Senior Data Scientist, AI Search / AEO Research

Fabric; United States; On-site; USD 136,000 - 182,000; Full time

Job summary

Fabric, a remote-first and hybrid employer, seeks a Senior Data Scientist for AI Search. You will own research shaping our AI Shopping roadmap, design studies, publish findings, and present data-driven insights to customers. The role blends research, PM, evangelism, and customer-facing work in a dynamic commerce context.

You bring a strong quantitative background, experience with AI search, and a passion for data storytelling to influence our strategy and product direction.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated point of view on AI search with evidence-based reasoning.
• Strong data science, statistics, and causal-inference skills; fluency in Python/SQL.
• Experience designing benchmarks, market studies, or performance analyses.
• SEO/search-discovery background with data-driven measurement.
• Experience designing and running experiments (A/B testing).
• Ability to tell a story with data to non-technical audiences.
• Comfort building measurement functions in ambiguous contexts.
• Genuine curiosity about commerce and analytics.

Responsibilities

• Own the research that defines the AI Shopping roadmap.
• Design studies and build models to measure brand AI visibility and outcomes.
• Publish findings to inform Fabric's roadmap and thought leadership.
• Present data-driven insights to customers and cross-functional teams.
• Collaborate with product and engineering to translate results into actions.

Skills

AI search domain knowledge

Quantitative foundation

Original research design

Experimentation design

Storytelling with data

Comfort with ambiguity

Commerce interest

Education

Advanced degree in economics or quantitative field

Tools

Python

SQL

Job description

Senior Data Scientist, AI Search / AEO Research

Who we are:

Come build the future of commerce with us at fabric. We're building the agentic commerce infrastructure that helps merchants grow, sell, and operate in today's AI-powered shopping experience. Backed by top-tier investors and led by industry and AI veterans, our team is building foundational technology at the intersection of AI, commerce, and great user experience.

Where we hire: We are both a remote‑first and hybrid employer (depending on your role and location). We focus on building our team in the following geographic locations depending on the role.

United States - We are limited to hiring in the following states: California, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Washington

Canada - We are limited to hiring in the following provinces:

Your next career:

Shopping is moving from search boxes to answer engines. Shoppers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and AI Overviews what to buy — and brands win or lose on whether AI represents their products accurately. This is a wide‑open field with no established playbook, and fabric is defining it.

You'll own the research that helps define our AI Shopping roadmap. That means helping shape how we measure a brand's AI Shopping capability and how we optimize for the best outcomes. Your work becomes the research behind fabric's roadmap and the credibility behind our thought leadership.

This is a hybrid role by design — part researcher, part PM, part evangelist, part customer‑facing. You'll design the studies, build the models, publish the findings, and sit with customers to show them what the data means for their business.

What you bring to the table:

• A demonstrated point of view on AI search (AEO/GEO). Whether you've worked hands‑on with answer engine / generative engine optimization or studied AI search and digital markets rigorously, you can show what you've learned about how AI search actually behaves — from evidence, not just opinion.
• A rigorous quantitative foundation. Strong data science, statistical, and causal‑inference / econometric skills, with fluency in Python, SQL, or similar. You can frame a question, design the analysis, build the model, and defend the methodology.
• Original research experience. You've run benchmarks, market studies, or performance studies — designing the question and the method, not just running standard reports.
• An SEO / search discovery background. You understand discovery from the inside and have grown into rigorous, data‑driven measurement of it.
• Experimentation chops. You've designed and run A/B tests or similar to validate an idea and separate signal from noise.
• Storytelling with data. You can turn raw numbers into a clear narrative and a defensible point of view, and explain complex findings to non‑technical audiences.
• Comfort with ambiguity. You can help build a measurement function from scratch, not just execute one someone else designed.
• Deep curiosity about commerce. Genuine interest in e‑commerce, marketing, and analytics — you want to understand why shoppers and algorithms behave the way they do.

Nice to have

• External recognition for your research — press, whitepapers, published benchmarks, or conference talks.
• Customer‑facing or consulting experience — you're comfortable presenting findings and recommendations directly to customers.
• Familiarity with the AEO/GEO tooling landscape and how brands currently try to measure AI visibility.
• Experience at an e‑commerce, martech, or search company or working closely with retail brands and their product data.
• An advanced degree or academic research background in economics, digital markets, computational social science, or a related quantitative field.

Pay range

136,000 - 182,000 USD per year (San Francisco)