Staff Applied Scientist, Financial Forecasting

The shape of it

In the posting’s own words

We're seeking a Staff Machine Learning Data Scientist to lead consumption forecasting at Vercel. This is a staff-level technical leadership role: you'll architect the ML systems and modeling approach behind forecasting that powers financial planning, infrastructure investment, and executive decision-making, and set the technical direction other data scientists and engineers build against.

What it asks for · 8

• 8+ years of experience in machine learning, data science, or applied statistics, with a track record of operating at a staff or principal level.
• Deep, hands-on expertise in advanced time-series forecasting and ML modeling techniques (deep learning architectures for forecasting, Bayesian/probabilistic modeling, hierarchical reconciliation), not just applied statistics.
• Proven experience architecting and productionizing ML systems at scale, including the infrastructure for training, serving, monitoring, and retraining models in production.
• Strong Python and SQL proficiency, with deep experience on large-scale usage and billing datasets, plus a strong grounding in causal inference and experimentation design.
• Experience setting technical direction and partnering closely with Finance or executive leadership on planning cycles, as a peer to senior stakeholders, with the ability to translate advanced ML concepts into decision-ready insights for non-technical audiences.
• A track record of technical leadership: setting standards, mentoring senior ICs, and influencing how an organization approaches ML and forecasting.
• Comfortable defining ambiguous, high-stakes problems from scratch and operating autonomously in a fast-moving environment.
• Experience in cloud infrastructure, developer tools, or consumption-based revenue models.

Also a plus

• Background in capacity planning or cost modeling at scale.
• Experience with modern data and ML stacks (e.g., Snowflake, Delta Lake, dbt, Airflow, feature stores, MLOps tooling).
• Prior experience as a technical lead for a data science or ML team, even without formal management authority.

What the job covers

• Architect and own Vercel's end-to-end consumption forecasting ML systems across compute, bandwidth, edge functions, storage, and emerging products.
• Design and productionize advanced ML approaches for time-series forecasting (deep learning-based forecasting, probabilistic/Bayesian methods, hierarchical and hybrid statistical-ML architectures), going beyond standard forecasting libraries where the problem demands it.
• Develop multi-horizon forecasting systems, from operational to quarterly to long-range planning, including hierarchical architectures that reconcile predictions across account, cohort, segment, and global aggregate levels.
• Build the ML infrastructure and tooling for backtesting, monitoring, drift detection, and forecast explainability, setting the standard other data scientists build on.
• Develop scenario simulation and causal inference frameworks to evaluate pricing changes, packaging adjustments, and product launches before they ship.
• Partner directly with Finance leadership on board-level reporting and revenue planning, and with Infrastructure Engineering on capacity planning and cost optimization, acting as the technical authority on what the models can and can't tell them.
• Work with Product and GTM teams to model adoption curves, expansion dynamics, and usage drivers using advanced causal and predictive techniques.
• Set technical standards for ML methodology, experimentation, and measurement across the Data organization, and mentor senior data scientists and ML engineers.

Tools and skills named

Words the posting leans on

• forecasting11×
• data8×
• experience7×
• technical7×
• infrastructure6×
• planning6×
• leadership5×
• modeling5×
• systems5×
• advanced4×
• build4×
• deep4×
• models4×
• product4×
• standard4×
• approaches3×

Counted from the posting after the mission statement and the legal notices are set aside. The ones near the top are the ones a screener is looking for.

More open at Vercel

• Account Executive, CommercialHybrid - London
• Account Executive, MajorsHybrid - London
• Account Executive, Majors (APAC)Hybrid - Sydney
• Account Executive, Majors- Install Base (APAC)Hybrid - Sydney
• Account Executive-Startups, EMEA (French Speaker)Hybrid - London
• Business Development Representative, MajorsHybrid - San Francisco, New York City, Austin