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Economist II

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Join our Pricing team and play a crucial role in shaping Wayfair's pricing strategy! We're a science team with a mission to optimize long-term profitability by finding the perfect balance between short-term profitability and sustainable customer growth. We do this by leveraging economic theory, cutting-edge ML, econometrics, and live experimentation to ensure our pricing is competitive, fair to our suppliers, and drives customer engagement.

In this role, you'll be pushing the boundaries of demand estimation and causal inference by working with rich, high-volume customer data and ML tools. You'll use both observational and experimental methods to understand how customer short- and long-term price sensitivity shifts in response to various business decisions. Partnering with our engineering team, you'll implement these best-in-class approaches as scalable solutions that drive impact by improving Wayfair pricing strategies.

What you’ll do

Lead R&D effort to develop innovative demand estimation approaches that will extend current capabilities and develop new ML products to power our pricing.
Understand our pricing strategy and optimization algorithm to identify what to measure and how to measure it.
Work highly cross-functionally with business leadership, stakeholders, and partner science and engineering teams to drive the integration of model outputs into company-wide business decision-making and existing production systems.
Developing robust solutions to infer or recover causal relationships from observational data, in a way that minimizes self-selection or third-variable problems and reliance on experimental data.
Develop and own communication strategy for both technical and business stakeholders (including executive documentation and progress updates)
Act as a subject matter expert and thought leader on demand estimation and causal inference techniques
To stay ahead of the curve, you'll continuously research and evaluate new techniques in data science, machine learning, and pricing optimization.

Who you are

PhD in Economics, Statistics or other quantitative field with an emphasis on causal inference and/or structural modeling (e.g. industrial organization, structural labor, quantitative marketing, OR).
2 years of experience working as a professional ML or research scientist in causal inference. Consistent track record of autonomous delivery of DS/ML projects that drive measurable business impact.
Collaborative team player who wants to see themselves and others thrive.
Expertise in causal inference and interest in bringing best-in-class solutions to e-commerce space.
Takes a customer-centric approach to ideation and problem-solving
Track-record of influencing non-technical stakeholders on strategic direction by leveraging data-driven insights; excellent written and verbal communication.
Strategic thinker with a customer-centric mindset and a desire for creative problem solving, looking to make a big impact in a growing organization
Strong SQL skills and excellent software engineering skills in Python
Nice-to-haves:
Experience with GCP (BigQuery, GCS, Dataproc, Notebooks), Airflow, and containerization (Docker)
Experience building scalable data processing pipelines with big data tools such as Hadoop, Hive, Spark, etc.

Massachusetts Applicants: I understand that it is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

About Wayfair Inc.

Wayfair is one of the world’s largest online destinations for the home. Whether you work in our global headquarters in Boston, or in our warehouses or offices throughout the world, we’re reinventing the way people shop for their homes. Through our commitment to industry-leading technology and creative problem-solving, we are confident that Wayfair will be home to the most rewarding work of your career. If you’re looking for rapid growth, constant learning, and dynamic challenges, then you’ll find that amazing career opportunities are knocking.

No matter who you are, Wayfair is a place you can call home. We’re a community of innovators, risk-takers, and trailblazers who celebrate our differences, and know that our unique perspectives make us stronger, smarter, and well-positioned for success. We value and rely on the collective voices of our employees, customers, community, and suppliers to help guide us as we build a better Wayfair – and world – for all. Every voice, every perspective matters. That’s why we’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Your personal data is processed in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Notice (https://www.wayfair.com/careers/privacy). If you have any questions or wish to exercise your rights under applicable privacy and data protection laws, please contact us at dataprotectionofficer@wayfair.com.

Wayfair Glassdoor Company Review

2.9

Wayfair DE&I Review

3.4

CEO of Wayfair

Niraj Shah

Approve of CEO

Average salary estimate

$100000 / YEARLY (est.)

min

max

$80000K

$120000K

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What You Should Know About Economist II, Wayfair

If you’re passionate about economics and want to make a real impact, Wayfair is looking for you to join our team as an Economist II in Boston, MA! This pivotal role within our Pricing team offers the chance to shape Wayfair's pricing strategy while optimizing long-term profitability. You’ll be part of a dynamic science team that thrives on leveraging economic theory, machine learning, and econometrics to ensure our pricing remains competitive and fair to our suppliers. By utilizing both observational and experimental methods, you'll gain insights into how customer price sensitivity evolves with various business decisions. In collaboration with our engineering team, you’ll also translate these insights into scalable solutions that refine our pricing strategies. As an Economist II, you will lead research to advance innovative demand estimation methods, incorporating your expertise to enhance our current analytics tools. You’ll have the opportunity to work cross-functionally with diverse business leadership and stakeholders, guiding the integration of your findings into company-wide decision-making processes. If you’re a collaborative problem-solver with a PhD in Economics or a related field, this is your chance to leverage advanced causal inference techniques to revolutionize how we see pricing in e-commerce. At Wayfair, every voice matters and we value a diverse work environment that fosters creativity and innovation. If you want to pursue a rewarding career where you can grow rapidly and tackle fascinating challenges, we’d love to hear from you!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Economist II Role at Wayfair

What are the responsibilities of an Economist II at Wayfair?

As an Economist II at Wayfair, you'll lead R&D efforts to innovate demand estimation techniques and create machine learning products to enhance pricing strategies. You will collaborate cross-functionally with business leaders, stakeholders, and engineering teams to integrate your findings into decision-making processes. Your role includes developing solutions to infer causal relationships from observational data while crafting a clear communication strategy for various audiences.