About Marley Spoon

Marley Spoon is a food-tech company helping people cook better, eat smarter, and waste less. We build meal kits using data across menu planning, marketing, operations, and logistics. We’re hiring a Lead Data Scientist – Growth & Personalization in Portugal, in a remote-first setup (with the option to join colleagues in our Lisbon office for collaboration days).

About the Role

Reporting to the VP Data & AI, you’ll lead a small, high-impact team of Data Scientists and ML-oriented analysts. You’ll partner closely with Digital (Product, Design, Engineering) and Marketing to build models that ship and drive measurable growth.

In your first 12–18 months, you’ll focus on:

1) Own personalization & recommendations (core mandate)

• Build, improve, and operate recommender systems that tailor menus, content, and customer experiences across our brands.

• Apply ranking, uplift modeling, and experimentation to help customers find meals they genuinely want—improving first-box conversion and repeat rate.

• Work with Product and Design to turn model outputs into simple, intuitive product flows.

2) Drive growth analytics & marketing effectiveness

• Create modeling and measurement frameworks for LTV, CAC payback, attribution, and targeting across paid and lifecycle channels.

• Partner with Growth and CRM to design and evaluate experiments (offers, onboarding, lifecycle journeys) and translate results into decisions.

• Support marketing investment choices with scenario analysis, trade-offs, and clear recommendations.

3) Reduce churn & improve retention

• Develop and iterate churn / reactivation models to identify at-risk customers and the most effective retention levers.

• Collaborate with Product, CRM, and Customer Care on targeted interventions, validating impact via controlled tests.

4) Raise the bar on production ML

• Own the full lifecycle of key models: framing, data selection, training, deployment, monitoring, and retraining.

• Partner with data/platform teams to ensure ML services are observable and reliable (versioning, alerting, performance tracking).

5) Lead & grow a small DS/ML team

• Mentor and coach 2–3 Data Scientists / ML-focused analysts, helping them own meaningful roadmap areas.

• Provide clarity, feedback, and a psychologically safe environment where learning and experimentation are normal.

6) Champion an experimentation & data-first culture

• Help teams design strong A/B tests, interpret results, and balance speed with rigor.

• Communicate clearly with non-technical stakeholders: what the model indicates, what it doesn’t, and where uncertainty remains.

You’ll occasionally support Analytics and Operations on forecasting or supply/demand work, but your primary ownership is growth and personalization (not “everything data”)

About You

You’re a hands-on, technically strong Data Scientist who has already begun leading—and you’re excited about a role where you can both build and shape a function.

You’ll likely have:

• 6+ years in Data Science / ML, including 3+ years in a lead role delivering production ML.

• Strong depth in at least one: recommender systems, experimentation platforms, growth analytics, or retention/churn modeling.

• Proficiency in Python, SQL, and common ML tooling (scikit-learn, XGBoost, PyTorch, or similar).

• Evidence you’ve tied models to outcomes (retention lift, conversion uplift, marketing ROI, operational efficiency, etc.).

• Familiarity with modern data stacks (cloud warehouse like Snowflake or similar, BI tools like Looker, ML orchestration/deployment tooling).

• Confidence communicating trade-offs, uncertainty, and results to both technical and non-technical partners.

• A practical, collaborative mindset—optimizing for what works, scales, and gets adopted.

How We Work

• This is a remote role within Portugal. We do periodic in-person meetups (workshops, planning, team days). You can join sessions in Lisbon or other hubs—no weekly office requirement.

• You’ll be part of a Data Tribe spanning Data, Analytics, and ML across brands and markets, with peers who value craft, impact, and knowledge-sharing.

• Day to day, you’ll work closely with Digital and Marketing, converting ideas into experiments and models into shipped product features.

Please note: we’re currently only able to consider candidates who already have the right to work in Portugal. We’re not able to sponsor visas for this role.

Benefits:

• 22 annual leave days + 2 additional days per year of tenure (up to 6).

• 5 training days per year.

• Private health insurance via Tranquilidade.

• Meal/food allowance of €7.62 per worked day via Coverflex.

• 24/7 confidential Employee Assistance Program.