Principal Scientist - Lever Efficiency
Uber
About the Role
Uber has a broad set of levers including pricing, matching, search, and customer support that shape customer experience, marketplace health, long term growth, and profitability. In this role, you will lead the creation and rollout of a company wide efficiency measurement framework to identify and unlock untapped arbitrage opportunities across the business.
Uber operates on a massive, interconnected marketplace where levers like pricing, matching, search, and customer support aren't just independent tools—they are the engine of our business. As a Principal Scientist for Lever Efficiency, you aren't here to manage a steady state; you are here to build the unified measurement framework that identifies where our next billion dollars of efficiency will come from.
This is a high-stakes, high-ambiguity role. You will be tasked with finding "arbitrage" opportunities - places where our digital decisions and real-world impact are out of sync. This requires more than just technical brilliance in econometrics and causal inference; it requires the grit to challenge existing assumptions and the leadership to align dozens of independent science teams toward a single source of truth. The pace is fast, the systems are complex, and the answers aren't in a textbook. If you thrive on taking "messy" data and turning it into a strategic roadmap that moves the needle for a global business, this is where you’ll grow.
What You’ll Do
Architect and Lead the creation of a company-wide efficiency measurement framework, defining how we value every lever from rider promotions to support investments.
Navigate Ambiguity to identify massive measurement gaps across budgeted and unbudgeted initiatives, proposing and executing experiments to close them.
Partner and Influence scientists and product leaders across the company, building the data foundations and visualizations required to see the "big picture" of Uber’s efficiency.
Scale through Systems by designing and executing complex experiments to validate and quantify the largest identified opportunities, often working with imperfect information.
Communicate with Impact, synthesizing complex causal findings into clear, compelling narratives for senior business leaders and executive audiences to drive investment decisions.
Own the Outcome by prioritizing opportunities with the greatest business impact, ensuring we aren't just measuring for the sake of science, but for the sake of the real world.
Raise the Bar for technical leadership, acting as a multiplier who identifies opportunities for better performance and reduction of "science debt" across the organization.
Basic Qualifications
- Industry Experience: 8 or more years of industry experience as an Applied Scientist, Data Scientist, or equivalent, with a track record of solving strategically important problems.
- Domain Expertise: Deep expertise in long-term value measurement, incrementality, and efficiency analysis within a high-scale environment.
- Technical Foundations: Mastery of experimental design, causal analysis, statistics, and optimization.
- Tools: High proficiency in SQL and Python to handle and scale models for large-scale datasets.
- Strategic Communication: Ability to translate complex technical concepts into actionable business strategy for non-technical stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications
- Education: PhD in Economics, Statistics, or a related quantitative field.
- Experience: 10 or more years of industry experience, specifically building and scaling robust data foundations across large, disparate organizations.
- Advanced Econometrics: Strong background in structural modeling or advanced econometric techniques to evaluate trade-offs between short-term velocity and long-term sustainability.
- Leadership through Influence: Proven ability to get alignment and buy-in for multi-org technology or measurement transformations.
For New York, NY-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD$288,000 per year - USD$320,000 per year.
For San Francisco, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD$288,000 per year - USD$320,000 per year.
For Sunnyvale, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD$288,000 per year - USD$320,000 per year.
For all US locations, you will be eligible to participate in Uber's bonus program, and may be offered an equity award & other types of comp. All full-time employees are eligible to participate in a 401(k) plan. You will also be eligible for various benefits. More details can be found at the following link https://jobs.uber.com/en/benefits.
Uber's mission is to reimagine the way the world moves for the better. Here, bold ideas create real-world impact, challenges drive growth, and speed fuels progress. What moves us, moves the world - let's move it forward, together.
Uber is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.
Offices continue to be central to collaboration and Uber’s cultural identity. Unless formally approved to work fully remotely, Uber expects employees to spend at least half of their work time in their assigned office. For certain roles, such as those based at green-light hubs, employees are expected to be in-office for 100% of their time. Please speak with your recruiter to better understand in-office expectations for this role.
