Staff Data Scientist
GoFundMe · San Francisco, CA
$179,500–$269,500from the description
Jul 20, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Jul 22, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior individual contributor data science role focused on marketing, growth, and product analytics at a fundraising platform. Day-to-day work spans designing and analyzing experiments, building causal inference and machine learning models for targeting, personalization, and audience strategy, and defining technical standards across teams. The role suits an experienced data scientist comfortable bridging rigorous statistical methodology with executive-level communication and cross-functional stakeholder management.
Staff level · 8+ years · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 3 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 100 people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (data scientists). range 40–150
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $173,851 (middle half $133,298–$217,653). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The role is explicitly titled 'Staff Data Scientist' and the scope — setting org-level technical strategy, leading high-impact workstreams across multiple teams, and mentoring other data scientists — genuinely supports the Staff band, not merely Senior.
Degree requirement: the JD states 'Master's degree or Ph.D. in a quantitative field, or equivalent applied experience coupled with a bachelor's degree.' Because equivalent experience is explicitly accepted in lieu of a graduate degree, the degree requirement is set to None.
The 'statistical inference', 'causal inference', 'uplift modeling', and 'A/B testing' skills are extracted from the required qualifications block as named methodological capabilities the JD firmly gates on; they are not generic concepts but specific, named analytical disciplines central to this role.
Adaptive experimentation methods (multi-arm bandits, contextual bandits) are listed in the required section but framed with 'familiarity with' and 'and/or', indicating a softer gate; they are captured under the A/B testing skill as part of the broader experimentation requirement.
All preferred skills (media mix modeling, multi-touch attribution, analytics platforms, data platform tools) appear under an explicit 'Preferred' heading.
Amplitude is listed alongside Google Analytics, Optimizely, and GrowthBook as interchangeable examples of analytics/experimentation tools; they are grouped as alternatives.
The role requires in-office attendance 3 days per week in the San Francisco Bay Area; it is not fully remote.
Ignored 3 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): uplift modeling, AI-assisted development tools, media mix modeling.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.