Earnest’s mission is to make higher education accessible and affordable for everyone. 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:

Private student loans - low rates, people-first service, and flexible payments.
Student loan refinancing - break free from high interest rates or monthly payments.
Scholarships - access to thousands of scholarships to help students pay less.

The Data Scientist II position will report to the Data Science Manager.

As a Data Scientist II, you will:

Play a pivotal role in our data-driven decision making and drive impact for our Growth, Risk, Product, and Marketing teams. You'll have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects that involve credit risk modeling, causal inferencing from experimental results, custom large-language modeling and NLP tasks for income verification.

Depending on the project, you would:

Develop and support financial loan pricing and conversion optimization models
Build forecasting models on both product demand and internal operations backlog
Optimize product conversion by running A/B tests and other experimentation methods on our pricing, marketing and product models
Research and prototype models and present in model review sessions
Work with data and infrastructure engineers to deploy your model or develop required data pipelines to automate training and monitoring with BI tools
Prepare technical design and git/confluence documentation
Work with general managers, marketing and operation teams to identify and address their data modeling needs for better forecasting and planning
Work with product teams to prototype and test LLMs to improve engagement across the customer lifecycle

About You:

2+ years in R/Python and SQL
2+ years professional experience in model development and/or data analytics (or Master's degree in Data Science, Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Economics or a related quantitative field with 1+ years of professional experience in model development and analytics)
Expertise in statistical inference
Experience in product analytics and experimental design
Deep understanding of classification, regression and forecasting models and AB testing
Experience working in a cross-functional environment with teamwork and excellent communication skills
Experience in working with scalable ML pipelines and LLMs

Even Better:

Understanding of financial metrics and bond markets
Understanding of econometrics and elasticity in pricing optimization
Experience with convex optimization
Experience with BI tools such as Looker, Tableau, PowerBI, etc.
Machine learning modeling experience

About Us:

Earnies are committed to helping students live their best lives, free from the stress of student debt. If you’re as passionate as we are about our mission, read more below, and let’s build something great together!

What makes an “Earnie” culture:

Drivers – Drivers are satisfied by making things happen, not coming along for the ride. They feel a strong sense of ownership for their projects and teams and demand high standards from themselves and others.
Humility – Humble team players check their egos and consider the team’s needs above their own. They are self-aware of their strengths and opportunities for improvement.
Growth Mindset – People with a growth mindset approach challenges and failures as learning opportunities. They seek feedback to improve, give feedback to others, and genuinely want to perform well.

Earnest believes in enabling our employees to live their best lives. We offer a variety of perks and competitive benefits that include:

Health, Dental, & Vision benefits plus savings plans
Work anywhere in the U.S.
Mac computers + work from home stipend to set up your home office
Monthly internet and phone reimbursement
Employee Stock Purchase Plan
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
Annual “my day”
Pet insurance!
Competitive parental leave
Plenty of Earnest swag, optional in person team gatherings, picnics, celebrations, and plenty of fun virtual events

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, disability or genetics. Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for the position in a manner consistent with the Fair Chance Ordinance.

#LI-DNI

A little about our pay philosophy: We take pride in ensuring we are compensating our employees fairly and equitably. We are showcasing a range and actual starting pay may be based on several factors including but not limited to, market rate, the qualified pool of candidates, internal compensation, candidate location, and budgetary constraints. This number does not necessarily reflect your total compensation, but is a range for your base salary.

Pay Range

$125,000—$156,250 USD

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