Instacart is hiring a Senior Data Scientist II in Toronto!
Instacart is hiring a Senior Data Scientist II for its Ads Optimization team, the group responsible for the bidding, pacing, budgeting, and targeting systems behind a $1B+ advertising business. Based in Toronto but open to remote work within Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, or Nova Scotia, the role sits where data science, economics, and production engineering meet. The successful candidate will shape how advertising supply and demand are matched and how value is divided among users, advertisers, retail partners, and Instacart itself, working through the full cycle from framing a problem to measuring and refining it in live systems. This is a senior individual-contributor position with a mentoring and technical-leadership component.
Key responsibilities
- Set the analytics and experimentation strategy for pacing, targeting, and adjacent optimization areas
- Develop intelligent pacing algorithms and budget allocation systems using adaptive control and model-predictive control, deployed in high-throughput environments
- Design and run end-to-end experiments across optimization systems, resolving ambiguous or conflicting results and turning them into recommendations for Product and Engineering leadership
- Apply causal inference, statistical modeling, and machine learning to decide how ad spend is spread across time and auction opportunities
- Present findings and strategy to leadership across Product, Engineering, and Data Science
- Act as a technical anchor and thought leader in Ads Optimization, setting analytical standards and mentoring colleagues
- Work with Ads Product and Sales to gather advertiser feedback and shape optimization priorities
Key requirements
- Hands-on ads optimization experience at an ad tech company, in pacing, targeting, budget allocation, or similar systems
- Strong grounding in product and data analysis, A/B testing, causal inference, and statistical modeling
- Track record of shipping optimization systems to production with real measurement and iteration
- Clear communication with the ability to translate complex technical work for senior business and engineering audiences
- 6+ years in data science or a related field
- Preferred: experience partnering with an ads product or sales team, or directly with advertisers
- Preferred: background in budget-constrained allocation, adaptive control, or model-predictive control in production
- Seniority: Senior (II), 6+ years experience
- Work mode: Remote (Flex First); hiring only in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia
- Salary: $192,000 - $202,500 CAD
- Key skills: Ads optimization, Pacing algorithms, Budget allocation, Adaptive control, Model-predictive control, A/B experimentation, Causal inference, Statistical modeling, Machine learning, Production systems, Stakeholder communication, Mentoring
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