Localyst Data Scientist (Full Time, Remote)

Position: Localyst Data Scientist (Full Time, Remote)

Organization: Localyst

Reports to: VP of the Data & Tech, Mariia Vysochina

Direct Reports: N/A

Location: Full-time, 100% remote position in the United States (from home or co-working space) with occasional travel once every 2-3 months

COVID-19: We take Covid-19 safety very seriously. Employees must follow our Covid safety protocols and be fully vaccinated and boosted. Accommodations are provided to the extent required by law. For employees based in the state of Florida and Texas, the COVID-19 vaccine is encouraged but not required due to Florida and Texas state laws.

About Localyst

Localyst is a mission-driven non-profit dedicated to making a meaningful impact in the fight against the climate crisis. Localyst attracts and engages subscribers through innovative digital storytelling on Facebook Messenger and Instagram. By regularly broadcasting stories that resonate with diverse communities, Localyst builds long term relationships with subscribers based on highly engaging content, and encourages subscribers to take various forms of civic action, like registering to vote, and casting votes on Election Day.

Localyst is a digital media venture within Accelerate Change (AC), which is a nonprofit media lab dedicated to catalyzing new scalable and sustainable digital media models for citizen engagement. See “The Secret of Scale” for more on AC’s model for scalable citizen organizing read and see “The Promise of Lean Experimentation” for AC’s approach to experimentation using Lean Startup methodologies and other business strategies, both from the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

About the Position

Localyst is seeking a focused, mission-driven Data Scientist to lead our experimentation strategy and help us understand how different audience segments respond to campaigns. You’ll scope A/B tests, evaluate results with statistical rigor, and build lightweight models to help us target more effectively. You won’t be building data pipelines or dashboards, you’ll be working with clean data from our warehouse, supported by the data team.

This role is a fit for someone who’s great at designing tests, interpreting user behavior, and turning findings into usable insights, especially in a fast-moving, high-impact environment.

Here’s what you could expect to do as Data Scientist (key responsibilities):

• Design and validate A/B and multivariate experiments with clear hypotheses, metrics, and lift thresholds
• Analyze engagement performance by geography, audience type, message variation, and more
• Build simple clustering or scoring models (e.g., KMeans, logistic regression) to support targeting
• Collaborate with analysts and engagement leads to interpret results and identify next steps
• Maintain documentation of experiments, test logic, and learning
• Work with the VP of Data & Tech to ensure models and experiments are scalable and sound

We’ll also look for the Data Scientist to:

• TBD. As part of a rapidly growing organization, you’ll need to embrace change and that your responsibilities will shift over time. Pitching in to help with the needs of your department and the overall Central Team is an important part of your role.
• Help advance our goal of becoming an anti-racist organization. Within your role, apply equitable work practices, challenge white supremacy, and help make our programs more inclusive. Center our understanding that multiple systems of oppression intersect with racism and be an active part of our values work.
• Take an entrepreneurial approach to their work and learning new skills. In our fast-paced, unstructured environment, we love it when staff first try to figure things out on their own and then ask for help if they’re stuck.
• Seek out opportunities to deepen their skills on current/emerging platforms and with lean startup methodology. We take an individualized approach to growth where staff have the chance to explore and propose development opportunities that align with their interests and the team’s priorities.

What We’re Looking For

• Commitment to social change. Localyst is a mission-driven organization focused on social change and social justice, with a focus on communities of color. You have a demonstrated commitment to this work and you’d like to be part of a team of people who do, too. You believe in clean energy, local community power, and bringing more honesty and intelligence into how we communicate with the public.
• 3+ years experience with key responsibilities: We’re looking for someone who has at least 3 years of experience in data science, experimentation, or behavioral analytics.
• Statistical and causal analysis: Strong skills in statistics, hypothesis testing, and basic causal inference
• SQL and Python proficiency: Proficiency in SQL and Python
• A/B testing experience: Experience with A/B test design, interpretation, and pitfalls (e.g., false positives, sample bias)
• Clear communication: You communicate findings clearly and guide non-technical collaborators.
• Pattern detection: You have a sharp eye for patterns, inconsistencies, and practical takeaways.
• Curious, impact-driven mindset: You have a mindset of curiosity, clarity, and impact, you care about what works, not just what’s technically possible.
• Predictive modeling experience: Experience with clustering, lead scoring, or basic predictive models is a plus.
• Data tools familiarity: Familiarity with dbt, BigQuery, or Airflow (as a consumer of data) is a plus.

Benefits

• $78,000 - 91,000 salary range, with exact salary depending on experience and new staff rarely starting at the top of the range.
• Flexibility for work and life: Unlike a lot of places, we actually believe that people should only work 40 hours each week, except for occasional sprints that require more time in a week. We also trust everyone to make a schedule that works for them, as long as you’re able to join all necessary meetings. Want to work more one day and less the next? Fine by us. Work better in the middle of the night than during the afternoon? Go for it. Need to shift your hours to be able to pick up your kid from school? All good.
• Health care at the beginning of your employment with individual premiums fully covered and cost-share for dependents. Vision and dental plans are available at-cost to the individual.
• 15 paid vacation days, 6 paid holidays, 3 paid floating holidays each year and 7.5 paid sick days each year
• Professional development funds, with renewal of funds each fiscal year
• Cell phone and internet reimbursement (or co-working reimbursement): We acknowledge that working from home requires using your own internet and phone for work purposes so we offer a set reimbursement amount for cell phone and internet usage. If working from home isn’t for you, we also have the option for folks to rent a co-working space and get reimbursed for their monthly costs.
• Need-based educational loan assistance after 3 months
• 401K contributions and matching program available at the beginning of your employment
• Annual office closure during the last week in December

Apply

To apply, please upload your resume and tell us more about your experience on the application on our website.

Localyst is incubated by Accelerate Change; Accelerate Change is an equal opportunity employer. We believe that people of color, people from working class backgrounds, women, and LGBTQIA+ people must be centered in the work we do. Hence, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities.

Benefits

• $78,000 - 91,000 salary range, with exact salary depending on experience and new staff rarely starting at the top of the range.
• Flexibility for work and life: Unlike a lot of places, we actually believe that people should only work 40 hours each week, except for occasional sprints that require more time in a week. We also trust everyone to make a schedule that works for them, as long as you’re able to join all necessary meetings. Want to work more one day and less the next? Fine by us. Work better in the middle of the night than during the afternoon? Go for it. Need to shift your hours to be able to pick up your kid from school? All good.
• Health care at the beginning of your employment with individual premiums fully covered and cost-share for dependents. Vision and dental plans are available at-cost to the individual.
• 15 paid vacation days, 6 paid holidays, 3 paid floating holidays each year and 7.5 paid sick days each year
• Professional development funds, with renewal of funds each fiscal year
• Cell phone and internet reimbursement (or co-working reimbursement): We acknowledge that working from home requires using your own internet and phone for work purposes so we offer a set reimbursement amount for cell phone and internet usage. If working from home isn’t for you, we also have the option for folks to rent a co-working space and get reimbursed for their monthly costs.
• Need-based educational loan assistance after 3 months
• 401K contributions and matching program available at the beginning of your employment
• Annual office closure during the last week in December