Manager, Data Science

About the team

As a Manager of Data Science within Rentals Analytics, you'll lead a team at the heart of Zillow's fastest-growing business. The Rentals Shopping pillar is dedicated to revolutionizing how millions of renters discover and secure their next home. Your team delivers the analysis, experimentation, and modeling that drives product decisions across the shopping funnel-from search and discovery through applications and lease signing. This team's impact spans Product, Engineering, and Business Strategy, and the Manager will build and lead a high-performing team that directly shapes the future of the rental shopping experience.

About the role

Zillow Group is seeking a Manager of Data Science to lead measurement, experimentation, and insight generation for the Rental Shopping pillar. With Rentals revenue up 45% year-over-year and tens of millions of monthly unique visitors, this is a rare opportunity to lead a data science team at the intersection of consumer product development and rapid business growth. You will set the technical direction for how we measure, test, and optimize every stage of the renter's journey-turning statistical rigor into product innovation and business impact at scale.

This is a people leadership role first, with meaningful technical depth. You will be responsible for:

Setting the technical direction and measurement strategy for the shopping funnel
Developing and mentoring data scientists across experimentation, causal inference, and product analytics
Defining scalable frameworks for A/B testing, funnel optimization, and consumer behavior modeling
Influencing senior product and business stakeholders with data-driven recommendations
Ensuring analytical rigor translates into tangible product improvements and business growth

This is an opportunity to grow your career as a Data Science leader while helping shape the future of rental shopping at Zillow. You'll collaborate across teams to solve meaningful challenges that directly impact how people move through one of life's biggest milestones. As a Manager of Data Science, you'll bring your expertise and curiosity to a team that values progress, purpose, and forward momentum-for both our customers and your career.

What You'll Own

1. Shopping Funnel Measurement & Optimization

You will define and scale the measurement foundations for Zillow's rental shopping experience.

Establish the long-term measurement strategy for the shopping funnel: search, discovery, listing engagement, applications, and lease conversion.
Define experimentation frameworks that scale across markets, product surfaces, and renter segments.
Design incrementality and lift testing standards to quantify the impact of product changes on renter outcomes.
Partner with Product leadership to define KPIs that balance renter experience quality with business growth.
Ensure measurement systems are credible, scalable, and integrated into the product development lifecycle.

2. Consumer Behavior & Growth Insights

You will lead the proactive discovery of data-driven opportunities that define future product bets.

Drive deep-dive analyses of renter behavior, market dynamics, and funnel performance to identify high-impact growth opportunities.
Oversee integration of experimentation, causal inference, and predictive modeling into a coherent insights framework.
Partner with Product, Engineering, and Design leaders to translate complex analytical findings into actionable product strategies.
Connect consumer behavior insights to business outcomes such as lead quality, conversion rates, and revenue growth.

3. Lead and Develop a High-Performing Team

You will manage and develop a team of data scientists working across shopping funnel measurement and consumer analytics.

Set clear expectations for scope, quality, and business impact.
Coach team members in technical rigor, structured thinking, and executive communication.
Conduct high-quality performance reviews and career development planning.
Create an inclusive, high-accountability team culture.
Drive hiring strategy to build depth in experimentation, product analytics, and consumer modeling.
Player-Coach Expectation: You are expected to contribute technically to ambiguous or high-leverage problems, and consistently demonstrate execution by delivering hands-on work and leading by example.

4. Technical Direction & Scalable Systems

You will raise the bar on production-grade analytics and experimentation.

Ensure experimentation frameworks are reusable and scalable across shopping product surfaces and renter segments.
Guide development of production-ready modeling pipelines (versioning, monitoring, governance).
Reduce technical debt in legacy measurement and analytics workflows.
Partner with Data Engineering to improve data reliability and infrastructure for shopping funnel data.
Balance rigor with speed-choosing appropriate methodological complexity based on decision stakes.

5. Senior-Level Influence & Business Partnership

You will operate as a strategic thought partner to senior stakeholders across Product, Engineering, and Business Strategy.

Communicate insights clearly to VP and executive audiences.
Translate technical findings into product strategy and investment implications.
Influence roadmap decisions across the shopping pillar and adjacent product areas.
Prioritize team work based on enterprise-level impact.
Connect renter behavior insights with marketplace dynamics and business outcomes.

You are expected to proactively shape strategy-not just respond to requests.

6. AI-Enabled Productivity & Responsible Innovation

You will lead thoughtful adoption of AI within your team.

Encourage responsible use of AI-assisted coding and analytics tools to improve productivity.
Establish guardrails to protect rigor, data integrity, and governance.
Identify workflows where automation meaningfully improves experimentation velocity and insight generation.
Evaluate emerging tooling that strengthens scalability without compromising quality.

This role has been categorized as a Remote position. "Remote" employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice, which must be identified to the Company. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions.

In California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $160,500.00 - $256,500.00 annually. This base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations.In Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont the standard base pay range for this role is $152,500.00 - $243,700.00 annually. The base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations.

In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location. Employees in this role will not be paid below the salary threshold for exempt employees in the state where they reside.

Who you are

You are a technically strong and product-minded data science leader with deep expertise in consumer product analytics, experimentation, and funnel optimization. You combine statistical rigor with organizational leadership and understand how measurement systems influence product strategy, consumer experience, and business growth. You operate comfortably across experimentation, causal inference, and scalable modeling, and you have proven experience setting direction, developing others, and translating analytics into product and business outcomes. You think in systems, not just projects.

Required Qualifications

6+ years of experience in data science, applied science, product analytics, or consumer analytics. 2+ years of experience mentoring or directly leading data scientists
Direct experience working in a consumer-facing product environment, with ownership of experimentation, funnel measurement, or product analytics at scale
Strong understanding of A/B testing, causal inference, funnel optimization, and consumer behavior modeling
Experience working with large-scale behavioral, clickstream, or marketplace datasets
Deep proficiency in SQL and Python
Experience partnering cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Design stakeholders
Strong executive communication skills with the ability to influence senior leadership decisions
Experience integrating experimentation, observational causal methods, and predictive modeling into coherent measurement frameworks
Demonstrated ability to adopt AI-enabled tools thoughtfully while maintaining rigor and governance

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in rental, real estate, or marketplace platforms
Experience scaling experimentation programs across multiple product surfaces
Exposure to recommendation systems, search ranking, or personalization analytics
Familiarity with Databricks, Snowflake, Airflow, dbt, or similar infrastructure tools
Understanding of privacy shifts and their impact on consumer analytics and measurement

What Sets You Apart

You raise the bar on analytical quality across your team
You proactively shape strategy rather than reacting to requests
You connect technical decisions directly to product outcomes and business growth
You know when to go deep technically and when to focus on alignment and prioritization
You build trust with executives by balancing rigor, clarity, and business intuition
You grow high-performing teams, not just high-performing models

Get to know us

At Zillow, we're reimagining how people move-through the real estate market and through their careers. As the most-visited real estate platform in the U.S., we help customers navigate buying, selling, financing and renting with greater ease and confidence. Whether you're working in tech, sales, operations, or design, you'll be part of a company that's reshaping an industry and helping more people make home a reality.

Zillow is honored to be recognized among the best workplaces in the country. Zillow was named one of FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® in 2025, and included on the PEOPLE Companies That Care® 2025 list, reflecting our commitment to creating an innovative, inclusive, and engaging culture where employees are empowered to grow.

No matter where you sit in the organization, your work will help drive innovation, support our customers, and move the industry-and your career-forward, together.

Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company's reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.