Data Scientist II

Be essential at Cars Commerce

At Cars Commerce, we’re fanatical about simplifying everything about car buying and selling. We do right by our customers and consumers to better connect the industry with simplified and tierless technology to enhance, measure and drive local automotive retail. Whether through our No.1 most recognized marketplace, Cars.com, our industry-leading digital experience, Dealer Inspire, our trade and appraisal technology, AccuTrade, our reputation-based digital wholesale auction marketplace, Dealerclub, or our new Cars Commerce Media Network, Cars Commerce is essential for success in the automotive industry.

No one ever travels alone here: at its core, Cars Commerce is collaboration. In fact, it’s built into the very fabric of our shared values. We like to say we Rise Together – putting people at the center of what we do, from consumer to customer to community. Life at Cars Commerce makes it easy when we share the ethos to be Open to All, encouraging open-minded communication because we know diverse thinking yields better outcomes. But critical to our success is Caring to Challengeand Taking Ownership, fueling a competitive spirit in a respectful environment where we think about tomorrow but act today. At our foundation, we have integrity, Doing the Right Thing, even when it’s hard. It’s our shared commitment to these values that makes Cars Commerce a place where growth becomes not only possible, but downright unavoidable.

But don’t take our word for it. As a U.S. News & World Report Best Company to Work For in 2024, we're obsessive about the employee experience. We are among the top 20% being declared “Best” of our industry based on six critical factors that are important to employee wellbeing, like quality of pay, benefits, work life balance and more.

Cars.com is one of Chicago’s original tech companies. Our online platform makes it easier for consumers to shop for, sell and service their cars. With our expert content, mobile app features, millions of new and used vehicle listings, a comprehensive set of research tools and the largest database of consumer reviews in the industry, Cars.com offers innovative products to connect consumers with dealers across the country.
Data is the driver for our future at Cars. We are looking for a Data Scientist III to join our data science team. This team is responsible to improve shopping experience, optimize sales and marketing pipelines and build measurement strategies. In simple terms, this is the team behind all machine learning products at Cars.

Data Science@Cars is a group of collaborative and humble individuals from diverse backgrounds. We are actively involved in the open source community and regularly participate in Data Science events. We learn from each other through regular algorithmic/code review sessions and stay connected through coffee chats in this remote world.

About the Projects:

We deliver scalable ML products that are served to millions of users through our website and mobile app. Search, Recommendation Systems, Pricing and Churn are some of the example projects that we actively work on. Right from the start, each team member will own a product(s) and as the time progresses, you will gain exposure to working on diverse areas of ML. The team maintains a healthy balance between research projects and immediate deliverables.

On a typical week you will:

• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to define, design, build and deploy machine learning models and frame AB tests 

• Understand business impact of models and monitor model performances to make sure model outputs are of good quality at all times 

• Apply robust and maintainable coding practices to ensure model outputs are provided reliably and efficiently at all times

• Work with business partners to identify business opportunities and trends

• Communicate modeling methodologies and analytical findings to business stakeholders 

• Stay up-to-date with latest technology trends and publish research articles on science and innovations

Requirements:

• 2+ years professional experience in developing machine learning models with a MS  in machine-learning, applied mathematics or related quantitative fields

• Understanding of supervised, unsupervised machine learning  and deep learning concepts

• Exposure to and understanding of GenAI concepts, models  and tooling preferred

• Experience with entire pipeline of deploying machine learning algorithms including development, validation, implementation and production launch

• Strong coding skills in Python/PySpark and good at writing SQL queries

• Understanding of AWS ecosystem

• Be flexible in working on diverse problems instead of focusing on a particular ML area like Image Recognition, Natural Language Processing etc.

• Understanding of coding best practices and familiar with version control tools 

Preferred:

• PhD/Masters in statistics, econometrics, machine-learning, applied mathematics or related quantitative field

• Exposure to evaluation of Search & Recommendation systems

• Experience in building end to end Machine Learning systems

Salary Range

$93,100.00-114,050.00

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans

• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up

• Generous PTO

• Refuel - a service based recognition program where employees receive additional paid time away to learn grow and reset

• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day

Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages!

For US-based Positions: Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. Please note that we are unable to sponsor employment visas at this time.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. California Applicants: Click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Applicants. For current employees, please click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Employees.