Economist, Pricing and Causal Inference

About Flexport

We believe trade can move the human race forward. That’s why it’s our mission to make global trade easy for everyone. Flexport is building the platform for global logistics, empowering buyers, sellers and their logistics partners with the technology and services to grow and innovate. Today, companies of all sizes—from emerging brands to Fortune 500s—use Flexport technology to move more than $10B of merchandise across 112 countries every year.

The Opportunity

Flexport is looking for a creative, technically-minded Ph.D. economist who is motivated to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems in freight forwarding.  

We are a small team of economists dedicated to driving value by generating actionable insight through systematic and rigorous analysis for both internal and external stakeholders. Some of our work can be found at www.flexport.com/research. 

The new economist will work closely with our economics team and an interdisciplinary team of scientists and machine learning engineers. They will use their expertise in economics, econometrics, and economic modeling to (1) understand key questions the business must address; (2) sketch out detailed solution strategies and research agendas to these key questions; (3) develop a data pipeline and prototype efficient answers to these problems; (4) communicate the key results of these findings to both other researchers and business leadership; and (5) iterate on this strategy to develop production-quality, data-driven final products. Strong communication skills and the ability to translate abstract business problems into questions that can be answered with data-driven solutions is essential.

You Will:

• Use your expertise to write models of markets, estimate them, and communicate key results to business leaders and stakeholders.
• Use your expertise to help design, implement, and analyze the outcome of experiments with the goal of improving Flexport’s customers’ experiences.
• Prototype econometric and machine learning models to solve key business questions.
• Work closely with stakeholders across the business to design, implement, and deliver data-driven solutions backed by rigorous economic theory.
• Coordinate your work with an interdisciplinary team of research scientists and machine learning engineers.

You Should:

• Have a Ph.D. in Economics or a similar quantitative discipline.
• Have a deep understanding of how markets work.
• Have expertise in estimating demand, modeling consumer and firm behavior, and estimating counterfactual market outcomes.
• Have expertise in causal inference techniques and experiment design.
• Have strong oral and written communication skills, including a willingness to work away from economic jargon
• Embrace working across a broad range of questions, rather than in a narrow specialization.
• Have significant experience performing statistical or econometric analysis in Python or R. 
• Be proficient in SQL.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Have one or more years of experience working directly with business stakeholders in an economist or data science role.
• Have experience working with an interdisciplinary team of researchers and business stakeholders in a complicated product space.
• Have excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Have experience building data pipelines.
• Have experience delivering finished data products.
• Have experience developing new data products or prototyping new models to solve key business questions.

Worried about not having any logistics experience?

Don’t be! Our mission is to make global trade easy for everyone. That’s why it’s important to bring people from diverse backgrounds and experiences together with our industry veterans to help move the global logistics industry forward.

We know this industry is complex. That’s why we invest in education starting day one with Flexport Academy, a one week intensive onboarding program designed specifically to set every new Flexport employee up for success. 

At Flexport, our ability to fulfill our mission of making global trade easy for everyone relies on having a diverse, dedicated and engaged workforce. That is why Flexport is committed to creating and nurturing an environment where anyone can be their authentic self. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical and mental disability, health status, marital and family status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

We believe global trade can move the human race forward. That’s why it’s our mission to make global trade easier for everyone. We aim to do this by building the Operating System for Global trade - a strategic model combining advanced technology and data analytics, logistics infrastructure, and supply chain expertise. Flexport today connects almost 10,000 clients and suppliers across 109 countries, including established global brands like Georgia-Pacific as well as emerging innovators like Sonos. Started in 2013, we've raised over $1.3B in funding from SoftBank Vision Fund, Founders Fund, GV, First Round Capital, and Y Combinator. We’re excited about the three big ways we’re moving forward after our recent $1B investment from SoftBank Vision Fund in February 2019.