Senior Data Scientist, Trust

Linktree; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing allowance

Medical, dental, vision, disability, &

Employer retirement contribution

Generous time off

Employee stock option program

Job summary

Linktree is seeking a Senior Data Scientist for its Trust team to protect the integrity and health of our platform. You will apply data science, statistics, and modeling to define how we measure harm, assess risk, and improve detection and mitigation across engineering, product, policy, and operations.

You’ll build the core measurement framework that underpins Trust, partner with teams to size abuse patterns, evaluate ML and LLM safety systems, and deliver dashboards and executive-ready insights

Qualifications

• 5+ years as a Data Scientist in a product-driven technology company.
• Direct experience in Trust & Safety, Integrity, Fraud, Security, or other risk-focused domains.
• Ability to define and operationalize metric frameworks (e.g., Prevalence, Recall, and False Positive Rates).
• Experience evaluating machine learning models, including offline methodology, performance tradeoffs (precision/recall, calibration), and production monitoring.
• Advanced SQL proficiency and fluency in Python (or R) for advanced analytics and modeling.
• Strong foundation in statistics, experimentation design, and causal inference.
• Experience working within mature data platforms and analytics engineering stacks (e.g., DBT, Dagster, Airflow).
• Experience designing intuitive, decision-oriented dashboards and compelling data visualizations using tools such as Hex, Looker, Tableau, or PowerBI.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate complex statistical findings and risk tradeoffs into clear recommendations for cross-functional stakeholders.
• Bachelor’s Degree in a quantitative field (Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Physics, Economics, or related); an advanced degree (MS/PhD) is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

• Define and operationalize the core Trust metric frameworks that anchor company‑wide north star goals and cross‑functional team performance
• Refine and validate the scoring model used to assess Linktree quality and risk, ensuring heuristic logic is measurable, calibrated, and aligned with policy standards
• Build and maintain production‑grade datasets and dashboards that provide reliable visibility into platform risk and system performance
• Identify and size emerging abuse patterns through deep‑dive analysis, and translate findings into clear product, policy, operations and engineering priorities
• Partner with Engineering to define evaluation frameworks for ML detection and LLM‑based safety systems, including ground truth design and performance benchmarking
• Monitor model health in production (e.g., precision, recall, calibration, drift) and proactively surface degradation, bias, or failure model
• Support Trust incident response through rapid analysis, impact sizing, and postmortem insights that drive durable improvements
• Communicate risk trends and model performance insights through clear visualizations and executive‑ready narratives

Skills

Data science

Trust & Safety

SQL

Python

Statistics

Causal inference

Experimentation design

Data visualization

Education

Bachelor's degree in quantitative field

MS/PhD preferred

Tools

DBT

Dagster

Airflow

Looker

Tableau

PowerBI

Hex

Job description

The Role

As a Senior Data Scientist on Linktree’s Trust team, you will play a key role in protecting the integrity and health of our platform. You will apply your expertise in data science and statistical modeling to define how we measure harm, assess platform risk, and continuously improve our detection and mitigation systems.

In this role, you will build and scale the core measurement framework that underpins Trust at Linktree, establishing clear, defensible definitions of harm prevalence, enforcement effectiveness, and user impact. You will partner closely with Engineering, Product, Policy, Legal, and Operations to identify emerging abuse patterns, size their impact, and ensure our mitigation systems are effective and aligned with our risk tolerance.

You will also play a central role in evaluating and strengthening our ML and LLM‑based safety systems. This includes defining high‑quality ground truth datasets, establishing statistically sound evaluation benchmarks, and implementing monitoring frameworks to ensure model quality and reliability in production. In partnership with Engineering, you will identify failure modes, improve detection quality, and build monitoring frameworks that keep our systems effective as abuse patterns evolve.

Your work will directly shape how Linktree understands and prioritizes platform risk and measures the effectiveness of its trust and safety investments.

What You’ll Own

• Define and operationalize the core Trust metric frameworks that anchor company‑wide north star goals and cross‑functional team performance
• Refine and validate the scoring model used to assess Linktree quality and risk, ensuring heuristic logic is measurable, calibrated, and aligned with policy standards
• Build and maintain production‑grade datasets and dashboards that provide reliable visibility into platform risk and system performance
• Identify and size emerging abuse patterns through deep‑dive analysis, and translate findings into clear product, policy, operations and engineering priorities
• Partner with Engineering to define evaluation frameworks for ML detection and LLM‑based safety systems, including ground truth design and performance benchmarking
• Monitor model health in production (e.g., precision, recall, calibration, drift) and proactively surface degradation, bias, or failure model
• Support Trust incident response through rapid analysis, impact sizing, and postmortem insights that drive durable improvements
• Communicate risk trends and model performance insights through clear visualizations and executive‑ready narratives

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years as a Data Scientist in a product‑driven technology company
• Direct experience in Trust & Safety, Integrity, Fraud, Security, or other risk‑focused domains
• Proven ability to define and operationalize metric frameworks (e.g., Prevalence, Recall, and False Positive Rates) to evaluate the effectiveness of product, policy, or ML‑driven interventions
• Experience evaluating machine learning models, including offline methodology, performance tradeoffs (precision/recall, calibration), and production monitoring
• Advanced SQL proficiency and fluency in Python (or R) for advanced analytics and modeling
• Strong foundation in statistics, experimentation design, and causal inference
• Experience working within mature data platforms and analytics engineering stacks (e.g., DBT, Dagster, Airflow)
• Experience designing intuitive, decision‑oriented dashboards and compelling data visualizations using tools such as Hex, Looker, Tableau, or PowerBI
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate complex statistical findings and risk tradeoffs into clear recommendations for cross‑functional stakeholders
• Bachelor’s Degree in a quantitative field (Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Physics, Economics, or related); an advanced degree (MS/PhD) is a strong plus.

How We’ll Help You Thrive

• An annual wellbeing allowance to use on things like (but not limited to) fitness memberships, development courses, childcare, travel, charitable donations, pet insurance, home office set‑up - the choice is yours!
• 100% coverage (and 80% for your dependents) of your monthly premiums for medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance for US‑based employees.
• Employer contribution towards your retirement.
• Generous time off for vacation, holidays, parental leave, volunteer time, and other categories.
• Employee stock option program – we want each and every employee to share in the company’s success.

At Linktree, we believe in promoting a culture that celebrates unique backgrounds, talents, and experiences, and we’re proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are creating an inclusive workplace where every individual feels valued, respected, and has equal opportunities to thrive. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment where all team members have a sense of belonging. Linktree welcomes all people regardless of sex, gender identity, race, ethnicity, disability, pregnancy, age or other lived experience. If you require accommodations to fully participate in our opportunities, please don't hesitate to reach us at [e-mail] – your needs are important to us.