Manager of Data Science

Join Rent the Runway as a Data Science Manager, where you will lead our growing Data Science function and remain deeply involved in solving high-impact machine learning problems. You will partner closely with Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders to translate ambiguous business problems into scalable, production-ready machine learning solutions. This is a hands-on leadership role where you will mentor Data Scientists, help prioritize the team's work, and shape the long-term evolution of Data Science at Rent the Runway.

• Lead and manage the Data Science team, providing technical guidance, mentorship, and career development while fostering a high-performing, collaborative culture.
• Define the technical direction and priorities of the Data Science function, ensuring work is aligned with business strategy and delivers measurable customer impact.
• Design, build, deploy, and continuously improve recommendation systems, personalization solutions, and ranking models that enhance customer engagement, conversion, and retention.
• Strong expertise with cloud AI/ML platforms and services (e.g., GCP, AWS, or Azure), including experience deploying, fine-tuning, and optimizing managed models. Experience with GCP is a strong plus
• Ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of audiences, including business stakeholders, product managers, engineers, and executive leadership
• Proven relevant experience designing, building, and deploying recommendation systems, personalization solutions, ranking models, customer segmentation frameworks, or similar machine learning applications
• Strong foundation in statistics, experimentation, hypothesis testing, and causal inference
• Self-driven, proactive, and comfortable operating with ownership and ambiguity
• Experience working with large-scale datasets in BigQuery, Snowflake, or similar cloud data platforms. Familiarity with dbt and modern analytics engineering practices is a plus
• Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field (e.g., Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Economics, Physics, Operations Research), or equivalent practical experience; advanced degrees and/or specializations are a plus
• 7+ years of hands-on experience in Data Science, Machine Learning, Applied Statistics, Product Analytics, or a related quantitative field — or equivalent combination of education and experience — including 2+ years leading Data Science teams or technical initiatives, or demonstrated experience providing technical mentorship and project leadership in a collaborative team environment
• Experience leading, mentoring, or managing Data Scientists or other technical professionals
• Strong proficiency in SQL, with the ability to write efficient and optimized queries against large-scale datasets
• Demonstrated ability to independently lead complex projects from problem definition through implementation and stakeholder communication
• Strong proficiency in Python and experience developing predictive, statistical, or machine learning models
• Extremely curious and excited to dive into complex problems
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership while balancing hands-on machine learning work with coaching, mentoring, and people management