Lead Data Scientist

We are looking for an experienced Lead Data Scientist to join our Growth Data Science team at Mercury Insurance. In this role, you will partner closely with our Marketing, Sales, and Customer Experience organizations to identify growth opportunities, optimize acquisition and engagement strategies, and deliver scalable, data-driven solutions. You will act as a thought leader—bring deep technical expertise, strong business intuition, and the ability to drive measurable business value through automated, domain-specific AI solutions.

• Work directly with Marketing, Sales, and CX leaders to diagnose business challenges, define analytical roadmaps, and drive growth strategies.
• Develop rigorous analyses, models, and frameworks to optimize customer acquisition, lifecycle engagement, and retention.
• Build scalable machine learning solutions (e.g., targeting, segmentation, uplift modeling, LTV prediction) that improve growth efficiency and ROI.
• Drive acquisition, retention, and monetization through data-driven experimentation and modeling. 
• Translate complex data insights into clear, actionable recommendations that influence decision-making at all levels of the organization.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to productionize models and analytics pipelines with high reliability and performance.
• Familiar with state of art AI solutions in Data Science domain and mentor Jr. data scientists.
• Drive best practices in experimentation, measurement, and growth analytics across the company.

• BS in STEM majors is required. MS/Ph.D. is preferred.

• 7+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, or growth analytics, with a track record of delivering business impact.

• Expert-level SQL and Python, and experience working in modern data and ML ecosystems.
• Experiences in growth-focused data science (e.g., paid marketing optimization, attribution, funnel diagnostics, experimentation, user segmentation).
• Design and lead complex A/B/n testing frameworks, including multi-armed bandits and causal inference models to measure impact in ambiguous environments.
• Hands-on experience building and deploying production ML models.
• Experience in fine-tuning Generative AI (LLMs) for domain-specific applications is a plus.
• Solid communication skills—able to simplify complex concepts for non-technical partners and good storytelling skills. 
• Ability to operate in "zero-to-one" problem spaces where clear ground truths may not exist.
• Strong product and business intuition; comfortable partnering with senior-level stakeholders.
• Experience in a consumer, fintech, SaaS, or marketplace environment is a plus.

At Mercury, we have been guided by our purpose to help people reduce risk and overcome unexpected events for more than 60 years. We are one team with a common goal to help others. Everyone needs insurance and we can’t imagine a world without it.

Our team will encourage you to grow, make time to have fun, and work together to make great things happen. We embrace the strengths and values of each team member. We believe in having diverse perspectives where everyone is included, to serve customers from all walks of life.

We care about our people, and we mean it. We reward our talented professionals with a competitive salary, bonus potential, and a variety of benefits to help our team members reach their health, retirement, and professional goals.

Learn more about us here: https://www.mercuryinsurance.com/about/careers