Staff Data Scientist

Posting Open Date: 3/7/2025

Anticipated Posting Close Date*: 6/1/2025

*Job posting may close early due to the volume of applicants.

Staff Data Scientist 

Join our high impact Analytics team as a Staff Data Scientist, where you’ll shape the future of data-driven decision-making at Fastly. In this role, you’ll deliver actionable deep insights to solve critical business challenges. Over time, you’ll transition into more advanced data science work, such as predictive modeling and machine learning, to unlock even greater value. You’ll be the first member of the team to invest heavily in AI and machine learning and help us build out the practice. As a leader on the team, you’ll mentor colleagues, set best practices, and elevate how we use data to drive success. This is your opportunity to make a meaningful impact while growing in a collaborative and innovative environment.

What You'll Do:

• Lead end-to-end data science and AI projects from problem definition and data collection to model deployment and business implementation
• Design, develop, and optimize machine learning and generative AI models to solve complex business problems and drive measurable outcomes
• Integrate AI capabilities into existing products and workflows to enhance functionality and create new value opportunities
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and business teams to identify opportunities where data science and advanced AI can create significant impact
• Communicate insights and recommendations to technical and non-technical stakeholders through compelling visualizations and presentations
• Mentor junior team members and establish best practices for the team's AI approaches and methodologies

What We're Looking For: 

• Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field
• 5+ years of professional experience applying data science and AI techniques to solve business problems, with demonstrated expertise solving complex and highly impactful quantitative business problems
• Strong programming skills in Python and experience with data science and AI libraries (PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn, Hugging Face)
• Expertise in statistical analysis, machine learning algorithms, experimentation methodologies, large language models, and generative AI frameworks
• Experience mentoring and leading others in data science skills and initiatives
• Experience working with modern data stacks, including Airflow, Fivetran, dbt, BigQuery, Vertex AI, and Looker

We’ll be super impressed if you have experience in one or more of these: 

• Domain expertise in our industry or related fields
• Experience deploying and maintaining production machine learning systems
• Experience with specialized data types such as natural language, time-series, or recommendation systems
• Track record of leading technical teams or mentoring junior data scientists
• Implementing and fine-tuning large language models or other generative AI systems for specific business applications
• Building AI-powered products or features that have been successfully deployed to end users
• Experience with prompt engineering and RAG systems
• Contributions to open-source AI projects or research publications in machine learning or generative AI
• Proficiency with AI services on cloud platforms (AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex AI, Azure OpenAI)
   

Work Hours:

• This position will require you to be available during core business hours and participate in an on-call rotation. 

Work Location(s) & Travel Requirements:

This position is open to the following preferred office locations:

• San Francisco, CA
• New York, NY
• Denver, CO

Fastly currently embraces a largely hybrid model for most roles which allows employees flexibility to split their time between the office and home. 

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Salary:

The estimated salary range for this position is $181,220.00 - $217,464.00.

Starting salary may vary based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as experience, skills, qualifications, and location.

This role may be eligible to participate in Fastly’s equity and discretionary bonus programs.

Benefits:

We care about you. Fastly works hard to create a positive environment for our employees, and we think your life outside of work is important too. We support our teams with great benefits that start on the first day of your employment with Fastly. Curious about our offerings? 

We offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance. Family planning, mental health support along with Employee Assistance Program, Insurance (Life, Disability, and Accident), a Flexible Vacation policy and up to 18 days of accrued paid sick leave are there to help support our employees. We also offer 401(k) (including company match) and an Employee Stock Purchase Program. For 2024, we offer 10 paid local holidays, 11 paid company wellness days.