10+ years in data, with 3+ years managing data science, machine learning, or data engineering teams in high-growth environments.
Strong technical judgment respected by senior individual contributors.
Expertise in causal inference or recommendation/ranking systems, with credibility in the other area.
Experience translating ambiguous product goals into actionable technical roadmaps.
Passionate about AI-native data development and its impact on team dynamics.
Responsibilities
Lead a multi-disciplinary team of data scientists, machine learning engineers, and analytics/data engineers.
Translate product vision into a technical roadmap that inspires the team.
Conduct hands-on analysis reviews, experiment critiques, and model evaluations.
Mentor senior individual contributors into leadership roles and support mid-level ICs in their growth.
Establish a culture of rigor, urgency, and craftsmanship across the data team.
Advise on building ranking, recommendation, classification, and search algorithms.
Enhance data infrastructure for AI/ML readiness and ensure data trustworthiness.
Benefits
Relocation bonuses available for out-of-state candidates.
In-person work environment at the SoHo, NYC headquarters.
Opportunity to lead a unified data organization with significant impact.
Access to a talented multi-disciplinary team.
Chance to shape the future of data and machine learning at Posh.
Full Job Description
About the Role
As our Head of Data and ML, you will own the entire data function. You'll be accountable for the technical excellence and vision of the team that builds event discovery for 1M MAUs, the experimentation and measurement that guide product investment, and the data platform the whole company relies on to make decisions.
This is a rare opportunity to lead a unified data organization, providing clear direction and impact across the business. You'll lead a talented multi-disciplinary team of 8 data scientists, machine learning engineers, and analytics/data engineers. Your job is to keep the team's bar and vision sharp as Posh scales: choosing the right problems, making sound decisions, and shipping work that moves the product forward.
Your day-to-day will involve:
Balancing team leadership with hands-on technical work as a true player-coach
Translating a product-oriented vision into a technical roadmap the team believes in
Working hands-on in analysis reviews, experiment critiques, model evaluations, and building prototypes yourself when it moves things forward
Mentoring senior ICs into leaders and helping mid-level ICs level up
Setting a culture of rigor, urgency, and craft across every discipline on the team
This role is in-person 5 days a week at our SoHo, NYC headquarters. Relocation bonuses are available for out-of-state candidates.
What You'll Own
Be the technical translation layer: Turn the product vision into focused data and ML bets, and give the team the context to make good calls on their own. When product brings you an idea, you sharpen or debate it, say what's possible, what it will cost, and what we'll learn. When something isn't possible yet, you can explain why and lay out the path to get there. Own the data narrative at All Hands, leadership reviews, and board updates.
Build Posh's discovery and search systems: Advise the team as they build our ranking, recommendation, classification, and search algorithms, from problem framing and baselines to offline evaluation and online testing. Define the metrics that prove discovery is getting better every quarter.
Make experimentation a source of truth: Raise the rigor of experiment design, metric selection, and analysis. Bring causal inference to the questions A/B tests can't answer cleanly, so product and engineering investment follows real evidence. Improve our understanding of ecosystem tradeoffs and marketplace dynamics.
Scale the data and ML foundation: improve our data infrastructure, with a focus on AI/ML readiness - from our warehouse to feature pipelines, observability, and evaluation tooling. Make sure every model and AI feature we ship is built on data we trust. Make build-vs-buy calls along the way.
Make Posh AI-native with data: rethink how data work gets done now that agents can write SQL and run analyses. Lead data and and cross-functional partners to build the semantic layer and AI-native tools on top of it (text-to-SQL, MCP, agentic analytics), so anyone at Posh can get a trustworthy answer on their own. Measure data adoption and close the gaps.
Raise the bar at every level: Set what great looks like across DS, ML, and DE. Give senior ICs room to lead, give mid-level ICs a clear path to their next level, and have hard conversations quickly and with care.
Who You Are
You believe in the importance of real-world human connection and are passionate about our mission to help the world connect more meaningfully in real life.
You have 10+ years in data, including 3+ years managing DS, ML, and/or DE teams at a high-growth consumer or marketplace company.
You're a former Staff-level IC who still works like one: senior ICs respect your technical judgment because you can add signal in model review, experiment readouts, and architecture discussions.
You're deep in either causal inference or recommendation/ranking systems, and credible in the other.
You're bullish on AI-native data development. You've already changed how you and your team works because of it, and you have a clear view of where data roles, tooling, and team shape are heading.
You've turned ambiguous product goals into technical roadmaps that shaped critical decisions.
You'd rather multiply a strong team than build a large one.
Ideally:
You have built a semantic layer or AI evaluation frameworks in production.
You have entrepreneurial spirit and been part of a 0-1 founding team or a founder yourself.
You have worked closely with a founder or CEO who is deeply involved in product, taste, and pace.
