Staff Data Scientist, Ecosystem Health

Department: Engineering

Location: Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Chicago

Compensation: $140K – $240K • Offers Equity • Offers Bonus • Multiple Ranges

Employment Type: FullTime

About the Team:

Grindr is an AI-native platform powering how millions of gay people connect globally. With 15M+ monthly users, 130B+ annual messages, and a team of fewer than 200, we move fast, stay lean, and tackle technical problems at a scale few companies ever see.

As a Staff Data Scientist (Ecosystem Health) at Grindr, you’ll partner closely with product managers, designers, and engineers to define meaningful metrics, design and analyze experiments, and uncover insights that inform product development for the Ecosystem Health initiatives. Our Ecosystem Health Team focuses on increasing real-people retention by building a safer, more authentic community through proactive harm prevention, strong identity trust, and empowering users to own their safety experience, while seamlessly meeting evolving regulatory expectations. This is a high-impact role at the intersection of AI/ML, fraud prevention, risk management, and trust & safety, driving strategies and product innovation that ensure authenticity, reduce harmful behavior, and build user confidence worldwide.

This role is ideal for someone who is technically strong, curious, and eager to deepen their product thinking and analytical leadership. You’ll be a valued member of Grindr’s centralized Data organization, which brings together data scientists, data engineers, and ML/AI engineers into a collaborative team. You’ll have the opportunity to grow your impact while learning from peers across disciplines.

At Grindr, we operate in Grindr Mode. Moderately hardcore day to day, truly hardcore when it counts. It’s about doing great work without burning out. Outcomes over outputs. Smart, driven people who raise your bar, with room to live full lives.

This is a hybrid role based in our Bay Area or Chicago offices and will require you to be in office Tuesdays and Thursdays.

About the Job:

• Define and track key product metrics in collaboration with cross-functional partners

• Design, run, and analyze A/B tests to evaluate the impact of new features

• Perform data deep dives to explain trends and uncover actionable insights

• Communicate findings clearly to stakeholders and influence product decisions

• Build dashboards and tools to help teams monitor metrics and make data-informed decisions

• Contribute to the development of best practices within the Data Science team

• Explore and prototype ML applications to improve product quality (e.g., recommendations, spam detection)

Role Requirements:

• BS or higher in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Physics, a related quantitative field, or equivalent experience

• 6+ years of industry data science experience, specifically in Trust & Safety or similar work

• Strong communication skills and comfort working with cross-functional partners

• Proficiency in Python for data analysis (e.g., pandas, Jupyter)

• Strong SQL skills and experience working with large-scale data

• Solid foundation in statistics and experimental design

• Familiarity with BI tools like Looker, Tableau, or PowerBI

• Some exposure to big data tools like Spark is a plus

You May Thrive in this Role if You:

• Exposure to machine learning, especially practical tradeoffs in product settings

• Experience with experimentation platforms like Statsig

• Clear communication style and interest in mentoring peers or sharing best practices

Benefits and Perks:

• Health, Dental & Vision Full premium coverage for you. Partial coverage for dependents.

• Family Formation Up to $300,000 in fertility and family-building support, covering IVF, surrogacy, egg freezing, and adoption.

• Retirement: 401(k) with 6% match and immediate vesting.

• Compensation: Industry-competitive compensation, company bonus, and equity for every employee.

• Gender-Affirming Care : Industry-leading gender-affirming offerings with up to 90% cost coverage, access to Included Health, monthly stipends for HRT, and more.

• Time Off & Rest Flexible vacation policy. Two company-wide rest weeks per year.

• Other Benefits: Monthly stipends for cell phone, internet, wellness, food, and commuting, breakfast/lunch

About Grindr:

Grindr is building the Global Gayborhood in your Pocket. With more than 15 million monthly active users, Grindr has become a fundamental part of the gay community and is charting a path to make the world more free, equal, and just.

As a public company, we're moving into the next chapter: becoming an AI-native organization that's redefining what's possible for our community. We're embedding AI into our product and operations, moving with startup speed while operating at scale.

Everything we do is rooted in impact for our users and outcomes for the business. This isn't social work, it’s impact through excellence. Business success is what gives us the power to serve our community and the seat at tables others can't reach. How we work is defined by Grindr Mode, our operating model that's moderately hardcore day-to-day and truly hardcore when it counts. We think like owners, drive real outcomes, create clarity through action, and push each other to go further than we thought possible.

We’re headquartered in West Hollywood with offices in the Bay Area, Chicago, and New York. Our work extends beyond the product through Grindr for Equality, our nonprofit that's partnered with 100+ community organizations globally to advance safety, health, and human rights for LGBTQ+ people worldwide.

We're profitable, growing, and building a team of smart, driven people who bring different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to the work. Want to build technology at a massive scale that serves millions? Come join us!

Grindr is an equal-opportunity employer.

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