Senior Director, Data Science

Hotel Engine is the world’s largest Lodging Performance Network, established to create a richer, more rewarding business travel experience by connecting a global network of businesses and lodging partners. Our innovative travel-tech company is on an incredible growth trajectory and will continue to build on our strong foundations by bringing our customer obsession, data-driven problem-solving, and bias for action into every decision we make.   

Following a 2021 series B funding round at a $1.3 billion valuation, we achieved remarkable growth in 2022. We expect 2023 to be our best year yet.

Working hard behind the scenes building and supporting our platform are exceptional people–from our large engineering and product teams to our fast-growing sales, supplier, and member support orgs, to our data, marketing, and operations teams.   

We value our individuality, and we also understand that together, we thrive. Most importantly, we know we’re not for everyone! We’re focused on finding the right people who are energized by our culture, with diverse experiences and backgrounds that will help us unlock our full potential. Complacency doesn’t live here. We’ve built a team of world-class people who really want to work with other world-class people. Click here to view our DNA, and if you like what you see, please, read on! 

We are looking for a Senior Director to take a leadership role on our Data Engineering and Data Science team and support our fast growth. This is a key technical leadership role with executive-level visibility, a finger on the pulse of the overall business, and broad impact for someone who exhibits intellectual curiosity and rigor, and a capacity of execution to tackle some of the most critical technical challenges that span the breadth of our business. 

Reporting to our VP of Data Engineering and Data Science, you will grow and lead a team of data scientists, data engineers and data analysts, and will act as both a people and technical thought leader. If you are passionate about travel, about working on both strategic projects and hands-on implementation, and relate to our vision and DNA, please apply.  

Here's what you'll do: 

• Develop and lead a data team strongly integrated with product and engineering and with company-wide stakeholders including sales, marketing, supplier relations, traveler experience, and finance 
• Partner with product, engineering, and other cross-functional leaders to drive analytics and insights-driven decision making throughout the business 
• Work with the VP of Data to develop, obtain support and execute on a short, medium, and long-term data roadmap and strategy. Lead quarterly and monthly planning process, as well as weekly sprints 
• Recruit great data scientists, data engineers and data analysts, in collaboration with Hotel Engine’s recruiting team. Mentor the professional development of direct reports, managers, and individual contributors, through coaching and performance management. Build diverse and distributed teams and collaborative environments.
• Act as though leader for the team’s work on product analytics and experimentation, modeling and predictive analytics, data privacy and security and drive the overall data strategy for the company.
• Ensure that the team builds and maintains world-class data pipelines, data warehouse, and business intelligence and analytics solutions.
• Design, built, synthesize and present robust analyses aimed at driving the strategic direction of Hotel Engine
• Lead the development of predictive algorithms based on principles from statistics, machine learning and operations research to power and improve product features, increase customer engagement and satisfaction, deliver efficiency gains throughout the business, and support better decision making
• Work with product and engineering to deploy ML-based solutions into production
• Working closely with cross-functional stakeholders to define, track and report core business and product metrics and KPIs to inform both strategic decisions and day-to-day business operations
• Identify new opportunities to leverage data to improve HE’s products and processes and help our business
• Work with product and engineering to define and capture key metrics for our new products and identify causal impact through experimentation and causal inference methods 

Here's what we’re looking for: 

• 10+ years of relevant experience in data analytics, data science and/or machine learning. At least 6 years as an individual contributor and at least 4 years leading a data team 
• A PhD or MS in a quantitative field (e.g., Statistics, Economics, Mathematics, Sciences or Engineering) 
• Expert knowledge of a scientific computing language (such as Python or R) and SQL 
• Expertise in statistics and machine learning, and a history of empowering whole organizations to use data by making data robust, well-structured, and as self-serve as possible Leadership experience in an analytical role at a growth-stage company 
• Track record of recruiting and leading high-performing data teams 
• Effective communication skills both in written (memos, emails, decks) and verbal form 
• Proven ability to lead projects to completion and collaborate seamlessly with others 
• You are a self-starter, able to operate effectively and with autonomy in a fast-paced environment with a high level of ambiguity, and you have experience building productive and positive relationships across an organization at all levels (entry level to senior executives)  
• Track record of rigorous execution and high impact 
• Highly detailed-oriented and exceptional organizational and follow-through skills is a must 

Cash Compensation:    

• In addition to a compelling equity package, a reasonable expectation for total cash compensation for this role is between $180,000 - $230,000/year (made up of base plus bonus). Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, and may vary from the amount above.  

Remote opportunities:    

• This role is eligible for remote work, and you can work from anywhere in the U.S.  

Hotel Engine Total Rewards Philosophy | We recognize that there is more to work than day-to-day responsibilities. Hotel Engine has been recognized on Built-in Colorado’s Best Places to Work list 3 years in a row (2020-2022) for our positive culture and robust growth opportunities.  

As a company, we’re also dedicated to giving back to our greater community, and have comprehensive corporate social responsibility programs supporting community, social justice and environmental causes. In addition to a collaborative, high-performing team environment, we’re pleased to offer benefits including:   

• Competitive base salaries  
• Annual performance bonuses 
• Stock options for all associates + performance-based stock options  
• Insurance benefits including medical coverage (with a plan available at no cost to employees) + 100% paid dental and vision insurance  
• 401(k) plan with a match program
• Unlimited PTO + 2 paid days each year to volunteer with your favorite non-profit 
• Paid parental leave and family medical leave 
• Hotel discounts through our exclusive platform 
• The ability to make a real impact in an incredibly fast-growing organization; you’ll never be just another cog in the wheel.