Senior Data Scientist (Applied ML) - Canada

The role

You will lead the development of production-grade machine learning solutions to power business decisions. This includes building predictive models for customer lifetime value, lead scoring, and recommendation engines using the Databricks ecosystem.

What you will do

• Lead end-to-end development of machine learning models for LTV, conversion propensity, lead quality, and revenue optimization.
• Translate model predictions into actionable signals for marketing and customer acquisition.
• Develop recommendation and ranking models to identify relevant financial products.
• Collaborate with Product and Marketing to integrate predictive intelligence into consumer experiences.
• Leverage Databricks and MLflow to develop, train, deploy, monitor, and manage machine learning models at scale.
• Establish DS practices including experiment tracking, model versioning, and automated training pipelines.
• Define standards for model performance, reliability, and production readiness.
• Design and evaluate experiments to measure incremental business impact.
• Serve as a technical leader mentoring other practitioners and influencing architectural decisions.

Required qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in Data Science, Applied Machine Learning, or a related field.
• Hands-on experience with Databricks, including building and managing production machine learning workflows using MLflow and the Databricks ML ecosystem.
• Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL.
• Extensive experience using modern machine learning frameworks such as scikit-learn, XGBoost, LightGBM, PyTorch, or TensorFlow.
• Strong understanding of supervised learning, predictive modeling, classification, regression, ranking, and model evaluation techniques.
• Practical experience designing scalable batch and/or real-time inference systems.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals including version control, testing, modular code design, and CI/CD practices.
• Ability to independently lead complex, ambiguous technical initiatives.
• Strong business acumen to connect technical solutions to measurable outcomes.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Benefits

• Monthly Healthcare Stipend
• Rejuvenation Policy – Vacation Time Off plus official public holidays in your province
• Paid sabbatical
• Monthly Wellness Stipend
• Wifi Stipend
• Cell Phone Stipend
• Work from home equipment stipend
• Employee Resource Groups
• Hackathons and team events
• Company-wide events like NerdLove and annual Charity Auction
• RRSP with a 4% match, eligible one month after hire
• Financial wellness, guidance, and unlimited access to a Certified Financial Planner (CFP)

About the company

NerdWallet's mission is to provide clarity for all of life's financial decisions. The company is a remote-first organization.