Ignite Reading

Ignite Reading

Senior Data Scientist

United States · Senior

Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 28 days ago
PythonSQLMachine LearningData ScienceLLMsStatisticsMarketing AnalyticsNegotiationResearchExperimental DesignCommunicationCollaboration

About the role

  • Ignite Reading's mission is to teach every kid to read - and turning data into decisions is one of the most powerful ways the organization advances that work.
  • This role is a senior individual contributor who applies DS/ML to generate actionable insights for the business, directly shaping how the organization acquires, retains, and grows partnerships with school districts nationwide.
  • It is an exceptional opportunity for someone who wants to see their work make a real difference that changes lives.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and maintain attribution, marketing mix models and other marketing analytics frameworks that inform resource allocation and campaign strategy.
  • Apply statistical methods to identify leading indicators, drivers, and patterns across partner data
  • Own the full ML lifecycle, from problem framing and feature engineering through model training, validation, deployment, and monitoring, ensuring models remain accurate, interpretable, and maintainable over time.
  • Build and deploy agentic workflows and Claude Skills that automate analytical and modeling tasks, accelerate DS/ML development, and extend the team's capacity.
  • Apply statistical methods to identify leading indicators, drivers, and patterns across partner data; communicate findings and trade-offs clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Partner closely with Sales, Marketing, and CX stakeholders to understand business context, identify and execute high-value analyses, and translate complex model outputs into clear, actionable insights and business narratives that directly shape organizational strategy and operations.
  • Ignite Reading delivers one-to-one virtual tutoring that teaches every student the foundational skills they need to become a confident, fluent reader.
  • We pair students who need extra support with expert reading tutors who provide daily, 15-minute, Science of Reading-based instruction that rapidly closes their decoding gaps.

Requirements

  • Strong quantitative foundation: proficiency in statistical modeling, experimental design, and analytical methods applied to real business problems.
  • Familiarity with AI operational practices (prompt libraries, guardrails, output validation) that enable consistent and reliable AI-assisted work.
  • 6-8+ years of demonstrated on-the-job experience across the entire ML lifecycle, building and deploying in production the kinds of models this role requires: churn prediction, propensity/upsell scoring, health scores, lead scoring, media mix modeling, or closely analogous work.
  • Highly proficient in SQL and Python for data manipulation, analysis, and modeling.
  • Meaningful hands-on experience building agentic workflows, Claude Skills, or LLM-based automations using Claude, Cursor, or equivalent generative AI tools to accelerate analytical and ML workflows on the job.
  • A natural mentor and collaborator
  • a strong communicator who can explain complex technical concepts clearly to varied audiences.
  • A self-starter who works independently, persists until the job is done, and stays calm and resourceful in a high-growth, startup-like environment.
  • Passionate about our mission to teach kids to read.
  • Experience with student or education data and familiarity with PII handling requirements.
  • Compensation & Benefits
  • At Ignite Reading, we embrace transparent compensation for a few reasons: to promote fairness and equity, to reduce pay discrimination based on gender, race, or negotiation skill, and to build trust within our team. The same role receives the same compensation - no negotiation.

Compensation

  • to promote fairness and equity, to reduce pay discrimination based on gender, race, or negotiation skill, and to build trust within our team.
  • The same role receives the same compensation - no negotiation.
  • We also ensure you have the tools you need to thrive both in and out of work.
  • We believe in building and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace environment.
  • Research shows that candidates from underrepresented backgrounds often don't apply for roles if they don't meet all the criteria - unlike majority candidates meeting significantly fewer requirements.
  • We strongly encourage you to apply if you're interested!

Benefits

  • That's when students are supposed to go from learning to read to reading to learn.
  • It's America's number one education crisis and we know how to fix it.
  • Ignite Reading is a mission-driven public benefit corporation.
  • We believe we will be more successful with a diverse team and are seeking candidates who have lived experience related to social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  • Design and deliver end-to-end predictive models (including partner churn prediction, lead scoring, and partner health scores), translating complex business questions into rigorous, production-ready analytical solutions.

This listing is sourced directly from Ignite Reading's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.