Senior Data Scientist (I & II)

We're transforming the grocery industry At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers. Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table. Instacart is a Flex First team There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work. Overview This is a general posting for multiple Senior Data Science roles open across our 4-sided marketplace. Roles are open at both the L5 (Senior Data Scientist I) and L6 (Senior Data Scientist II) levels. You’ll get the chance to learn about the different problems the Data Science team solves as you go through the process. Towards the end of your process, we’ll do a team-matching exercise to determine which of the open roles/teams you’ll join. At the bottom of this posting, you’ll find a breakdown of the currently open roles.   About the Job Own analytical frameworks that guide the product roadmap. Design rigorous experiments and interpret results to draw detailed and actionable conclusions. Develop statistical models to extract trends, measure results, and predict future performance of our products. Build simulations to project the impact of various product and policy interventions. Enable objective decision-making across the company by democratizing data through dashboards and other analytical tools. Use expertise in causal inference, machine learning, complex systems modeling, behavioral decision theory, etc., to shape the future of Instacart. Present findings in a compelling way to influence Instacart’s leadership.   About You Minimum Qualifications 5+ years of experience working in a quantitative role at a product company or a research organization. Ability to run rigorous experiments and generate scientifically sound recommendations. Ability to write complex, efficient, and eloquent SQL queries to extract data. Ability to write efficient and eloquent code in Python or R. A desire to build and improve consumer software products. Ability to translate business needs into analytical frameworks. Eagerness to learn, flexibility to pivot when needed, savviness to navigate a dynamic environment, and a growth mindset to build a successful team and company.   Preferred Qualifications Awareness of business trade-offs when working on a multi-sided marketplace. Confidence in collaborating with and influencing cross-functional stakeholders (e.g., Product, Engineering) at a senior level. MS/PhD in Statistics, Economics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field.   Currently Opened Roles Ads Auctions | Sr. Data Scientist I (L5) The Ads Auctions team is responsible for innovating and enhancing auction mechanisms to create a competitive and transparent marketplace that benefits both advertisers and consumers. In this role, you’ll own analytical frameworks and simulations that shape the evolution of our CPC pricing, bid optimization, and auction selection processes—running rigorous experiments to evaluate mechanism changes such as bid shading and dynamic pricing. You’ll partner closely with Engineering, ML, and Product to translate business needs into well-specified model requirements, and apply expertise in auction theory, mechanism design, and econometrics to ensure our systems are fair, efficient, and aligned with marketplace goals. AI for Analytics | Sr. Data Scientist II (L6) Instacart is developing AI-powered systems to accelerate analytical work and enable self-serve analytics at scale, with a goal of 2x-ing the number of features launched by end of 2026. As a Senior Data Scientist II, you’ll own product strategy and AI expertise—identifying high-impact opportunity areas and deploying AI and ML systems in production settings. This is a senior cross-functional leadership role: you’ll shape the product roadmap, ruthlessly prioritize across competing stakeholders, and set the analytical direction for how Instacart’s data experts and AI systems work together. Order Experiences (Search) | Sr. Data Scientist I (L5) The Order Experiences (Search) team is focused on making it fast and effortless for customers to find