Staff Data Scientist

What we value:

• Being customer-obsessed: At the start of each two-week sprint, we commit to our deliverables, focusing on customer impact and fulfilling commitments. Expect an environment of high personal accountability.
• Continuous self-improvement: We prioritize growth and feedback, celebrating wins & achievements while focusing on how we can strive to be even better next time. We exchange regular feedback and hold quarterly sessions to discuss each other's strengths and areas for growth, driving our development. We index heavily on introspection, openness to feedback, and direct communication.
• “Get shit done” attitudes: Even when things are uncertain, all of our team members excel at pushing projects ahead, asking the right questions, and overcoming obstacles to keep things moving. You understand the importance of balancing speed and quality, and you excel at communicating what can be realistically achieved given the circumstances.

Who you are:

• Inquisitive: What kind of topics pique your interest? What keeps you up late at night? What kind of problems do you like to solve?
• Accountable: Do you take psychological ownership of your work? What are your action steps when things don’t go according to plan? Can we count on your word?
• Engaged: How active are you in accomplishing your personal and professional goals? Are you proactive about identifying roadblocks? What do you do when you see something that isn’t working?

If you are curious about the team, here’s more information:

• Explore Working with Sang to understand decision-making processes related to the engineering function.
• Explore Team Page to get acquainted with us. We're an exceptionally collaborative and engaged group, deeply committed to our shared cultural values.

Specifically, you will:

• Own our insights layer: build models and algorithms to generate first-party data. This will include using statistical and machine learning techniques, including LLMs, to generate derived insights as well as determine accurate values from error-prone sources (e.g. headcount information)
• Develop data products that improve the discoverability of startups in our database. Create and continually improve the similarity, relevance, and tagging algorithms that power our search engine.
• Use your knowledge and creativity to extract as much value out of our data as possible. Make us the most valuable and useful source of information on startups.
• Oversee general maintenance and health of data pipelines to ensure accurate and efficient transformations of our data.
• Collaborate with the team to devise product goals, outline milestones, and execute plans, achieving this with minimal guidance.

Role requirements:

• 7+ years in Data Science or Data Engineering, or 5+ years industry experience + PhD
• Fluency in Python and SQL
• Experience with backend libraries and tools like dbt and dagster, familiarity with web servers, and comfort with large data sets.
• Ability to work 3 times/week in our Brooklyn (Williamsburg) office.
• Proven track record of shipping major projects for a data-centric startup.

Compensat:

$185K - $250K Salary + Equity (flexible depending on the level)

Our stack

The Process

Our goal in hiring is to make sure we click on both sides. We’re all about saving time and not beating around the bush. If it’s not looking like a match, we’re upfront and quick to say so, keeping things honest and moving smoothly for everyone involved.

We despise the typical software engineering interview process because it does not align with our day-to-day work. We structured our interview process around pragmatism. Expect us to ask questions closely aligned with the work we expect you to do.

Here’s our interview process:

• (30 mins) Introduction Chat: Let's discuss whether Harmonic is the right place for you. We'll review your experience and allocate time for any questions you may have
• (30 mins) Hiring Manager Call: Here we focus on accountability, and how much personal ownership one takes of their work.
• (Max 5 hours) Take-Home Exercise: We will send you a description of one of our current company challenges and ask you to come up with a creative solution.
• (45 minutes each) Team interview: Meet with a member of our Product team to focus on how you would collaborate, and another member of our Engineering team to go over your take-home & conduct a technical assessment.
• (2.5 hours) Engineering Jam Session: Detailed discussion of the take-home and digging in deeper to measure technical skills. This will involve coding with 2-3 engineers on our team.
• (Async) Reference Checks
• (In person) Dinner/Lunch: Get to know Max, our CEO, over dinner! We can only get to know each other so much through video calls. We believe this is a critical hire and believe this investment is necessary. Flight and housing (if needed) are covered.