Sr Lead Data Scientist - 11773

Lever, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Global Wellness Days

Birthday Time Off

Volunteer Time Off

Job summary

Coupa is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to own end-to-end machine learning features for supply chain and sourcing challenges. Build time series, NLP, and deep learning models, and deliver outputs that feed large-scale optimization engines.

You will partner with the Operations Research team to design scalable ML pipelines, mentor colleagues, and translate business goals into precise ML specifications for product and engineering leaders.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in a quantitative field (MS/PhD).
• 8+ years of industry experience deploying production ML models.
• Strong skills in predictive modeling, time-series forecasting, and modern ML frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end ML features for high-impact supply chain projects.
• Architect ML solutions to feed optimization engines and calibrate inputs.
• Design scalable ML pipelines with robust MLOps practices.
• Mentor senior and junior data scientists; establish code-review standards.
• Collaborate with Product Managers and Eng Leadership to translate business goals into ML specs.
• Engineer features from massive real-world datasets to improve model accuracy.

Skills

Machine learning

Time series

NLP

Deep learning

Python

SQL

CI/CD

MLOps

Communication

Leadership

Education

Master's or PhD in Data Science/CS/Statistics

Tools

Scikit-Learn

PyTorch

TensorFlow

XGBoost

Gurobi

CPLEX

AWS SageMaker

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Coupa makes margins multiply through its community-generated AI and industry-leading total spend management platform for businesses large and small. Coupa AI is informed by trillions of dollars of direct and indirect spend data across a global network of 10M+ buyers and suppliers. We empower you with the ability to predict, prescribe, and automate smarter, more profitable business decisions to improve operating margins.

Why join Coupa?

• Pioneering Technology: At Coupa, we're at the forefront of innovation, leveraging the latest technology to empower our customers with greater efficiency and visibility in their spend.
• Collaborative Culture: We value collaboration and teamwork, and our culture is driven by transparency, openness, and a shared commitment to excellence.
• Global Impact: Join a company where your work has a global, measurable impact on our clients, the business, and each other.

Learn more on Life at Coupa blog and hear from our employees about their experiences working at Coupa.

What You’ll Do

• Technical Execution & Ownership: Take end-to-end technical ownership of complex, high-impact machine learning features. Design, prototype, and implement advanced predictive models (Time Series, NLP, Deep Learning, Classification) to solve highly ambiguous supply chain and sourcing challenges.
• ML & OR Synergy: Act as the primary technical liaison to the Operations Research team. Architect machine learning solutions whose outputs (e.g., probabilistic forecasts, lead-time estimates) serve as high-quality, calibrated inputs for large-scale mathematical optimization engines.
• Architecture & Scalability (MLOps): Partner with software architects to design highly scalable, automated machine learning pipelines. Drive the adoption of robust MLOps practices, ensuring models are efficiently deployed, monitored, and retrained within Coupa’s multi-tenant SaaS platform.
• Technical Mentorship: Act as a force multiplier by mentoring senior and junior data scientists. Establish rigorous code review standards, lead system design sessions, and elevate the team's statistical and engineering practices.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Product Managers and Engineering leaders to define feature requirements, translate business objectives into technical ML specifications, and manage algorithmic trade-offs.
• Data Strategy: Lead efforts to engineer novel features from massive, complex, and messy real-world datasets, continuously identifying new internal and external data signals to improve model accuracy.

What You Will Bring to Coupa

• Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a closely related quantitative field.
• 8+ years of industry experience applying machine learning methods and deploying production-level models in commercial software environments.
• Expert knowledge of predictive modeling, time-series forecasting, and modern machine learning frameworks (e.g., Scikit-Learn, PyTorch, TensorFlow, XGBoost).
• Strong, production-grade programming proficiency in Python, with a solid understanding of software design patterns, object-oriented programming, and CI/CD best practices.
• Expert-level SQL skills and extensive experience with data manipulation and feature engineering on large datasets.
• Excellent communication skills, with a proven ability to explain highly complex statistical behaviors and model trade-offs to product and business leaders
• You are an elite machine learning practitioner who also loves writing clean, production-grade, scalable code.
• You are highly analytical, self-driven, and excel at converting ambiguous, high-level business goals into structured, elegant data science solutions.
• You are a natural technical leader who enjoys mentoring others and is passionate about cultivating a rigorous, collaborative, and fast-paced engineering culture.
• You embody Coupa’s core values: Ensure Customer Success, Focus on Results, and Strive for Excellence.

• What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)

  • Deep domain expertise in Supply Chain Network Design, Demand Planning, Strategic Procurement, or Logistics.
  • Familiarity with Operations Research concepts (e.g., Linear Programming, MIP) and experience building predictive models that interact with commercial solvers (such as Gurobi or CPLEX).
  • Hands-on experience developing and deploying ML microservices on cloud-native platforms (AWS SageMaker, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes).
  • Extensive experience with distributed computing frameworks (e.g., PySpark, Databricks) for processing large-scale datasets.
  • Experience integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) to extract features from unstructured enterprise text data.

The successful candidate’s starting salary will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location.

At Coupa, we are 100% committed to creating and nurturing an environment that supports your physical, mental, and community well-being. We offer a comprehensive suite of benefits designed to help you and your family thrive:

Global Well-Being Perks (For All Employees Globally)

• Global Wellness Days:Enjoy two designated, company-wide paid wellness daysoff each year (typically the first Friday in March and the last Friday in September) so the entire global team can unplug, step away, and recharge together.
• BirthdayTime-Off:Celebrate your day!Coupa provides a paid dayoffon yourbirthdayor another day of your choice within yourbirthdaymonth.
• VolunteerTimeOff(VTO):Giving back is in our DNA.We offer 40 hours of paid VTO annually to support the community initiatives and volunteer programs you are passionate about.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP):Access free, confidential, 24/7/365 counseling and resources for emotional support, work-life solutions, financial advice, legal guidance, and support for new parents.
• Business Travel Protection:Travel with peace of mind.Zurich Travel Assist provides medical, safety, pre-trip planning, and emergency support during any business travel.
• Referral Bonus Program:Share the Coupa experience!Receive generous monetary referral bonuses when you successfully refer talented friends or acquaintances who are hired into open roles.

Please note: In addition to these global well-being perks, Coupa offers highly competitive, location-specific benefits packages (which include comprehensive medical/dental insurance, retirement/pension plans, and life or accident protection) tailored to your primary work location. Your recruiter will walk you through the specific regional benefits package for this role during the interview process.

Coupa complies with relevant laws and regulations regarding equal opportunity and offers a welcoming and inclusive work environment. Decisions related to hiring, compensation, training, or evaluating performance are made fairly, and we provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified candidates and employees.

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