Manager, Data Science

About the role

You will lead the development and execution of data science initiatives that define how customers discover and interact with inventory on Rent the Runway. You will own the design and delivery of machine learning solutions that enhance personalization, optimize inventory utilization, and drive measurable improvements in customer lifetime value. You will translate ambiguous business questions into rigorous analytical strategies and ensure that insights are actionable across the full customer journey. You will partner deeply with cross-functional stakeholders to align data capabilities with strategic priorities while maintaining a strong focus on ethical data use and model integrity. You will provide technical leadership in building scalable recommendation and ranking systems that power core customer experiences. You will mentor and grow a high-performing team of data scientists, fostering a culture of experimentation, rigor, and continuous learning. You will remain hands-on in designing models, interpreting results, and validating impact to ensure solutions meet the highest standards of performance and reliability.

Key facts

What you'll do

Lead, coach, and develop the Data Science team, providing technical guidance, feedback, and career development while fostering a high-performing, collaborative culture.

Define the technical direction and priorities of the Data Science function, ensuring work is aligned with business strategy and delivers measurable customer impact.

Lead strategic data science initiatives by partnering closely with cross-functional teams to identify, scope, and solve complex business problems.

Analyze customer, product, and inventory data to identify high-impact opportunities where machine learning and AI can improve customer and business outcomes.

Partner closely with Product and Engineering to identify customer problems, shape product strategy, and bring intelligent, AI-powered customer experiences to life.

Design, build, deploy, and continuously improve recommendation systems, personalization solutions, and ranking models that enhance customer engagement, conversion, and retention.

Design and analyze experiments, A/B tests, and causal inference frameworks to measure product and business impact.

Develop customer similarity models, behavioral segmentation, and ranking approaches to improve personalized experiences and inventory matching.

Collaborate with Data Engineering to define data requirements, ensure data quality, and enable scalable, production-grade data pipelines for modeling.

Own key performance metrics across the data science roadmap, establishing clear success criteria and monitoring ongoing model performance in production.

Implement robust model evaluation frameworks, including offline and online testing, to validate assumptions and drive iterative improvements.

Champion best practices in model development, documentation, and versioning to ensure reproducibility and maintainability of data science assets.

Communicate insights and technical tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders through clear narratives and compelling data visualizations.

Contribute to the long-term vision for AI and machine learning at Rent the Runway, exploring emerging techniques and responsibly scaling new capabilities.

Requirements

You have a Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field or equivalent practical experience.

You have 6+ years of experience in data science or a related technical role, with at least 2 years in a people management or leadership capacity.

You have deep expertise in building and deploying machine learning models, recommendation systems, and predictive analytics.

You are proficient in Python, SQL, and modern data science tooling, with experience deploying models into production environments.

You have a strong track record of using data to drive business decisions, including designing experiments and interpreting causal effects.

You have experience working with large datasets and performing statistical analysis to inform strategic decisions.

You have excellent communication skills and the ability to influence stakeholders without direct authority.

You are comfortable operating in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment and can prioritize effectively under tight deadlines.

Nice to have

Experience in fashion, retail, or e-commerce is preferred.

Experience with deep learning techniques for recommendation or natural language processing is preferred.

Experience managing cloud infrastructure on AWS or GCP is preferred.

Experience with A/B testing platforms and experimentation frameworks is preferred.

Practical notes

This role is based in Brooklyn, New York, at Rent the Runway headquarters.

This is a full-time position eligible for benefits as required by law.

The work location is onsite, and remote work is not available for this role.

Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship for this position.

New start dates are aligned with business needs, and early engagement is strongly encouraged.