At Earnest, our mission is to make higher education accessible and affordable for everyone. We empower students with the financial support they need to manage and pay down their debt, helping them get on the right financial track quickly.

We offer tools designed to help individuals take control of their financial futures, including:

• Private Student Loans: Competitive rates, personalized service, and flexible payment options.
• Student Loan Refinancing: Opportunities to escape high-interest rates and burdensome monthly payments.
• Scholarships: Access to thousands of scholarships to help reduce education costs.

Our team, known as Earnies, is dedicated to helping students thrive, free from the stress of student debt. If you’re passionate about our mission, we invite you to join us in creating something impactful!

What Defines Our Earnie Culture

• Drivers: We seek individuals who take initiative and ownership of their projects, demanding high standards from themselves and their teams.
• Humility: We value team players who prioritize collective needs over personal ego, demonstrating self-awareness and a willingness to improve.
• Growth Mindset: We embrace challenges as learning opportunities, actively seeking and giving feedback to enhance performance.

Position: Data Scientist II

The Data Scientist II will report to the Manager of Data Science. In this role, you will:

• Design and implement ETL pipelines to ingest data from operational systems, third-party sources, and public datasets into our data warehouse, transforming data for user consumption and model training.
• Extract data for model training from various sources, including data warehouses (e.g., Earnest, Navient), production databases, and publicly available datasets.
• Prototype machine learning models by applying best practices in feature engineering, model selection, and validation, using frameworks such as Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, and PyTorch.
• Communicate the impact of models and analyses to stakeholders through presentations and reports, providing actionable recommendations to optimize products and underwriting policies.

Your Impact

You will guide product recommendations and model development, effectively communicating analyses and results to the Data team to support data-driven business decisions. This role involves creating innovative analytical approaches and developing efficient data querying and modeling strategies.

About You

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, or a related field.
• 3 years of experience developing traditional machine learning models using Python and advanced algorithms.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience with data warehouse systems such as Snowflake, Airflow, and DBT to support data-driven model development.
• Willingness to travel to the Oakland office monthly for team collaboration.

Even Better

• A PhD in Machine Learning or a related field, or a Master’s degree with equivalent experience and 1-2 years in the industry.

Location

This role is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. While remote work is flexible, we encourage our Earnies to visit our Oakland office for three consecutive days each month for collaboration and connection over coffee!

Pay Philosophy

We are committed to fair and equitable compensation for our employees. The starting salary for this role will be determined based on qualifications, internal equity, and budget considerations.

Pay Range

$142,000—$160,000 USD

Employee Benefits

Earnest is dedicated to helping our employees thrive in both their personal and professional lives. We offer a range of competitive benefits, including:

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage, along with savings plans.
• Mac computers and a work-from-home stipend to set up your home office.
• Monthly internet and phone reimbursement.
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).
• 401(k) plan with company matching.
• Robust tuition reimbursement program.
• A $1,000 travel perk for each Earnie-versary to anywhere in the world.
• Generous annual PTO, including an annual “my day.”
• Pet insurance.
• Competitive parental leave.
• Earnest swag, in-person gatherings, picnics, celebrations, and engaging virtual events.

Diversity and Inclusion Commitment

At Earnest, we strive to create an inclusive environment where all employees feel valued and heard. We believe that a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is essential to fulfilling our mission. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and encourage you to apply, even if your experience doesn’t match every qualification.

Earnest is an equal opportunity employer. We provide equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability, or genetics. Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered in accordance with the Fair Chance Ordinance.