Sr. Decision Scientist

Overview

About the Role

We are seeking a highly motivated, analytical, and organized individual to join Instacart’s Fraud & Identity organization, focusing on analytics within Fraud, Abuse, Identity, and Reconciliation. The ideal candidate will use advanced analytics skills and strong business acumen to identify, extract, and visualize opportunities that drive improvements across various segments of the company. This role requires excellent time-management, effective communication skills for engaging with stakeholders at all levels, and a passion for continuous improvement, data integrity, and scalable solutions.

About the Team

The Fraud & Identity Ops team at Instacart is a group of experienced, results-driven professionals dedicated to driving profitable growth, generating cost savings, and advancing the company's strategic objectives. By fostering strong cross-functional partnerships with Product, Engineering, Legal, and CX teams, we manage the end-to-end strategy and operations for Fraud, Abuse, Identity, and Reconciliation. We prioritize strategic thinking, creativity, and data-driven decision-making to build alignment and deliver impactful results.

This role reports to the Sr. Director of Fraud & Identity Operations, who oversees losses tied to fraud and abuse. The Sr. Decision Scientist will collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, and other cross-functional teams at Instacart.

About the Job 

This role involves leveraging data to drive insights, build strategies, and enable improvements across various business areas, including Fraud, Abuse, Identity, and Reconciliation:

• Ownership of Data Analysis & Visualization: Manage data analysis and insights for Fraud & Identity, Appeasements & Refunds, Shopper and Customer Abuse, Identity Verification, Account Takeover, Quality, and other reconciliation initiatives.
• Strategic Communication: Regularly communicate outcomes and insights to cross-functional stakeholders, including senior leadership, to guide strategic decision-making for process and performance improvement.
• Development of Dashboards and Reporting Models: Create dashboards, analytical frameworks, and detailed reporting models for key stakeholders to inform decisions on processes, policies, systems, and service models.
• Collaboration on Roadmaps: Work with Product, Data Science, and Analytics teams to understand growth and risk factors related to new and future product releases.
• Automation and Reporting: Build automated reporting systems to keep operations leaders informed of trends, variations, and opportunities across geographies and teams.Innovation through
• Data Insights: Lead efforts to improve performance and enhance customer experiences by introducing innovative data approaches and actionable insights.Operational
• Data Analysis: Use unstructured behavioral data to identify operational events and their impact on fulfillment quality and end-user experiences.
• A/B Testing & Experimentation: Design and conduct A/B and multivariate tests, define success metrics, and transform test results into actionable business insights.
• XFN Collaboration: Partner with SMEs and decision-makers to develop data-driven policies and models aimed at continuously improving fulfillment performance.

In this role, you’ll play a critical part in transforming how teams across North America leverage data to deliver exceptional performance and create industry-leading customer, shopper, and retailer experiences.

About You

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum 6-8 years in analytics/DS, business intelligence/operations, or related environment
• Ability to Identify potential root causes contributing to potential change(s) in metrics and provide recommendation on mitigation strategy
• Ability to write complex and performant queries in your dialect of SQL to extract data from our data warehouse (Mode, Snowflake or DBT experience a plus)
• Experience with Programming & Analytical tools Experience with analytical visualization tools such as Tableau, Mode, Looker, Periscope or similar tools
• Extremely strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex topics and create compelling narratives for various audiences
• Ability to work effectively with internal stakeholders, including data scientists and data engineers.
• Work cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Operations to drive changes
• Excellent teamwork skills and desire to help others learn
• High level of accountability and ownership – driven and focused self-starterStrategic mindset – the ability to think ahead of where the company is at now
• Understanding of A/B testing and other forms of statistical analysis using stats packages
• Experience in e-commerce, CNP payments, finance, credits or marketplace industry.
• Assess and measure the impact of product changes and vendor performance
• Experience in driving understanding of customers and their interaction with products, through in-depth analyses of user behavior and engagement

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in Fraud & Identity, Abuse, Spread, or Credit & Refunds field
• Experience in advanced reporting tools such as Mode, Snowflake, or DBTAdvanced degree in statistics or other quantitative fields
• Data modeling, ETL and data pipeline development experienceUnderstanding of bias in models and proactively addresses issues with sampling

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