Forward-deployed director of data science

COMPANY 

Swayable is a fast-growing, cloud analytics product that measures public opinion and the impact of messages and advertising content on it. Its 30-person team is backed by top technology and social impact investors, including Y Combinator. Founded in 2018 by two physics PhDs, it is led by the former Executive Director for Digital Strategy at the New York Times. Clients include major consumer-facing brands (Airbnb, Square, Paramount Pictures, Amazon), researchers (MIT, Yale, Stanford) and mission-aligned advocacy campaigns (including multiple Democratic Presidential candidates).  Joining Swayable means being on a team whose work changes the course of history. The technology we develop is at the leading edge of transforming some of the world’s most important campaign organizations and enterprises: combatting disinformation, protecting democracy, and supporting the sustainable growth of consumer-facing brands.

POSITION 

This is a uniquely exciting opportunity for somebody to apply their experience in business consulting, analysis and scientific discovery to crucial unsolved problems on public opinion and messaging research, with the infrastructure and talent around them to turn results into decisions, prototypes and features used by some of the world's most important organizations. 

The Director of Advanced Services and Solutions will play a central role accelerating Swayable’s rapid growth with its most valuable partnerships. The role draws on the best of management consulting, data science, business development and sales engineering to lead a focused set of analytic, research and consultative projects, using agile prioritization to support and build the company’s largest accounts and some of its key R&D.  

The role solves for the situation where large partners or prospective customers need higher-touch leadership from us to solve their needs than the company’s regular Customer Success and Sales functions are in a position to offer. That includes analytic questions that go beyond what the platform delivers, set-up of staged roll-outs that require us to propose and structure phases and ramp-up plans for them, or other bespoke analyses that reinforce the value of the data insights our platform provides. This is not a generic “consulting” role however: its goal is to facilitate deployment of the technology platform.

Responsibilities include:

*Helping win large partnerships by supporting major prospective clients think through how to use the data we provide to transform their organizations and operations, getting deeper into how their organizations work and translating needs into problems that Swayable’s data platform solves

*Lead development of presentation end-products for major clients and leads, to answer analytical questions and make concrete proposals on how they can deploy, manage, and take decisions using the Swayable platform

*Working with marketing, lead development of reports that discover and communicate insights about public opinion and message impact to the wider community

*Building out and scaling up of a team of Advanced Services and Solutions analysts and managers as we continue building larger and larger accounts

*Direct collaboration and dotted-line management of the Swayable data science team on public- and client-facing analysis and product R&D including prediction of election results, vaccination rates, voter registration, and sales at companies

The Director will be a member of Swayable’s senior management team and collaborate closely with all functional leaders at the company: product, engineering, business operations, sales, customer success.

QUALIFICATIONS  

*Successful participation in carrying out original science research, e.g. PhD work in a field involving experimental quantitative methodological innovation, where findings were exposed to peer review.

*We are more interested in demonstrated ability to innovate on experiment design and analysis than on familiarity applying existing conventions in social sciences

*Successful change management experience in large businesses or other organization types, whether through previous leadership positions, agency-side or business strategy team work, or management consulting at the project management level

*Experience with the marketing industry and/or marketing functions inside brands, at a level sufficient to quickly establish credibility and act as a thought-leader and thought-partner on deploying a disruptive new technology to their work. Knowledge of how marketing agencies work and how data is used by them is a major plus.

*Able to take full ownership of a problem to solve, and present complex ideas very clearly at an appropriate level for clients/collaborators, focusing laser-like on “so what’s”, with clear prioritization to steer team problem-solving

*Comfortable with ambiguity and communicating to groups, especially in presentation form

*Interest in product discovery and development, progressive social change organizations, and public opinion research

*Python experience will be necessary on the job and is preferred as an existing capability, but an enthusiastic commitment to learning it quickly through self-directed efforts can be considered

Our team is based in New York city, with hubs in San Francisco, LA, Portland, and Washington DC. In-personal availability is strongly preferred, ideally in New York. 

Swayable is an equal opportunity employer. We strive to promote an organizational environment that values diversity and fosters growth. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other basis prohibited by law. The team especially encourages applicants from underrepresented backgrounds. 

Benefits:

*100% Medical, Dental & Vision Plans

*Generous PTO

*Equity options401k, FSA

*Ongoing professional development stipend

*Amazing company culture