Senior Data Scientist - Santa Monica - Edmunds

Description

At Edmunds we're driven to make car buying easier. Ever since we began publishing printed car guides in the 60's, the company has been in the business of trust, innovating ways to empower and support car shoppers. When Edmunds launched the car industry's first Internet site in 1994, we established a leadership position online and have never looked back. Now, as one of the most trusted review sites on the Internet, millions of visitors use our research, shopping and buying tools every month to make an easy and informed decision on their next car. For consumers, we bring peace of mind. For dealers, we make tools to help them solve their problems and sell more cars. How do we do it, you ask? The key ingredients are our enthusiastic employees, progressive company culture and cutting-edge technology. Want to join the team? Read on to find out how

What You're Applying For:

The Data Science Team at is seeking a Senior Data Scientist who will help us design and implement the next generation of data and AI driven product initiatives. You will dive deep into Edmunds' users and clients, as well as the automotive marketplace, to directly improve existing products and inspire new product experiences. We are committed to tackling the challenges of integrating Generative AI technology into the car buying experience. You will play a key role in developing ML & AI prototypes and production grade services that are integrated by the product engineers. Each project initiative will involve sound use of ML and/or AI models, carefully planned experiments, and innovative uses of Edmunds' vast data resources.

We are looking for someone who is smart, creative, ambitious and able to communicate complex ideas to people from all technical backgrounds. We especially want someone who is excited to keep current with new advancements in Gen AI and use it to strategically optimize our product offerings for our customers and clients.

Edmunds is committed to helping our people grow. We care about what we do and we care about our people. A demonstrated passion for research and technology will provide incredible growth opportunities and make this the best job you've ever had.

What You'll Do

• Engineering & Product Collaboration: Work closely with a team of engineers, data scientists and product managers to build scalable and high-impact ML and AI systems. Collaborate on the end-to-end development process, from ideation to deployment, ensuring that data-driven solutions are seamlessly integrated into our products and services.
• LLM Integration and Optimization: Oversee the integration and deployment of LLMs, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) in an agentic framework, with a focus on optimizing model performance and scalability to enhance user experience and drive business results.
• Own the complete ML lifecycle—from problem framing through data sourcing, modeling, deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement.
• Build, manage, and maintain reliable data pipelines and ML workflows.
• Ensure reproducibility through versioning, testing, documentation, and proper model lineage.

What You Need

• Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field preferred AND
  • An advanced degree + 3-4 years of work experience in an analytics-related position OR
  • 5+ years of work experience in a data science-related position
• Deep understanding of the data platforms in which you've previously worked
• Experience with deploying and scaling of machine learning models. This includes automating model training, optimizing runtime performance of models, and deployment processes to enable fast, reliable delivery of AI solutions in production environments.
• You are proficient in SQL, Python and ML frameworks with strong coding skills.
• Experience using data to intelligently optimize product performance

The compensation range for this position is $137,000 - $189,000 per year. The base pay will take into account internal equity as well as job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. In addition, Edmunds offers full-time employees a comprehensive total rewards package including the benefits listed below.

Edmunds Perks

• Flexible time off
• 13 Paid Holidays
• Comprehensive Health Benefits (medical, dental, vision, life and disability)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (Employees) and Health Savings Accounts (Employee and Employer Contributions)
• 401K Plan with company matching at 100%, up to 6% of eligible salary with immediate vesting
• Stock purchase program
• CarMax vehicle discount
• Up to 4 months Paid Parental Leave
• HeartCash matches employee donations to the causes that are important to them
• 2 Days of Paid Time Off for time to dedicate to social impact causes
• FitCash covers a portion of gym or fitness activity fees
• Well-being sessions
• Employee Recognition Program
• On-going career development opportunities
• Pet insurance
• Sabbatical leave
• Education Reimbursement
• Pre-tax spending accounts for qualified transportation expenses

Working @

Employees think it's a pretty great place to work and some pretty impressive publications think it is too: we have been recognized as one of the best places to work by Fortune Magazine, Great Places to Work, LA Business Journal, Newsweek, Computerworld, Built in LA, Inc. Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week Magazine, and Architectural Record. We've also been identified as one of the best workplaces specifically in Technology, for Diversity and Asian Americans, and as a Newsweek Most Loved Workplace for LGBTQ+ employees. If you're interested in learning more and joining our mission, we'd love to hear from you

Edmunds will consider for employment qualified candidates with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of all applicable laws.