Head of Research & Analytics BlackLocus

Opportunity Overview:

We are in search of a strategic and creative leader at the intersection of predictive pricing data analytics and large scale and distributed machine learning to be a key member of an exciting e-commerce start up (www.blacklocus.com). Our mission is to provide our retail customers with unique data and tools to maximize profitability by focusing on how they price their products relative to the competition, then recommending price points based on their parameters and unique insights we determine from our massive dataset. We are well funded and call Austin, TX home. For the right candidate, this will be a simultaneously challenging, exciting, energetic, frustrating, and ultimately rewarding experience in a fun and fast-paced decision making environment.


Role Overview:


This exceptional person, reporting to the President, is responsible for some of the most mission critical aspects of the business: refining and scaling our machine learning, implementing predictive pricing and unlocking the value of our historical pricing data all in a Big Data, industrial-strength software environment. Unique data insights, predictive and automated pricing are at the core of our business, so the spotlight will shine on this role within the organization. As a member of the senior management team, this individual will be making daily decisions that impact the company?s future.

Accountable for 1) all data analytics & predictive modeling, 2) machine learning algorithm development within massive datasets and 3) business intelligence (both customers and internal) and collaborating with an internal team and contractors consisting of analysts, database developers, and software engineers.
Conduct research and deploy software implementations of large scale and distributed machine learning and recommender systems. Quickly deploy out-of the-box solutions where possible, innovate when necessary. Stay current with advancements in Machine Learning and advocate for the appropriate application of those advancements in our products.
Creative problem solving and strategic insight, with the ability to conceive solutions not readily apparent in the data.
Build an analytics team and operating processes from the ground up.
Ensure proper testing processes are established and followed to enable high data integrity, volumes and frequency.
Experience in causal modeling and prototyping highly desired.

Required Skills, Education & Attributes:

Ph.D in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Decision Sciences or Economics plus 10 years of experience in information technology primarily focused on data analytics, predictive modeling and business intelligence.
Demonstrated mastery of predictive modeling, simulation, multivariate data exploration, parametric and non-parametric models and neural networks across massive datasets.
Demonstrated leadership experience building a multi-discipline research & data analytics team. Proven ?difference-maker? as a strategic leader within the organization.
A proven track-record in utilizing statistical techniques to not only solve known dataset questions, but also to ?find things in the data? that were previously unknown.
Significant experience with business intelligence / data modeling software & toolsets such as SAS/SPSS, R and Big Data structures such as Hadoop and Cassandra.
ETL techniques are second nature to you. You have also worked with relational datasets, data warehouses, data mining and data analysis techniques.
You are a strong communicator and can explain complex statistical concepts in laymen?s terms.
You love going beyond the theory by hacking a quick prototype together over breakfast.
You are an entrepreneur at heart, self-motivated, with an insatiable can-do mentality.
Prior experience in e-commerce pricing data modeling is highly preferred.

Terms and Compensation

Full-time, based in Austin, TX
Base, bonus and equity compensation commensurate with experience and performance
Great benefits: Medical, dental, 401K plan .. the whole works. We?re still debating whether we should get a foosball table or Wii.
An opportunity to be part of the team (all of them successful entrepreneurs in previous ventures) that will be known for changing how retailers price their products.

Location:	Austin, TX United States