Lead Data Scientist

**✨ Learn what to anticipate from our process before you apply via this video✨

Hi there,

I’m Merlin, TestGorilla’s Head of Talent Marketplace. We’re a fast-growing HR tech startup that helps hiring teams make better hiring decisions faster and bias-free.

Over the past year, we’ve experienced tremendous growth. More than 10,000 companies have replaced resumes/CVs with our innovative assessments to screen candidates in an objective and data-driven way.

At TestGorilla we aim to become the leading talent discovery platform and to accelerate growth we are building a Talent Marketplace to match jobs and candidates based on our proven skills-based hiring practices. As we propel forward into 2024 and beyond, the Talent Marketplace teams are looking for a Lead Data Scientist who’s passionate about joining our mission to help people land their dream jobs.

➡️ 🎥 Watch the below video to find out a little more about our hiring process!

What’s in it for you?

• Opportunity to help shape the products of a fast-growing HR tech startup, work with cutting-edge tools and technologies, and make a significant impact
• Fully remote position with highly motivated, and values-aligned colleagues from around the world
• €95,000 - €115,000 per annum + share appreciation rights (SARs)
• Flexible hours and asynchronous environment
• Flexible and unlimited paid time off and paid parental leave
• Remote working budget: €1,000 per year (pro-rata based on your start date)
• Learning and development budget: 3.5% of salary

The job in a nutshell

The Talent Marketplace is a new product which we will launch later this year. The Talent Marketplace will be a platform where we’ll match jobs of our customers to candidates based on verified skills, user-behavior, and other attributes. The Marketplace will be 2-sided, meaning candidates are matched to jobs directly based on their preferences.

The Lead Data Scientist is a newly created role in the Talent Marketplace Data Science squad. You will contribute to our hiring philosophy and help shape the future of work and skills-based hiring. You'll play a pivotal role in shaping how we leverage data and technology to understand and assess skills for optimal talent matching and decision-making.

You will bring innovation, creativity, and subject matter expertise in data science and analytics to understand people and jobs, and develop a recommender system that connects people and jobs. You will also support our expansion into related domains by exploring new methods and innovations in talent matching, evaluation tools, test development, and additional ways to generate and capitalize on data-driven insights and analytics.

This is a fantastic opportunity to contribute to the innovation and development of talent assessment products within TestGorilla’s portfolio and join the team shaping and creating the future of hiring.

You’ll spend time on the following

This role focuses on experimenting and developing AI, ML, and related methods to data associated with psychometrics and user behaviors. The primary project will be applying this to develop recommender systems and matching algorithms for the Talent Marketplace and deliver pragmatic, commercial solutions that evolve our product. This role is expected to work closely with other scientists, data engineers, and software developers, often partnering to solve problems and work on initiatives along with other science and product development team members.

As a lead of the data science team, you collaborate with other senior technical leaders and are recognized as a decision-maker within your area of expertise. You enjoy autonomy in decision-making and are acknowledged as a subject matter expert throughout the entire organization within their area of expertise and you will lead substantial and intricate projects spanning the entire company.

We typically expect a senior technical lead level candidates with at least 7+ years of experience in Data Science role or similar position to have the skills mentioned above.

The role is likely to be dynamic and varied, contributing to a number of areas but will initially focus on:

Tackling key challenges in talent and job data science by contributing to:

• ML algorithms, particularly in the context of recommender systems (e.g., content-based filtering, collaborative filtering, SVD++)
• Mitigating bias and explainability:
  • Supporting initiatives to de-bias algorithms and provide interpretable explanations for insights
  • Developing explainable models and avoiding “black box” algorithms
  • Promoting inclusion, fairness, and transparency in talent assessment
• Advising on relevant job and skill taxonomy activities, including models of job success and performance

Supporting innovation and enhancing talent assessment:

• Identifying and deploying data-driven solutions:
  • Leveraging AI/ML, new technologies, and research to improve our competitive edge
  • Collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to analyze problems and offer solutions
• Validating data-driven decision making:
  • Performing in-depth data analysis to identify trends, patterns, and insights that drive actionable recommendations and communicate certainty of findings that inform better talent decisions
• Navigating the evolving landscape:
  • Staying informed about evolving legal regulations of AI hiring tools
  • Contributing to discussions on platform liability and ethical use
• Leveraging domain expertise:
  • Collaborating with subject matter experts to interpret skill data accurately
  • Providing actionable insights for customers
  • Sharing insights and best practices through internal and external thought leadership

Here’s what we’re looking for

• You are inspired by our mission to place one billion people in dream jobs.
• You are fully aligned with our values.
• You have in-depth experience in creating and maintaining recommenders and/or predictive algorithms for 2-sided marketplaces taking into account the uniqueness of every job and candidate, boosting network effects and steering on high liquidity.
• You have an interest in person-job matching and the future of work.
• You have excellent English verbal and written communication skills.
• You have expert data science coding skills in Python and are strong in SQL.
• You have experience working within data warehouses, production codebases, AI-powered tools or similar.
• You have strong problem-solving skills to navigate the complexities of AI and talent analytics.
• You have strong organizational skills to keep work on track and to a high standard.
• You are motivated by new challenges, breaking new ground, dealing with complexity, and you are willing to fail or try non-traditional approaches.
• You are comfortable collaborating with a team spread across the globe and in different time zones.

Bonus points if …

Please note that what we have below are not hard and fast requirements disguised as “bonus” items - they really are bonus items. If you possess any combination of these and a desire to learn more, we would love to hear from you!

• You have exposure to a HR Tech SaaS company and appreciate the extremely varied needs of a fast-growing startup
• You have interest or experience in NLP and/or information retrieval
• You understand the industry trends, legal developments and ethical implications concerning AI in hiring and the workplace. You have experience writing science-based content for non-technical audiences

About TestGorilla

At TestGorilla, we envision a world where everyone has their dream job. To achieve that, employers and employees need to have the right information about each other.

We started in 2020 by building a screening platform that enables employers to evaluate candidates in the skills that matter most for success in a role. Our product replaces subjective, incomplete, and often inflated CVs with objective, reliable, and fair test results measuring aptitude, practical job skills, culture add, and motivation.

Improving and expanding this platform is our core focus at the moment, but it’s only the beginning of our journey to get everyone their dream job. Over time, we will launch more products that support this mission.

In 2022, we secured $70m in Series A funding, co-led by the venture capital firms Atomico and Balderton Capital. The funding brings the company’s total investment to $80m following previous investments from Notion, Partech, and CapitalT. Chances are you’re familiar with some of our biggest customers, like the UK’s National Health Service, 3M, Sony, Oracle, PepsiCo, Bain & Company, and Deloitte.

We work remotely, spread across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Interested?

Here at TestGorilla, we do as we say. We use our assessment platform to make sure we make the best hiring decisions faster and bias-free. I took one too and I enjoyed it!So if this role sounds like a good fit for you, I’d like you to take an assessment so we can get a better idea about whether you would fit the role. It’s also a great opportunity for you to get to know our product!If you’re hired, I’ll do everything I can to help you succeed at TestGorilla and throughout the rest of your career.