Staff Data Scientist I, Direct Marketing

Root was founded on the belief that car insurance is broken, and we set out to change it. We’re harnessing the power of technology to revolutionize this archaic, complicated industry. Using machine learning and mobile telematic platforms, we’ve built one of the most innovative insurtech companies in the world.

The Opportunity

We believe that a disruptive insurance company must have a principled quantitative framework at its foundation. At Root, we are committed to the rigorous development and effective deployment of modern statistical machine learning methods to problems in the insurance industry.

At Root, the Quantitative Science team owns the majority of all marketing capital allocation, using quantitative methods to test, maintain, and enhance our marketing strategies across numerous distribution channels. As a Staff Data Scientist I on the Performance Marketing team, you’ll lead research on lead segmentation and bidding optimization to boost marketing profitability. You’ll design and execute research programs, expand modeling capabilities, and deliver high-impact solutions into production. As a thought leader, you’ll model best practices and mentor peers in producing rigorous, production-ready work.

This role demands an ownership mentality, with the ability to independently drive work forward, mentor junior team members, and collaborate on large-scale projects. In this role, you will regularly engage with members of cross-functional departments as well as the executive team. Strong communication skills will be an important asset. Join us to push technical boundaries and shape the future of data-driven performance marketing at Root.

Salary Range : $ 171,400 - $214,200 (Eligible for competitive bonus and equity offering)

Root is a “work where it works best” company. Meaning we will support you working in whatever location that works best for you across the US. We will continue to have our headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.

How You Will Make an Impact

- Lead the development and advancement of ML models for bidding, targeting, and marketing optimization across paid search, lead aggregators, affiliates, direct mail, and emerging performance channels.

- Partner with Lifetime Value, Engineering, Marketing, and external vendors to translate business opportunities into scalable ML solutions.

- Set the technical direction of the Performance Marketing team by building and prioritizing a multi-quarter research roadmap spanning modeling, experimentation, and ML operations.

- Proactively identify and frame high-leverage opportunities across performance marketing, evaluate competing technical approaches, and prioritize investments.

- Mentor data scientists and MLEs in research design, ML model development, technical decision-making, and production engineering practices.

- Design and build production-ready ML systems while setting standards for maintainable code, reproducible research, automated testing, deployment, and operational reliability.

- Build monitoring frameworks for interconnected ML systems, enabling the team to detect model degradation, data issues, and changes in channel performance.

- Lead zero-to-one prototypes and introduce new modeling or ML operations capabilities that can reshape how Root allocates and optimizes performance marketing spend.

What You Will Need to Succeed

- Advanced degree in a quantitative discipline (Master’s or PhD preferred) and 8+ years of experience applying advanced quantitative techniques in industry.

- Demonstrated leadership in developing and deploying real-time models, emphasizing automation and innovation.

- Expert-level Python skills, including data querying, manipulation, and modeling.

- Extensive experience developing and applying advanced ML models, particularly ensemble methods.

- Skilled in version control (e.g. Git) with experience contributing to large-scale, collaborative projects,

- Hands-on experience with AWS tools (e.g., EC2, SageMaker, Redshift) or eq