Data Scientist, People Analytics

🚀 Whatnot

Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. We’re building the future of ecommerce, bringing together community, shopping and entertainment. We are committed to our values, and as a remote co-located team, we operate out of hubs within the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, and Germany today.

We’re innovating in the fast-paced world of live auctions from fashion, beauty, electronics to collectibles like trading cards, comic books, and even live plants. Whatnot has something for everyone.

And, we’re growing. Whatnot has been one of the fastest growing marketplaces and we’re hiring forward-thinking problem solvers across all functional areas.

💻 Role

We are seeking a dynamic People Analytics Data Scientist with a proven track record of success in building out and leading people analytics strategies and practices in a fast-paced environment. We are looking for a leader with expertise in driving the transformation of data into actionable insights to empower informed talent decisions, optimizing talent metrics that align with business objectives, and strengthening the analytical capabilities of the people team. This role combines strategic direction, first in role execution and hands-on expertise to ensure Whatnot finds and recruits top talent, improves team development and retention and drives employee engagement.

The People Analytics Data Scientist will:

• Lead and execute the comprehensive people analytics strategy aligned with the organization’s goals in partnership with the People team, business leaders, data scientists, and IT
• Build out the people analytics structure based on strong foundations, organizational efficiency, predictive insights, and prescriptive impacts with the overall goal of creative competitive advantages
• Develop and deliver (ongoing and ad hoc) dashboards, reports and presentations that effectively communicate insights to managers, leaders, and other stakeholders
• Build and maintain scalable data pipelines by tying together disparate data sources - often in an ad hoc fashion - for analysis-ready formats and automated reporting/monitoring of org health metrics 
• Analyze patterns in the data and utilize predictive modeling to surface new insights and forecast organizational needs in order to identify top talent, increase employee retention, maximize the impacts of comprehensive company culture
• Collaborate with People Business Partners and senior leaders to deeply understand how Whatnot operates, build strong cross-functional relationships, and translate data into actionable strategies that address Whatnot’s unique challenges
• Ensure data integrity, quality, and alignment across all systems and tools by partnering with Data Engineering, IT, and People Teams; support strong governance and secure access controls for employee data
• Identify, implement and manage people analytics tools and platforms, ensuring they meet the evolving needs of the organization and facilitate self-service capabilities in coordination with other People/Talent tools
• Drive communication and change management efforts to ensure the successful adoption of analytics initiatives and data-driven people and talent processes across the organization
• Enforce responsible data use by upholding privacy, ethical standards, and fairness in all people analytics initiatives

US Based Role:

Required to be within commuting distance of our Los Angeles, Seattle, New York or San Francisco Hubs

👋 About You

We are looking for an intellectually curious and highly motivated leader to be a foundational member of our Data team! You thrive in ambiguous environments and love building things from scratch. You’re a blend of data scientist, storyteller, and business partner, with a passion for uncovering insights that drive better people decisions. You have a strong technical foundation in people analytics but also know how to translate data into narratives that influence leadership. You’re scrappy, hands-on, and comfortable balancing strategic projects with tactical execution. Working in People Analytics demands more than technical skill - it requires a deep understanding of the human element, a commitment to ethical practices, and the ability to blend messy, imperfect quantitative data with rich qualitative insights to tell a full, honest story.

As our first People Analytics Data Scientist, you will be responsible for driving the scientific rigor of our workforce analytics strategy. You will work cross-functionally with our People, Finance, and Business teams, as well as data science and engineering partners, to build best-in-class frameworks that inform how we attract, retain, and develop our people. You will serve as a technical authority on statistical methodology, predictive modeling, and workforce analytics, and be a mentor and thought partner to others across the organization. 

You should have strong critical thinking and analytical skills, excellent communication abilities, and a knack for influencing through data in a fast-paced environment. Data-driven decision-making is critical to our success, and you should feel comfortable working with and through others to create a scalable, impactful approach to people insights. The ideal candidate will be adept in the collection, analysis and interpretation of people data to identify trends and actionable insights across the employee lifecycle, from candidates to exits, on areas such as talent acquisition and retention, employee engagement, and performance, while upholding data quality standards.

You are comfortable making decisions and working quickly and iteratively. Working with real-world people data means balancing scientific rigor with practical business needs and evolving organizational priorities. The ideal candidate should enjoy having impact across multiple teams and functions without feeling burdened by the fast pace and wide surface area of the work.

In addition to 6+ years of experience in the Data Analytics field, you should have:

• 3–6 years of experience in People/HR Analytics or related fields, ideally in high-growth or dynamic environments.
• Proven experience establishing and scaling a people analytics function.
• Strong technical skills, including proficiency in SQL and Python or R, with demonstrated experience building ETL pipelines and integrating data from disparate systems. Able to  independently extract, clean/manipulate, and transform large data sets into structured, analysis-ready formats.
• Committed to ethical use of employee data, ensuring privacy, confidentiality, and transparency in analytics initiatives.
• Experience building scalable, automated reporting solutions using HRIS (preferably Workday), people platforms (e.g. OneModel, Ashby, CultureAmp, feedback/engagement tools), and other dashboarding and visualization tools (e.g., Sigma, Tableau, Power BI, Looker).
• Solid understanding of HR data and processes, including retention/attrition analysis, engagement survey analytics, talent acquisition metrics, remote work, and workforce planning.
• Familiarity with survey design and employee research methodologies is a plus.
• Strong business acumen: ability to translate people data into meaningful, actionable insights that support strategic workforce decisions.
• Demonstrated success working cross-functionally across People, Finance, and Business leadership teams.
• Comfort working independently and prioritizing multiple projects in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with an emphasis on storytelling with data for non-technical audiences.
• Ability to balance tactical execution with strategic thinking, understanding when to dive deep and when to simplify for action.

💰Compensation

For US-based applicants: $185,000/year - $240,000/year + benefits + equity

The salary range may be inclusive of several levels that would be applicable to the position. Final salary will be based on a number of factors including, level, relevant prior experience, skills and expertise. This range is only inclusive of base salary, not benefits (more details below) or equity.

🎁  Benefits

• Flexible Time off Policy and Company-wide Holidays (including a spring and winter break)
• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
• Work From Home Support
• Home office setup allowance
• Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet
• Care benefits
• Monthly allowance on both food and wellness
• Annual allowance towards Childcare
• Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses
• Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally
• Monthly allowance to dogfood the app
• Parental Leave
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.

💛 EOE

Whatnot is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by local law. We believe that our work is better and our company culture is improved when we encourage, support, and respect the different skills and experiences represented within our workforce.