Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This Data Scientist role sits at the intersection of analytics and financial decision-making, a combination that is increasingly central in SaaS where recurring revenue models make forecasting, attribution, and unit economics measurable and actionable. The remit spans investment allocation and performance measurement across Product, Engineering, and Go-To-Market, reflecting how modern SaaS companies rely on shared metrics to steer both growth and spend.
For a long-term SaaS career, the value is in building fluency across the full revenue engine rather than optimizing a single funnel or feature area. Work like causal inference for impact measurement, segmentation frameworks, and standardized reporting maps closely to how SaaS leaders evaluate experiments, pricing moves, and go-to-market motions over time. Ownership of models and dashboards also develops the habit of turning analysis into durable internal products, a transferable skill across data-driven subscription businesses.
This role tends to fit someone who prefers ambiguous, high-stakes problem spaces and can translate technical work into clear narratives for senior stakeholders. It also suits candidates who enjoy cross-functional operating rhythms and want to be accountable for end-to-end analytical systems, not only one-off research outputs.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
About the Team
The Strategic Finance team is responsible for some of the largest investment categories at OpenAI. We play a critical role in maximizing OpenAI’s long-term value by partnering across the business to allocate and deploy resources for the highest-impact outcomes. We work cross-functionally with Finance, Product, Engineering, and Go-To-Market teams to deliver actionable insights and support strategic decision-making.
About the Role
As one of the founding Data Scientists on the Strategic Finance Data Science team, you will design, implement, and own critical models, reporting, and analysis. You will work closely with Finance leadership, as well as teams across Research, Applied and Go-To-Market.
This role requires deep expertise in predictive modeling, causal inference, and the ability to surface insights to support high-stakes decision-making.
This role is based in our San Francisco HQ. We use a hybrid work model of three days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.
In this role, you will:
Become an expert in OpenAI’s data and systems. Partnering with Data Engineering, Finance, and other teams, you’ll self-serve data to derive critical insights.
Scale causal inference models to measure the impact of different actions on user growth and financial outcomes.
Architect customer segmentation frameworks to unlock tailored growth strategies and expand lifetime value.
Automate standardized reporting and analysis by building data products or agentic solutions.
Support product pricing and other business decisions with ad hoc analysis.
Design and deliver dashboards for leadership to track key performance indicators and enable optimal decision-making.
Manage and lead cross-functional data science projects end-to-end.
You might thrive in this role if you have:
MS or PhD in a quantitative field, with 10+ years of experience in a highly quantitative role, ideally as an early data scientist at a hyper-growth company or research organization.
Proficiency in Python, SQL, Tableau, and other analytical tools.
Strong analytical skills and experience working with large, complex data sets.
Proven ability to distill complex data into actionable insights for leadership.
Ability to independently initiate and complete projects, owning them end-to-end.
Excellent communication and storytelling skills when presenting data insights.
Exceptional attention to detail and a commitment to accuracy.
You could be an especially great fit if:
You’re an enthusiastic self-starter who thrives in fast-paced, dynamic environments.
You’re a phenomenal teammate and communicator, able to explain complex topics with clarity and keep stakeholders proactively informed.
You’re passionate about technology and artificial intelligence.
You use first-principles thinking to design solutions from the ground up based on user needs and operational realities.
About OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.
We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.
For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.
Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.
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We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.
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