Data Science Manager - Visits

Foursquare is the leading independent location technology and data cloud platform, dedicated to building meaningful bridges between digital spaces and physical places. Our proprietary technology unlocks the most accurate, trustworthy location data in the world, empowering businesses to answer key questions, uncover hidden insights, improve customer experiences, and achieve better business outcomes. A pioneer of the geo-location space, Foursquare’s location tech stack is being utilized by the world’s largest enterprises and most recognizable brands.

Foursquare’s flexible building blocks include technology to maximize marketing impact and drive incremental real-world engagement (Attribution, Audience, Proximity, SDK);  data to deeply understand points of interest and real-world behavior patterns (Places and Visits), and tools to conduct advanced analysis, data enrichment, unification and visualization (Unfolded Studio).

About the Team

Visits team sits at the intersection of Data Science, Product and Engineering. We are responsible for creating and maintaining algorithms that power our “Visits”, the contextual understanding of what people are actually doing as they move through the physical world. The  person in this role is a hero of big data: operating, monitoring, maintaining and improving data pipelines for 250 million monthly active users and owning a system that ingests 3.5 billion new  location readings every day. 

About the role:

We are currently looking for a Manager of our Visits Data Science team. In leading this high-impact team, your mission is to imbue raw spatial data with geospatial intelligence, to transform it into net new revenue streams and novel data products for Foursquare's many enterprise clients.

The Manager has a hugely cross-functional role–  along with day to day activities of the team, they will be responsible for planning and timely execution of Visits Quality roadmap in collaboration with Engineering, and Product leadership. They will coordinate with external stakeholders in the Sales and Go-To-Market teams to drive impact that is measurable across multiple revenue streams. They will also be responsible for hiring and career growth of the Visit’s team members.

Responsibilities of the role:

• Making sure the team has the right tools and processes in place to deliver work on time and to specification.
• Owning and managing the team’s OKRs and deliverables for each quarter -  measuring performance against commitments, but being agile and pivoting when necessary.
• Working with partners and stakeholders x-functionally to set and understand requirements
• To communicate planning and celebrate successes widely across the company, and create visibility and generate support for the team with the executive team.
• Growing and retaining data scientists and ML engineers in the team, appreciating the differences in their drives, working styles and philosophies
• Hosting a monthly algorithms workshop and regular seminars with external speakers, team social events, and actively fostering a collegial spirit amongst team-members

Skills and Qualifications:

• Experience of at least 2 years leading a technical team with complex systems-building requirements This can include ML process management expertise, but equally important are technical mentoring and soft skills needed to activate team members to become self-actualized, high-impact and growth-driven.
• A technical understanding of quantitative modeling and building big-data systems, leveraging modern technologies like Spark and EMR
• A bridge between scientists, engineers and product owners, capable of appreciating different viewpoints and importance of finding solutions together
• Understanding management processes and principles of project management, including how to balance short-term needs with long-term research payoffs
• Highly-effective communication skills (both written and verbal) including the ability to get buy-in from product managers and executive
• An understanding of the quality and reliability needs of an enterprise business
• Curious, truth-seeking and ethical, especially with respect to data
• Experience in areas related to geospatial-tech and ad-tech are nice to have.

Perks and benefits:

• Learning and development programs from individual contributors to managers
• Individual, professional coaching for all full-time employees
• Flexible time off - rest and recharge when you need it!
• Comprehensive and competitive health, vision, dental, life insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Home office setup: you get all necessary hardware and internet reimbursement 
• Family planning programs via Carrot and Maven
• Employee Resource Groups to help you stay connected

Foursquare is proud to foster an inclusive environment that is free from discrimination. We strongly believe in order to build the best products, we need a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds. This leads to a more delightful experience for our users and team members. We value listening to every voice and we encourage everyone to come be a part of building a company and products we love.

Foursquare is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.