Economist Details

Economist

Collage.com - Washington, DC

Employment Type : Full-Time

About Collage.com

Collage.com's mission is to make the creation of custom products easy for everyone, by providing superior software and excellent customer service. We sell an expanding variety of photo and home products, including photo blankets, photo books, canvases, pillows, and more. Our company has been featured on the TODAY Show, The View, and Good Morning America many times. We are a 100% employee-owned company that has rapidly grown to 60 employees and $50M annual revenue since 2013.

As a 100% remote company, we are set up to provide the best possible environment for engineering. The less time developers spend dealing with cumbersome processes, inefficient systems, and commuting, the more time they have to solve problems and make an impact. Collage.com's co-founders/co-CEOs both come from a technical background and believe in staying at the forefront of best practices so that we can focus on work that matters. We pass almost all of The Joel Test (we only fix high-priority bugs before writing new code, but hey, we're a start-up), use continuous deployment (code goes straight to production after each merge), and are in the process of adopting mobx-state-tree with React. Strong engineering is a key part of our business strategy - it lets us build best-in-class design tools faster than our larger competitors.

We are seeking an economist to lead us in making optimal, data-driven decisions throughout the company. You will work collaboratively with internal stakeholders to communicate findings, answer business questions, improve existing processes and create innovative new solutions. You will primarily focus on driving growth and optimizing our business decisions by designing and analyzing experiments and undertaking compelling analysis projects, but will be flexible enough to serve as subject matter expert and support modeling and analytics needs across other areas in the company including product, data infrastructure, e-commerce, operations, marketing, and customer service. As an economist, you'll be expected to understand the tradeoffs between experimental and non-experimental estimates, and determine which methods are appropriate for given stakeholder needs. You'll have the opportunity to own larger research projects that may include a series of randomized and quasi experiments. The ideal candidate will be highly self-motivated and inquisitive, with strong analytical skills, extreme attention to detail and a passion for using data to drive business growth.

As a fast growing startup, we have an increasing and wide-ranging need for analytical research and are hiring at multiple levels. You will be joining an analytics team that includes a statistician and an economist, both with over a decade of experience in data analysis and research. At the executive level, our co-CEOs hold PhDs in Economics and Computer Science respectively and help foster a culture of analytical rigor that extends across the entire company.

• Design, develop, and maintain robust and scalable solutions, reports, dashboards, etc. that will support our internal stakeholders' ongoing and ad-hoc needs
• Work with internal stakeholders in various areas to correctly frame and answer high-level, open-ended business questions
• Verify and validate the accuracy of data, documentation, processes, and conclusions
• There are many opportunities to apply analytical, data-driven research throughout the company, across teams including product, data infrastructure, e-commerce, operations, marketing, and customer service. Depending on time-sensitive needs and candidate interest and skill set, you may work on projects including but not limited to:
• Partner with the marketing team to design and analyze experiments to optimize pricing, ad bidding, ad copy, etc. This could also include designing quasi-experiments that utilize methods such as difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, and synthetic control modeling.
• Create and maintain real-time alerts and reports that identify possible problems with vendor partners so that the operations team can get ahead of possible disruptions
• Collaborate with product PMs to assess ROI of new features and initiatives to pursue

• Advanced degree in a relevant quantitative field or equivalent experience. New PhDs are encouraged to apply.
• 8+ years relevant experience is preferred but we are open-minded and are more interested in the quality of experience than the years of experience. We are open to candidates both new and experienced in tech economics.
• Experience retrieving data from SQL databases, and manipulating and analyzing data using complex SQL queries and computing languages such as R or Python.
• Our data is stored using MySQL and Redshift, our data tracking uses Snowplow, and we access our analytics stack using Mode Analytics
• Strong statistical knowledge and understanding of A/B test design and analysis
• We use an in-house customizable experiment system for onsite A/B tests as well as conduct tests using Google Ads and Cordial ESP
• Experience with statistical modeling for causal inference
• Advanced spreadsheet skills for manipulating, analyzing, and presenting data (eg. nested formulas and functions, pivot tables, formatting, parsing, etc.)
• Superb written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent ability to visualize data and communicate conclusions to stakeholders of all levels

• Experience with machine learning techniques
• Experience with Google Analytics and digital advertising tracking, measurement, and metrics is preferred
• Advanced knowledge of the latest research and literature regarding tools and methods that will further develop our analytics capabilities

• Working from home makes it easier to focus on results and develop professionally while spending less time commuting. (See our opinion piece on perks and work-life balance at mlive.com.)
• 401(k) plan, home internet reimbursement, and $3,000 / year in free Collage.com products plus employee discount for friends and family.
• Collage.com pays 100% of the premium for full health, vision and dental insurance coverage for you and your family in a high-quality Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO plan.
• Flexible work schedule and unlimited vacation policy (work hard and take time when you need it).
• We'll pay for any computer and home office equipment (within reason) that will help you work better.

The goal of our interview process is to identify people who will be a good fit for our company and are talented, ambitious engineers. Because you will be working remotely, all of our interviews are done remotely. We look for candidates with good written and verbal communication skills who embody our company values (which can be found on our careers page).

During the interview process, you will:

• Speak to a member of our talent acquisition team which will be mostly an experience and values/culture fit assessment
• Speak with senior members of our data team
• Complete a technical challenge that is intended to emulate your actual work environment
• Speak with both founders/CEOs of the company

We believe in transparency, and will give you the opportunity to speak with anyone else you'd like to meet before accepting an offer. You are making an important decision, and we want to make sure you are fully committed to joining our team.