At Booking.com, data drives our decisions. Technology is at our core. And innovation is everywhere. But our company is more than datasets, lines of code or A/B tests. We’re the thrill of the first night in a new place. The excitement of the next morning. The friends you make. The journeys you take. The sights you see. And the food you sample. Through our products, partners and people, we can empower everyone to experience the world.

Role description

As a Data Scientist in the Experimentation Science Team, you focus on scalable solutions to the company’s most persistent challenges in decision making. You provide support to experimenters across the company, investigate problems and define clear solutions and requirements for their implementation, build proofs of concept and prototypes, and work closely with the engineering teams to support our product vision. The ability to write high quality, reproducible code and dig into technical product details and data pipelines is crucial to make your work impactfully landed in the Experimentation Tool, and enable solid decision making adoptable by a wide range of experimenters!

As a Data Scientist II, you’ll take full ownership of the design and delivery of data science solutions, from ideation to implementation. You are expected to combine sound business understanding, data handling, programming, statistical modeling and data visualization to derive actionable information from broad sets of data while valuing pragmatism over perfection.

In the meantime, you are also part of a data science team, and work with partners throughout the company, to generate understanding, strategy and guide key decision making based on data. It involves applying suitable statistical data analysis and modeling methods to solve sophisticated business problems, independently identify and lead partners, and effectively communicate complex analysis results.

Key Job Responsibilities and Duties

• Responsible for owning the design and delivery of entire Data Science solutions based on business requirements, bringing them from the initial idea-generation phase to implementation independently.
• Responsible for working autonomously on consuming data, preparing it for data science use, translating business problems to data stories and solving them effectively by applying suitable statistical data analysis and modeling methods. Leverages input from business stakeholders in all of the above to determine the right technical solutions to deliver customer value.
• Responsible for working primarily within the scope of their team to deliver work that informs business decisions for the product / business topic they currently work on, occasionally collaborating across multiple teams.
• Responsible for designing and interpreting quantitative experiments to objectively guide key business decision making.
• Responsible for independently identifying and managing stakeholders in operational, project-based, and managerial roles. Effectively communicates, addresses stakeholder needs, and conveys complex analysis results in a clear manner. Begins to guide junior colleagues in stakeholder engagement.
• Responsible for being flexible in adopting existing internal and external Data Science approaches, proposing and spotting opportunities to apply new approaches and expanding their technical competencies and their peer’s when a more efficient way presents itself.
• Responsible for leveraging Data Science for impact while learning to incorporate scalability, reproducibility and long term orientation in their work.
• Responsible for acting as a force multiplier for junior peers in the team by actively helping them with their craft through means of coaching, mentoring and setting a good example.
• Responsible for contributing to the community of their area by supporting community projects aimed at making other data professional more effective, actively participating in community strengthening activities (ie. recruitment) and connecting with peers beyond their area.
• Responsible for collaborating with peers in related crafts (ie. Data Engineering), anticipating data needs to ensure smooth progress of their individual projects.
• Responsible for ensuring quality of their own work by validating it through peer review.
• Responsible for influencing business decisions within their specific area (ie. product team)

Role qualifications and requirements

• Proficient in Pyspark and general Python
• Solid understanding of statistical and hypothesis testing
• Experience working closely with product teams (not just PMs, but directly with developers/engineers)
• Willingness to dig deep into problems and behind the scenes data to support troubleshooting/bug fixing
• Solution oriented and result driven
• Able to brainstorm, peer review and drive research topics benefit Experimentation and Decision Making in both short and long term
• Excellent English communication skills, both written and verbal; the ability to convey your message to team members and other partners, clearly and gently.
• Achieve impacts as a great teammate, and maintain solid relationships with technical and non technical stakeholders.

The following skills are assets for this role:

• Knowledgeable about statistical properties of (good) metrics, and ability to scalably test them
• Causal inference knowledge beyond A/B testing
• Understand the gist of scripts written in R
• Experience building libraries/modules in python
• Familiarity with apis using is good, building/maintaining is great
• Good understanding of fundamental machine learning concepts
• Solid understanding of reporting/visualization techniques (e.g., Tableau, Graphite, Power BI, etc.)

DEI: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Booking.com

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) have been a core part of our company culture since day one. This ongoing journey starts with our very own employees, who represent over 140 nationalities and a wide range of ethnic and social backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations. Take it from our Chief People Officer, Paulo Pisano: “At Booking.com, the diversity of our people doesn’t just create a unique workplace, it also creates a better and more inclusive travel experience for everyone.”

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable adjustments to participate in the interview process. Please contact us to request adjustments.

Career Development Opportunities

• Bi-annual performance conversations, company-wide mentoring program, and internal development opportunities
• Unlimited access to online learning platforms: Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn learning, O'reilly

Application Process

• The interview process for this role entails a total of 3 interviews.

Booking.com is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We strive to move well beyond traditional equal opportunity and work to create an environment that allows everyone to thrive.