Principal Data Scientist

*Candidates must be located in Charlotte, NC or willing to relocate. The position requires in-person attendance at least 3 days a week (ideally Tuesday-Thursday) in our Charlotte, NC office* 

THE POSITION

We're seeking a highly skilled Principal Data Scientist to build the platform that will enable LendingTree’s product portfolio to quickly uptake Generative AI capabilities. We seek to make our customer experience smarter, more efficient, and personalized through this revolutionary technology. You will be a part of a new cross-functional team whose sole task is to rapidly experiment and deploy GenAI across the organization. You will be responsible for mentoring data science & MLOps teams while providing vision on infrastructure and best practices. The ideal candidate should possess strong hands-on knowledge in data science, machine learning, deep learning, NLP, and GenAI. 

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Participate in Strategic planning and drive the execution on Gen AI/ML solutions.
• Provide thought leadership and subject matter expertise in data science.
• Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of multiple Gen AI/ML projects, from data collection and preprocessing to model training, evaluation, and deployment.
• Leverage generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to create innovative applications and solutions.
• Design, develop and implement data science projects, including machine learning models, deep learning models, NLP solutions, statistical analysis, and data visualization.
• Function as an embedded leader within a cross-functional team to understand business needs and translate them into data science solutions.
• Ensure data quality, scalability, and reliability of AI systems.
• Present data science generated insights and recommendations to stakeholders.
• Communicate complex technical concepts and results to business stakeholders effectively.
• Mentorship and Knowledge Sharing: Mentor junior team members and provide guidance on technical and methodological aspects of GenAI and data science. Foster a culture of learning and knowledge sharing within the team.
• Code Review: Conduct thorough code reviews of ML and GenAI algorithms and related software components developed by the team. Ensure adherence to best practices, coding standards, and optimization techniques. Provide constructive feedback and mentorship to team members to enhance code quality and maintainability. 

REQUIRED SKILLS

• 10+ years of experience in data science, ideally with Master's or PhD degree in a related field 
• Strong experience of developing and deploying the AI/ML models in production
• Strong knowledge of machine learning, deep learning, NLP, statistical analysis, and data visualization tools and technologies
• Extensive experience with deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Keras and experience with cloud platforms (Snowflake, AWS) and their AI/ML services
• Taken a product or platform from 0 to 1, you know what it takes to launch something novel
• Preference for expertise in developing RAG models, working with vector databases, and fine-tuning large language models
• Expertise in Python, data analysis and model development 

ABOUT THE TEAM

We are a small but rapidly growing team of data scientists who are defining what data science and GenAI are at LendingTree. We’re enthusiastic, proactive, and seeking people who can take our work to the next level.  

ABOUT THE COMPANY

LendingTree is the nation’s largest online lending marketplace. That means we connect customers with multiple lenders, so they find the best deals on loans, credit cards, savings accounts and insurance. Our goal is to help people save money, and we believe the best way to do that is by giving them a way to shop for loans and compare lenders, so they make their best financial choices.

Our CEO Doug Lebda founded the company in 1996 after a frustrating house-hunting experience. In those days, we mostly helped people find good mortgage deals. Now, we help consumers find their best in personal loans, auto loans, business loans, student loans, credit cards, savings accounts, home equity loans and more.

What else you should know: 

• We’re a publicly-traded company (TREE).
• We’ve welcomed several other companies into the LendingTree family to augment our efforts at helping borrowers make their most sensible financial choices.
• We’ve built the LendingTree app and My LendingTree dashboard to give consumers tools to manage and monitor their financial health.  

CULTURE

We’re a fast-paced company with an entrepreneurial bend. We work hard and test our products often. We’re collaborative, ambitious, candid and high-energy. Our teammates are some of the brightest, most talented people you’ll ever work with. We care more about your smarts than we do about the kinds of clothes you wear (but please, do wear clothes to work!), and we’re pretty good about rewarding innovation, creativity and the knack for just getting stuff done (we even have an award for employees called the GSD, “Get Stuff Done”). 

Come work with us!

Compensation: $200,000-250,000

Incentive Compensation: Eligible for annual performance bonus

Benefits: Medical, dental, vision insurance and 401(k) matching

LendingTree is the kind of company that not only promotes diversity and inclusion; we thrive because of these values. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion (or creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin, disability, marital status, sexual orientation or military status