Applied AI/ML Manager — Lead Predictive Analytics

Appfolio; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 167,000 - 209,000; Full time

Job summary

AppFolio is seeking a senior Data Scientist to own signal modeling and the Next Best Action layer across products. You will lead shared data science services, forecast automations, and partner with business units to drive adoption and explainability.

You will manage and grow a team of data scientists, set the direction for applied AI/ML, and collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Finance to align roadmaps and deliver high-impact analyses.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM field and 8+ years building and deploying predictive models in production for business stakeholders.
• 2+ years leading data scientists, as a people manager or technical lead.
• Strong programming background with Python and SQL; productionizing models yourself.
• Experience deploying, monitoring, retraining classification and propensity models end to end; next-best-action design is a plus.
• Experimental design fundamentals and honest measurement of lift.
• Experience building and evaluating LLM-based products in production.
• Experience with Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, version control, and Salesforce.
• Ability to set priorities with senior leadership and translate questions into repeatable models.

Responsibilities

• Own signal modeling and scoring logic for all products; co-create Next Best Action layer for GTM with ranked recommendations per persona.
• Own shared data science services for forecasting automations; enable adoption and explainability.
• Own coding standards for the Cerberus model fleet: review gates, deployment, monitoring, retraining, and outputs published to Data Marts with governance.
• Review every pull request and deliverable; own the quality and risk of models, analyses, recommendations and automations.
• Coordinate delivery with Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Finance; set priorities and run cross-functional operating rhythm.
• Set the direction for applied AI/ML in Data Science & Analytics with department leadership.
• Manage and grow a team of Data Scientists: 1:1s, coaching, performance reviews, hiring, and growth paths.

Skills

Python

SQL

Leadership

Predictive modeling

Production deployment

LLM products

Snowflake

dbt

Airflow

Salesforce

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in STEM

Tools

Snowflake

dbt

Airflow

Salesforce

Version control

Job description

AppFolio is seeking a senior Data Scientist to own signal modeling and the Next Best Action layer across products. You will lead shared data science services, forecast automations, and partner with business units to drive adoption and explainability.

You will manage and grow a team of data scientists, set the direction for applied AI/ML, and collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Finance to align roadmaps and deliver high-impact analyses.