalizing data science: Success depends not only on building models, but on getting them adopted, trusted and used at scale.

What success in this role looks like

- Personalization measurably improves conversion, revenue per user and engagement.

- Models drive incremental cross & upsell across web and app channels.Teams trust and rely on models for critical decisions.

- Experimentation and incrementality become standard practice, not exceptions.

What we need from this leader on a daily basis

Extreme ownership: Model performance and business impact are your responsibility.
Strong prioritization: Focus on the highest-leverage problems.
Data-first thinking: Decisions backed by evidence, not intuition.
People leadership: Develop data scientists technically and with business acumen.
Clear communication: Explain complex models in simple business terms.

What we are looking for

5+ years of experience in data science, personalization or growth analytics.
Strong background in machine and deep learning, experimentation and causal measurement.
Experience leading and developing data science teams.
Experience in travel, ecommerce, marketplaces or scaled consumer platforms is a strong plus.
Ability to operate in fast-paced, cross-functional, multi-country environments.

Top Skills

A/B Testing

Data Science

Deep Learning

Machine Learning

Personalization

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The Company

Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires

4,332 Employees

What We Do

We are the leading Travel Technology Company, committed to technological development since 1999, with the goal to create enriching travel experiences. Our multiregional presence span 19 countries and consolidates 9 brands, including Decolar, Despegar, Best Day, BD Experience, Viajes Falabella, Viajanet, HotelDO, Koin, and Stays. Originating as a provider of flight tickets, our offerings have expanded into a comprehensive catalog, featuring B2B, B2C, physical stores, and robust online sales. Collaborating with 238 airlines, 1.4 million accommodations, 1,260 car rental agencies, and over 800 destination service providers, we ensure complete, reliable, and accessible travel packages. The Despegar app, with over 60 million downloads, holds the title of the most downloaded travel app in the region. Operating in the global $2 trillion travel market, with a primary focus on the $150 billion Latin American market, we cater to our customers through our B2C, B2B, and White Label offerings. We anticipate our end market to expand at double digit rates in the coming years and leverage our best-in-class technology, regional expertise, and industry-leading inventories to outperform the market growth rate and continuously gain market share. While we strive to exceed the diverse travel demands of our clients we are also committed to social responsibility, as we work on mitigating environmental impact and implement inclusion programs across our operations in the region. Additionally, we invest in developing our talent, offering opportunities to shape market-leading professionals. Our dedication to excellence, continuous learning, and a commitment to innovation drive our growth. Despegar has been trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: DESP) since 2017.