Lyft · 7 hours ago
Data Scientist, Algorithms - Lyft Ads
San Francisco County, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Mid, Senior Level
$128K/yr - $160K/yr
3+ years expLyft is a leading transportation network company, and they are seeking an Algorithms Scientist to enhance their advertising capabilities. The role involves designing and deploying machine learning models to optimize ad relevance and performance, collaborating across teams to translate business needs into algorithmic solutions.
AppsMobile AppsRide SharingSoftwareTaxi ServiceTransportation
Responsibilities
Design, develop, and deploy production-grade machine learning models and algorithms that power core Lyft Ads capabilities, such as ad relevance, targeting, ranking, bid optimization, pacing, campaign delivery, and measurement
Own the end-to-end lifecycle of modeling projects — including problem definition, data exploration, feature engineering, model development, offline evaluation, deployment, and monitoring
Collaborate closely with Ads Engineering to integrate models into real-time ad-serving and batch decision systems, ensuring performance across latency, scalability, and reliability constraints
Analyze large-scale mobility, behavioral, and ads performance datasets to identify patterns, surface opportunities, and guide ML and AI driven product improvements
Implement rigorous model evaluation frameworks, including offline metrics, statistical tests, calibration, sensitivity analysis, and A/B experimentation to validate both model impact and system-level outcomes
Build robust training pipelines, feature transformations, and scoring infrastructure, ensuring reproducibility, observability, and long-term maintainability
Partner with Product, Engineering, and Sales to translate ambiguous advertiser goals (e.g., increased conversions, reach efficiency, brand lift) into measurable requirements and success metrics
Investigate and resolve model behavior issues, production regressions, calibration drift, and performance anomalies in close partnership with Ads Infra teams
Drive innovation by staying current with advances in ML for ranking, recommendation, causal inference, optimization, and ads measurement — and proactively identifying opportunities to apply them
Contribute to Lyft Ads’ modeling and experimentation infrastructure, through model cards, documentation, reproducibility standards, and code quality improvements
Qualification
Required
Master's, or PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, or related quantitative fields; or equivalent applied industry experience
3–5 years of hands-on ML/applied science experience, ideally involving production models, large-scale systems, or ads/recommendation/relevance domains
Strong proficiency in Python and machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, or scikit-learn; ability to write clean, efficient, production-adjacent code
Experience working with large-scale datasets and distributed data tools (Spark, Snowflake, Presto, Databricks)
Practical experience building and evaluating ranking and relevance models
Practical experience building and evaluating optimization or pacing algorithms
Practical experience building and evaluating predictive models for CTR, CVR, or user response
Practical experience building and evaluating causal or experimentation-based measurement methods
Understanding of online/offline evaluation techniques, including offline metrics (AUC, NDCG, MRR, calibration)
Understanding of A/B testing methodologies
Understanding of bias correction and counterfactual estimation
Ability to solve ambiguous problems by structuring analyses, evaluating trade-offs, and proposing algorithmic solutions grounded in scientific rigor
Strong communication skills, with an ability to clearly explain model behavior, constraints, trade-offs, and recommendations to engineering, product, and sales partners
Demonstrated ownership of modeling work, including debugging, monitoring, documentation, and iteration after deployment
Curiosity, initiative, and a track record of delivering measurable improvements through high-quality modeling
Benefits
Great medical, dental, and vision insurance options with additional programs available when enrolled
Mental health benefits
Family building benefits
Child care and pet benefits
401(k) plan to help save for your future
In addition to 12 observed holidays, salaried team members have discretionary paid time off, hourly team members have 15 days paid time off
18 weeks of paid parental leave. Biological, adoptive, and foster parents are all eligible
Subsidized commuter benefits
Lyft Pink - Lyft team members get an exclusive opportunity to test new benefits of our Ridership Program
Company
Lyft
Lyft is a leading ride-hailing service offering car rentals, bike, and scooter-sharing through its mobile app for convenient transportation.
5001-10000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Lyft has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (137)
2024 (100)
2023 (132)
2022 (287)
2021 (266)
2020 (281)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$5.76BKey Investors
FidelityMagna InternationalCapitalG
2025-09-03Post Ipo Debt· $450M
2024-02-21Post Ipo Debt· $400M
2021-02-01Post Ipo Equity
Leadership Team
David Risher
Chief Executive Officer
Erin Brewer
Chief Financial Officer
Recent News
2025-12-26
Clean Technica
2025-12-26
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