Staff Data Scientist, Forecasting & Optimization
Overview:
As the Staff Data Scientist for Forecasting and Optimization, you will apply time-series forecasting, machine learning, and mathematical optimization to how Nerdy matches supply with demand across its marketplace. You will build the forecasts and decision models that allocate scarce resources, design the experiments that measure their effect, and take them from prototype to production on a modern lakehouse stack. You will own your problem area end to end and be accountable for the business outcomes your work moves, leveraging AI to accelerate development, evaluation, and operations.
About Nerdy:
At Nerdy (NYSE: NRDY) - the company behind Varsity Tutors - we’re redrawing the blueprint of learning. Our Live + AI™ platform fuses real-time human expertise with proprietary generative-AI systems, setting a new bar for measurable academic impact at global scale.
We recruit the kind of technologists and operators you’d bet on as solo founders - people who turn ambiguous problems into shipping code, iterate faster than markets move, and compound their advantage with every data point. In an era where great employees can deliver 10-times the leverage of the merely good, we back those who play to win.
Fortune favors the bold. Join us.
How we compete:
AI-Native at every level From the CEO to day-one hires, everyone builds and ships with generative AI. If you’re not wielding AI, you’re not done.
Entrepreneurial velocity Move at founder speed, prototype in hours, and measure in real user outcomes. Slow teams die.
Free-market rigor Ideas rise or fall on merit and results - no committees, no politics, no cap on upside.
Full-stack ownership You design, build, and run what you ship; accountability is a feature, not a bug.
Reward for contribution Pay rises with impact, not years. Outstanding results earn outsized rewards. We evaluate both what you achieve and how you achieve it: living our leadership principles and using AI effectively are formally measured and rewarded.
Relentless exploration Push the frontier of generative AI in live learning and - because only the paranoid survive - questioning every legacy assumption along the way.
Is Apolitical You stay focused on mission-aligned outcomes, not distractions or unrelated causes.
If you’re a technically minded builder who thrives on open competition, personal responsibility, and the chance to redefine how the world learns - while continually stretching the limits of what generative AI can do - come do the most ambitious and rewarding work of your career here. Learn more at nerdy.com.
Nerdy’s shareholder letters below explain our latest products and strategy:
Qualifications:
Master’s degree in Operations Research, Statistics, Computer Science, Economics, Industrial Engineering, or a related quantitative field is required; a PhD is preferred.
6+ years applying forecasting, optimization, or machine learning to operational decisions in a live business, including at least one system that runs in production and is trusted by the people it affects.
Expertise in time-series forecasting (hierarchical and intermittent demand, seasonality, covariates) with modern libraries (statsforecast, Prophet, gradient-boosted models, or similar), and an understanding of how forecast error propagates into decisions.
Hands-on experience formulating and solving assignment, allocation, routing, or scheduling problems with solvers such as OR-Tools, Gurobi, or CBC, or with well-chosen heuristics, and reasoning clearly about constraints, fairness, and objective design.
Strong Python (pandas, scikit-learn, XGBoost/LightGBM, PyTorch or similar) and expert SQL on a modern warehouse or lakehouse. We run Starburst Galaxy (Trino) on Iceberg with dbt Cloud; Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, or Athena experience transfers.
Causal inference and experiment design skills (A/B tests, holdouts, uplift modeling, interleaving) sufficient to measure the effect of a model or policy on business outcomes.
Experience building ranking or propensity models and combining them with optimization under real business constraints.
Ability to explain a model’s recommendation to non-technical operators, and to encode their constraints without losing the objective.
Experience with LLM APIs (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, or similar) as model inputs or analysis tools, and judgment about where they belong in a decision system.
Git-based development, code review, and CI/CD habits; you write code other people can run and maintain.
Experienced with AI-native tools that enhance productivity and speed (e.g., Cursor, Make, Supabase, Netlify, Claude Code, n8n, Firecrawl, ChatGPT, Grok, Bolt, Vercel, etc).
Alignment with Nerdy’s apolitical, mission-focused culture.
Responsibilities:
Forecasting: Build and maintain forecasts of demand, supply, and capacity across the marketplace at the granularity decisions require, with error measured, explained, and improved over time.
Optimization: Formulate and solve allocation, assignment, matching, and scheduling problems under real business constraints, and design objectives that reflect what the business values.
Predictive modeling: Build ranking and propensity models, such as conversion likelihood, fit, and lifetime value, and combine them with optimization to drive decisions.
Production: Take forecasts and decision models from prototype to production with engineering partners, with monitoring and scheduled retraining so they stay reliable in use.
Experimentation and measurement: Design and analyze holdouts and A/B tests that measure the effect of a model or policy on business outcomes, separating model gains from policy gains.
Data foundations: Partner with Data Engineering and Analytics Engineering to make features, forecasts, and model outputs available in the lakehouse (Starburst, dbt, Supabase) as governed, reusable tables.
Communication: Present forecasts and recommendations to business and technical leaders in their language, with the trade-offs made explicit.
AI-enabled workflows: Use AI for code generation and review, model diagnostics, scenario analysis, and documentation, operating within privacy and security guardrails.
Unleash Your Potential at Nerdy:
At Nerdy, you'll earn your success through meritocracy and exceptional outcomes. Our benefits reward performance and initiative:
Competitive USD-Benchmarked Compensation: Earn a market-leading rate set in U.S. dollars, paid to you in local currency.
100% Remote (Home Country Only): Work from anywhere in your home country—no relocation required, no borders crossed.
Flexible Time Off: Our flexible PTO lets you recharge on your own terms and when you need it the most.
Local Holiday Pay: We honor your nation’s official holidays with paid time off—celebrate what matters to you.
Continuous Learning: Get a free, all-inclusive learning membership for you and your household—including 1-on-1 tutoring hours, unlimited on-demand classes, and access to our full suite of learning products and services.
Supercharge with AI: Gain exclusive access to cutting-edge AI tools that boost your productivity, making you feel almost super-human (cape not included).
Feedback-Rich, Collaborative Culture: Tap into regular training, peer reviews, and a team that treats every team member as a vital collaborator and owner in our success.
Make a Global Impact: Your expertise fuels an innovative platform used by learners around the world—be part of something transformative.
The Bottom Line:
If you're driven by impact, energized by ownership, and excited to help shape what’s next, you’ll thrive here. We move fast, think big, and reward those who deliver. This isn’t a traditional corporate environment - it’s a place to do the most meaningful work of your career.
