--- title: 'Senior Data Scientist, Places at Raya' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-scientist-places-raya-remote-etbw7y5jr4j0' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-04' --- # Senior Data Scientist, Places at Raya - **Company:** Raya - **Location:** Remote - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-10-30 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-04 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/raya/d969704e-cac4-4038-b04d-942017b00bd4 ## Job description As a Data Scientist on the Places by Raya team you will play a key role that will shape how the Places app uses data to drive business decisions. This hands-on role combines data modeling and reporting with product analysis and experimentation. While the product itself has existed since 2023 the culture is very much like a new start-up with leadership being heavily invested in this product space and this role being the first dedicated Data Scientist to this space and supported by a dedicated Data Engineer. We are seeking an entrepreneurial and driven data scientist to identify opportunities to improve retention and help the team evaluate and act on them. This will be a fun role for someone who wants to build data solutions from the ground up and help shape how the entire team uses insights. This person should be able to articulate best practices, develop new analytical frameworks that tie user actions to outcomes, and strike the right balance between analytical rigor and pragmatic business action. Successful candidates will demonstrate technical skills, product expertise, and business acumen, and be enthusiastic about making a positive impact through timely execution. You are passionate about leveraging the power of data to drive product changes with quality and agility and can demonstrate sound judgment under uncertainty. We offer comprehensive medical and dental coverage, $50 a day food delivery budget, equity based employment, a great culture, learning opportunities, unlimited vacation, 12 weeks paid parental leave, and we pay all employees $1,000 a year to go somewhere in the world that they've never been because of our values of human connection, empathy, and curiosity. ## Responsibilities - Own the definition and evolution of success metrics for all user facing surfaces, including tradeoffs between short-term and long-term member value. - Define and maintain business metrics, semantic layers, and data models to ensure consistency and trust across the Places team. - Own, in partnership with Data Engineering, the translation of product requirements into scalable, reliable data assets that empower efficient decision-making - Influence product direction by uncovering and translating insights into clear recommendations that shape roadmap prioritization. - Build out a culture of high fidelity experimentation to scale wins quickly - Using visualisations to convey nuance with clarity - AI-native mindset and hands-on experience using LLMs, agents, and modern AI tools to automate analysis, accelerate experimentation, and build scalable decision-support workflows ## Qualifications - 5+ years of data science and product analytics experience - BS and/or MS in a quantitative discipline: statistics, operations research, computer science, engineering, applied mathematics, physics, economics, etc. - Familiarity in delivering data products through partnership with Data and product engineering teams. - Strong technical fluency with analytical tools such as SQL and Python, or equivalent experience using data to answer open-ended business questions. - Strong applied statistics background, including hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, power analysis, and causal inference techniques. - Familiarity with modern analytics and experimentation tools - Familiarity with consumer focused . - Strong in proactive verbal and written communication, ability to convey rigorous statistical concepts to non-experts. - Practical AI fluency and curiosity about how modern AI tools can improve analytical workflows, strategic synthesis, and decision support. - Bonus points for familiarity with optimization of performance marketing efforts ## About Raya ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Raya is a private, membership-based community platform where people around the world can connect and collaborate to find life partners, friends, and professional opportunities. - **Entity Type**: Private (Pre-Seed funded, 2016) - **Headquarters**: Los Angeles, California, United States - **Founded**: 2015 - **Founders**: Not publicly disclosed ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Technology, Information and Internet - **Target customers**: B2C – Adults seeking a trusted, curated social networking experience - **Mission or purpose statement**: To create a trusted online community where people feel comfortable finding life partners, friends, and work collaborations, and to bring these interactions into the real world. ## Products & Services - **Raya App**: A membership-based social community platform that uses an application process with algorithmic assessment and anonymous committee input to curate its user base. Members pay a monthly fee and are expected to follow rules of respect, trust, and privacy. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available - **Key Metric**: Total Funding – At least one Pre-Seed round ($1.6M led by Atlas Finance Group in Dec 2016) and another round in June 2019 (details undisclosed). Additional investors include Dreamers VC, Analog Ventures, Section 32, X&Management, and Niche Capital. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Atlas Finance Group, Dreamers VC, Analog Ventures, Section 32, X&Management, Niche Capital - **Growth Signals**: Headcount of ~101 employees, with a **yearly growth of +38.6%**. Workforce distributed across 15 countries. Active job postings are up **+33.3% year-over-year**, indicating expansion. ## Competitive Advantages - **High Curation/Exclusivity**: Raya’s strict application process (with referrals and committee review) creates a highly selective, trust-based community that differentiates it from mass-market social networks. - **Community-First Culture**: Strong emphasis on member behavior and shared values; low report rate (~1 in 11,000 connections) signals a high-quality user experience. - **Privacy & Trust**: Strict policies against hate, excessive wealth display, and disrespect, creating a safe environment for genuine connections. ## Strategic Focus - **Global Expansion**: Raya has openings in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, and Mexico City, and is actively growing its engineering and product teams. - **AI & ML Integration**: The company has a dedicated Head of Machine Learning, AI, and Data, and uses algorithms to assess applications and improve the community experience. - **Product Development**: Active hiring for Product Managers and Senior Backend Engineers suggests investment in new features (e.g., "Places") and scaling core infrastructure. ## Why Work Here - **Career Growth**: Fast-growing company (+38.6% YoY headcount) with opportunities to take on ownership in engineering, product, and AI/ML roles. - **Global & Remote-first Culture**: Fully remote roles available, with global hubs and a diverse team across 15 countries. - **Technical Challenges**: Work on complex systems for recommendations, member experience, and internal tools using a modern stack (Python, Node.js, Kubernetes, MongoDB, TensorFlow, Looker, dbt). - **Culture**: Described as a "family of talented individuals" devoted to fostering human connection through technology. - **Location Flexibility**: Remote roles; hubs in major cities worldwide. ## Sources 1. [rayatheapp.com](https://www.rayatheapp.com/about) 2. [rayatheapp.com/careers](https://www.rayatheapp.com/careers) 3. [LinkedIn](https://linkedin.com/company/rayatheapp) 4. [Lever.co](https://jobs.lever.co/raya) 5. [CBInsights](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/raya) ## Other roles at Raya - [Senior iOS Engineer, Places](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-ios-engineer-places-raya-remote-28z3q415ehp7) - [Community Support Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/community-support-manager-raya-remote-gx6gz795v99r) - [Server Engineering Manager, Member Experience](https://feeny.ai/job/server-engineering-manager-member-experience-raya-remote-gbxfa0qmj3tn) - [Full-Stack Engineer, Internal Tools](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-engineer-internal-tools-raya-remote-796srqpyyy3m) - [Senior Backend Engineer, Member Experience](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-backend-engineer-member-experience-raya-remote-kthfw491fyv4)