The Opportunity

As a Staff Data Scientist at PandaDoc, you will serve as a senior analytical leader, embedding yourself deeply in our product and business data to uncover non-obvious insights and drive actionable recommendations. A primary focus of this strategic role is to champion and drive the organizational shift toward a data-driven culture. You will own the advancement of our experimentation capabilities, train other analysts and data scientists on causal methodologies, and leverage your expertise to provide leadership with a clear, reliable understanding of true impact and causality.

You will report to the Director of Product Data and act as a strategic thought partner to Product, Finance, Design, Engineering, Product Marketing, and executive leadership, ensuring alignment between data insights and critical business decisions.

What You'll Do

Experimentation & Causal Strategy

• Lead the Experimentation Roadmap: Define, champion, and execute a strategic roadmap for measuring impact across PandaDoc, focusing on high-leverage business questions related to customer workflows, churn risk, and long-term value (LTV).
• Advanced Experiment Design: Design, implement, and rigorously analyze complex A/B tests, multivariate experiments, and adaptive experimentation methods, including the application of Bayesian experimentation, to assess the effectiveness of proposed product changes and business levers.
• Causal Inference Beyond A/B: Apply advanced causal inference techniques (e.g., difference-in-differences, synthetic control, propensity score matching, and instrumental variables) to scenarios where randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are infeasible.
• Deep Dive Analysis: Conduct complex, proactive, and exploratory analysis to discover latent user behavior, emerging trends, and root causes of changes in key metrics, translating these findings into actionable product and business insights.
• Develop Measurement Frameworks: Define, instrument, and govern a unified Key Performance Indicator (KPI) framework that maps low-level product health metrics to high-level business outcomes, ensuring consistent and scalable measurement across the organization.

Technical Leadership & Influence

• Scaling Data Science: Partner with Data Engineering to design and build scalable, self-serve experimentation tooling and reusable analytical assets and frameworks (e.g., causal machine learning models) that empower other analysts and data consumers.
• Strategic Influence: Act as a strategic thinker by translating complex statistical findings into clear, compelling, and actionable business narratives for cross-functional partners and senior leadership (VP/C-suite), driving strategic decisions and investment priorities.
• Mentorship and Training: Serve as a technical subject matter expert, training and mentoring junior and mid-level data scientists on best practices in statistical rigor, experimental design, and causal modeling.

About You

Qualifications

• Experience: 6+ years of professional experience in an applied data science, economics, or product analytics role, with a proven track record of leveraging experimentation and causal inference methods to drive significant business impact.
• Education: B.A. or B.S. in Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative discipline. A Master’s degree in a quantitative field (e.g., Statistics, Data Science, Econometrics, Operations Research) is preferred, but not required.

Required Technical Expertise

• Causal Inference: Demonstrated expertise in applying a wide range of Causal Inference methods, e.g. Quasi-Experimentation, Matching Methods (PSM), Difference-in-Differences, and/or Instrumental Variables.
• Experimentation Methodologies: Expertise in advanced statistical methodologies for A/B testing, including sample size calculations, sequential testing, dealing with interference/network effects, variance reduction techniques (e.g., CUPED), etc.
• Deep Analytical Methods: Mastery of advanced statistical modeling, time-series analysis, and quantitative methods necessary to perform thorough exploratory data analysis, produce timely insights, and provide actionable recommendations.
• Programming: Advanced proficiency in Python or R for statistical modeling, with experience using relevant data science packages (e.g., SciKit-Learn, numpy, pandas).
• Data Tools: Expert-level proficiency in SQL and experience working with established data warehouses (e.g., Snowflake, Postgres).
• Data Pipelining: Experience with data transformation and workflow management tools such as dbt, Airflow, or Databricks is a strong plus.

Key Attributes

• Strategic Communication & Influence: Possesses exceptional communication, presentation, and data storytelling skills with a consistent record of influencing cross-functional partners and leadership at all levels, particularly in navigating and driving consensus in unstructured or ambiguous environments.
• Change Management: Proven ability to drive organizational change management in environments where experimentation and data-driven decision-making are not yet widely adopted.
• Thrive in ambiguity: Ability to navigate significant ambiguity, translate complex business questions into clear analytical frameworks, and manage multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Relevant Experience: Experience in a SaaS domain and a strong focus on Product Data Science are strongly preferred.

Company Culture: 

• We're known for our work-life balance, kind co-workers, & creative virtual team-bonding events. And although our Pandas are located across the globe, we stay connected with the help of technology and ensure that everyone on our team feels, well, like a team.
• Pandas work best when they're happy. We retain our talent by upholding our values of integrity & transparency, and selling a product that changes the lives of our customers. 
• Check out our LinkedIn to learn more. 

Benefits:

• Our benefits include tremendous career growth opportunities, a competitive salary, health and commuter benefits, company paid life & disability, 20+ PTO days, 401K and FSA plans, and of course, a fun team of Pandas to work with!

PandaDoc is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to equal treatment of all employees without regard to race, national origin, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, physical or mental disability or other basis protected by law.

About Shelf

The enterprise is going agentic — but most AI agents fail when they hit real business complexity. Shelf is changing that.

We’ve built the operating system for agentic AI: a platform that models your policies, workflows, and operational logic into an AI Data Model so agents don’t just respond — they reason. The result? AI that understands how your business actually runs and delivers precise, compliant, auditable outcomes at scale.

Brands like Amazon, Nespresso, HelloFresh, and KeyBank trust Shelf to power AI agents that resolve 85% of cases autonomously, cut handle times by 20–25%, and turn hours-long processes into seconds. We’re partnered with Microsoft, Salesforce, OpenAI, Snowflake, and Databricks — and recognized by Gartner (Cool Vendor) and IDC (Innovator) for our approach.

If you want to sell the infrastructure that makes agentic AI actually work in the enterprise, you’re in the right place.

Our mission is to empower humanity with better answers everywhere.

Summary

The R&D department plays a pivotal role in driving Shelf to disrupt the market. We are looking for Machine Learning experts that are able to deliver end to end with a blend of experience: Python engineering, ML engineering, and pragmatic Data science and Machine learning research. You will ship end-to-end features—from problem framing and experimentation to service deployment, and ongoing operations—quickly and with high quality. Your work will power ML- and LLM-driven services used by top enterprises like Amazon, Mayo Clinic, AmFam, and Nespresso.

This role requires strong Python engineering capabilities coupled with a strong ability to deliver robust ML solutions, along with ML research literacy to choose sound methodologies, define metrics, and evaluate different approaches effectively.

You’ll work in an agile environment, move fast, and own what you ship.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery: ideate, research, prototype, productionize, and operate ML-powered services with an expectation to iterate and ship frequently
• Stand up robust training/evaluation pipelines: dataset curation, labeling/feedback loops, experiment tracking, offline/online metrics, and A/B testing
• Solve problems using sound methodology, evaluate approaches along with 
• Transform ML models and LLM workflows (including RAG) into reusable, versioned, observable production services with CI/CD
• Collaborate with Product Owners to shape our product and requirements
• Conduct and receive code reviews; champion engineering excellence, testing discipline, and documentation
• Leverage AI coding assistants to accelerate development and create internal agents that automate parts of the engineering workflow
• Share learnings through demos, docs, and knowledge sessions; contribute to a culture of continuous improvement

Requirements

• 3+ years of professional experience researching and shipping ML-based solutions, with strong Python skills and a track record of delivering fast without sacrificing quality
• Proven experience in owning research problems end-to-end, starting from initial data analysis, through iterative research phases to delivering on production
• Practical NLP/LLM experience: transformers, embeddings, prompt design, and evaluation; ability to choose and justify metrics and methodologies
• Strong backend fundamentals: designing RESTful services, schema design, data modeling, and performance tuning for SQL and NoSQL stores
• Data processing skills: pandas/NumPy; experience with batch/stream processing and ETL orchestration (e.g., Airflow, Step Functions)
• Strong English verbal and written communication

As a plus

• LLM ops and safety: eval frameworks (e.g., RAGAS), guardrails, red-teaming, prompt optimization at scale
• Model optimization: quantization, distillation, pruning; GPU/accelerator-aware serving
• Experience with AWS ML stack (SageMaker, Batch, Step Functions, Lambda, SQS/SNS, DynamoDB, ECS, EC2, S3)
• Vector databases and search: Pinecone, Elasticsearch, pgvector, FAISS, or DeepLake
• Background in reinforcement learning, agent frameworks, or autonomous agents
• Publications, open-source contributions, GitHub portfolio

What Shelf Offers

• B2B contract
• Company Stock Options
• Hardware: MacBook Pro
• Modern technical stack. Develop open-source software
• Premier AI development environment: GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, OpenAI, TypingMind, v0, MCP Servers, plus credits to experiment with emerging AI tools

Why Shelf

• Our Leadership Team has deep knowledge management and AI domain expertise and enterprise SaaS background to execute this plan
• We love our customers and our customers love us. Ask a Shelf customer why, and they’ll tell you it’s because of our innovative capabilities, rock-solid reliability, they truly enjoy working with our people, but most of all – it’s the improvements they see in their business KPIs.
• We have raised over $60 million in funding and our investors include Tiger Global, Insight Partners, Connecticut Innovations, and others
• We have high velocity growth powered by the most innovative product in our category, 3X growth for 3 years in a row
• We now have over 100 employees in multiple U.S. states and European countries, and we have ambitious hiring goals over the next few months

Our Values:

Quality - We’re united by our focus on world‑class Quality. Quality in all things – starting with everything that leaves your desk. Everything you touch – every email, report, campaign, and piece of code – should be outstanding. Your work product should blow people away. Having people look at what you’ve done and say, “Wow.” That’s the standard here. Remember that how you do anything is how you do everything. Focus on craftsmanship—your ability to make things better.

Momentum - for us means that you should know that the things you’re responsible for are moving forward. When you look around and see something that’s stalled, get it moving again. We pride ourselves on “ball movement.” When your boss or team leaves you with something, they should return to see measurable progress. Small, continuous movement is our recipe for success. Constantly look for how to make the work around you move forward. We want you to initiate solutions, ideas, and progress. Don’t wait for it to come to you—reach out and create movement. All the time.

Accountability - We expect every team member to feel that they are accountable for more than anyone might normally expect. Each of us should feel real responsibility for things even at the edge of our control. We consistently share and align on expectations, give each other open and respectful feedback, and use those two drivers to ensure that every agreement we make with one another is clear and complete.

Hard Work - We’re here to do something difficult together. We care intensely about the mission and we expect that from our teammates. That care means that we work hard here. Hard work comes with long hours, extra effort…and real opportunity at Shelf. Your passion for creating and sustaining output is a part of our DNA. Support each other, cheer each other on, drive the mission forward. Great teams sustain intense effort together to win.

Learning Agility - We’re innovating in one of the fastest‑moving spaces in history at a time of accelerating global change. That’s incredibly exciting and requires each of us to commit fully to learning each and every day so that we can be the best at what we do. None of us know everything. All of us can learn anything. Staying open and constantly curious is a key success driver at Shelf. It also requires humility. We prize people who are consistently humble and open to making mistakes and growing from them. Recognize also that learning itself is a skill…we need you to be really good at it. Keep dialing in your own understanding about how you learn best and push yourself to keep growing.

Adapt and Thrive - Overcoming challenges lives deep in our DNA. We have a proud history of understanding and living the reality that obstacles are our opportunities…they’re the key to our success. Change is a constant in our business and fighting change is counterproductive. We need you to be good at being uncomfortable and understand that discomfort is the key to growth. Cultivate your own ability to adapt and know that struggling well is something you’ll share with every team you’re on at Shelf. Our company stories are about thriving through real difficulty…together.

Win Together - We win or lose as a team. Always. Everything you do here is connected to the rest of the organization. Part of our shared team environment demands full honesty…real candor and directness with one another. We expect you to constantly be thinking about how to support your teammates and the company, always acting in service to our shared mission and what’s best for the organization as a whole.