Instacart

Senior Data Scientist I - Meals at Instacart (Canada)

Instacart· Canada· $161k–$170k·

Role details

Salary
$161k–$170k
Work type
Remote
Level
Senior

Job description

We're transforming the grocery industry

At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.

Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.

Instacart is a Flex First team

There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.

Overview

We are looking for a Senior Data Scientist to lead the Meals initiative — one of Instacart's top strategic priorities for 2027. This role is focused on scaling data science work following the MVP launch, with metric tracking and experimentation at the core. You will play a key role in driving engagement, activations, and reactivations for Instacart through a high-visibility, high-impact 0→1 initiative. This is an opportunity to shape the direction of a major product area in close partnership with Product, Engineering, and Design.

About the Job

  • Lead data science for the Meals initiative, owning the post-MVP scale-up of DS systems and infrastructure
  • Design, build, and maintain metric tracking frameworks to measure the impact of Meals on engagement, activation, and reactivation
  • Drive experimentation strategy — from hypothesis definition to analysis and recommendation — to guide product decisions
  • Partner closely with Product Managers, Engineers, and Designers to align on strategy and communicate data-driven insights
  • Contribute to a 0→1 initiative at a critical inflection point, helping define what success looks like at scale

Minimum Qualifications

  • Proven experience in consumer-facing product data science, partnering closely with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and Data Engineers
  • Strong data science foundation: product and data analysis, A/B experimentation, causal inference, and statistical modeling
  • Experience defining KPIs, and optimizing funnel for product market fit
  • Excellent communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex technical findings for senior business and engineering stakeholders
  • 4+ years of work experience in a data science or related field
  • Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative field (e.g., Statistics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Economics, Engineering) or equivalent practical experience

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience bridging offline evaluation metrics (e.g., NDCG, precision/recall, human evaluation) with online experiments and business outcomes.
  • Background in causal inference beyond standard A/B tests (e.g., holdouts, diff-in-diff, quasi-experiments) to measure long-term or cross-surface effects.
  • Proven impact improving logging, instrumentation, and metric definitions in complex data environments.
  • Experience launching new features in new markets, or launching 0-1 initiatives

#LI-Remote Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here. Currently, we are only hiring in the following provinces: Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.

Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here.

For Canadian based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.

CAN $161,000—$170,000 CAD

Why work at Instacart

  • Flex First philosophy: Employees can work remotely from anywhere in the U.S. (excluding Alaska and territories) or Canada (Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia) with no mandatory return-to-office date. Offices remain open for optional use. instacart.careers
  • Comprehensive benefits (from the “Taste of Instacart” page): instacart.careers
    • Flexible time off and “Four Year Fill‑Up” (four consecutive weeks of leave around the 4‑year mark)
    • Family‑building benefits (fertility, adoption, surrogacy support)
    • Learning & development programs with an annual allowance
    • 401(k) matching in the U.S. / RRSP in Canada, student loan assistance, financial planning
    • Work‑from‑home stipend and internet reimbursement
    • Monthly “Treat Yourself” stipend for wellness or personal care
    • Mental and physical wellness programs, medical/dental/vision coverage
    • Free Instacart+ membership
    • Community volunteer programs (Instacart Serves, donation matching, “Carrot Credits”)
  • Culture: 59% of employees on Glassdoor would recommend the company; Glassdoor ratings show 3.5★ overall, with 3.3★ for culture & values and 3.6★ for career opportunities. glassdoor.com The company describes itself as a place where you can “shape the career that nourishes you.”

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