Staff Data Scientist - Ads Marketplace

Nextdoor (NYSE: NXDR) is the essential neighborhood network. Neighbors, public agencies, and businesses use Nextdoor to connect around local information that matters in more than 350,000 neighborhoods across 11 countries. Nextdoor builds innovative technology to foster local community, share important news, and create neighborhood connections at scale. Download the app and join the neighborhood at nextdoor.com.

As a Data Scientist at Nextdoor, you will help design and oversee product experiments and own complex analyses to drive company and product strategy. We use a semi-embedded team structure, in which a group of data team members works on a specific product or pillar, interfacing directly with product and engineering stakeholders. The Data Science group consists of people from a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives, trained in fields as wide-ranging as economics, physics, statistics, and operations research. We are an integral part of the product development organization and play an active and collaborative role in building and improving the product.

At Nextdoor, we operate in an AI-first environment and expect every team member to actively use AI tools as part of their workflow. We aren't looking for prompt engineers; we’re looking for people who use tools like Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, and Glean to challenge their own thinking and take full ownership of AI-assisted outputs. 

We also offer a warm, inclusive work environment that embraces a hybrid employment model and provides flexibility for our valued employees. The hiring team will go over these expectations with you if you are being considered for a role near one of our offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, New York, and London.

As a Staff Data Scientist on the Monetization Team, you will drive revenue growth and advertiser value by focusing on the machine learning auction ads delivery layer. You’ll directly contribute to growing and improving our core Ads products and help lead us into the future of data and revenue at Nextdoor. Responsibilities will include shaping ranking models and objective functions, establishing an explainability layer for model feedback loops, and performing auction measurement. The role offers the opportunity to drive the roadmap and explore potential applications for artificial intelligence and large language models.

We are looking for an entrepreneurial and driven candidate to accelerate our efforts and be a major part of our data-centric culture. This person will work closely with various cross-functional teams such as Product, Engineering, Machine Learning, Sales & Finance to develop and deliver metrics, analyses, solutions, and insights, with actionable recommendations to business partners. 

Your responsibilities may include:

• Design and develop algorithms and models to optimize Ads Marketplace performance, driving value for both end-users and Advertisers
• Experiment design: Make sure we run experiments efficiently and accurately, including monitoring early feature development through tracking post-release follow-ups
• Develop and share key strategic insights through data analysis, including designing experiments and evaluating the performance and impact of data-driven content
• Partner with cross-functional teams to support product development efforts (including product, design, engineering, marketing, and operations)
• Participate in in-person Nextdoor events such as trainings, off-sites, volunteer days, and team-building exercises
• Build in-person relationships with team members and contribute to Nextdoor’s company culture

• 7+ years of relevant Data Science experience
• Experience in Ads Marketplace and/or Monetization experience
• Experience architecting, debugging, and executing complex SQL queries
• Excellent knowledge of Python, including common scientific computing packages and data science tools such as numpy, pandas, and scikit-learn
• Experience formulating, running, and sharing complex analyses, including different types of experiments, causal inference studies, and other exploratory analysis work
• Innate curiosity around finding meaningful insights that inform the way we think about and develop both our product and our business strategies
• Eagerness to explore and apply AI and emerging technologies to reimagine how work gets done

• Work experience related to social or community-based products
• Work experience related to small businesses and marketplaces
• Work experience related to advertising and auction systems
• Experience with agentic coding platforms such as Cursor or Windsurf

Compensation, benefits, perks, and recognition programs at Nextdoor come together to create our total rewards package. Compensation will vary depending on your relevant skills, experience, and qualifications.

The starting salary for this role in the San Francisco area is expected to range from $190,000 to $283,000 on an annualized basis, or potentially greater in the event that your 'level' of proficiency exceeds the level expected for the role. The salary range will be determined by the candidate’s geographic location.

We expect to award a meaningful equity grant for this role. With quarterly vesting, your first vest date will take place within 3 months of your start date.

When it comes to benefits, we have you covered! Nextdoor employees can choose between a variety of health plans, including a 100% covered employee-only plan option, and we also provide a OneMedical membership for concierge care.

At Nextdoor, we empower our employees to build stronger local communities. To create a platform where all feel welcome, we want our workforce to reflect the diversity of the neighbors we serve. We encourage everyone interested in our mission to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, or any other trait that unfairly targets a group of people. In accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we always consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

For information about how we collect and use applicants’ personal information, please see Nextdoor's Personnel Privacy Notice, found here.