Lead Economist

A home is the biggest investment most people make, and yet, it doesn’t come with a manual. That's why we’re building the only app homeowners need to effortlessly manage their homes —  knowing what to do, when to do it, and who to hire. With Thumbtack, millions of people care for what matters most, and pros earn billions of dollars through our platform. And as one of the fastest-growing companies in a $500B industry — we must be doing something right. 

We are driven by a common goal and the deep satisfaction that comes from knowing our work supports local economies, helps small businesses grow, and brings homeowners peace of mind. We’re seeking people who continually put our purpose first: advocating for pros and customers, embracing change, and choosing teamwork every day.

At Thumbtack, we're creating a new era of home care. If making an impact and the chance to do good inspires you, join us. Imagine what we’ll build together. 

Thumbtack by the Numbers

• Available nationwide in all 3,143 U.S. counties
• 70 million projects started on Thumbtack
• More than 4 million customers in the last 12 months
• Pros earn billions on our platform
• More than 8 million 5-star reviews for our stellar pros 
• 1000+ employees and $3.2 billion valuation (June, 2021)

About the Analytics Team

Thumbtack’s Analytics team is a tight-knit group charged with empowering Thumbtack to use data to guide decisions. We collaborate with teams across the company on a wide variety of impactful projects; everything from exploring click-level data on user experiences to evaluating the impact of a new business model on company performance. We focus on telling the story of our business in a way that inspires action.

About the Research Analytics Team

Economists at Thumbtack sit within the Research Analytics team, a centralized group of Economists and Analysts that focuses on wide-ranging areas of our business from product strategy to communications.  Our charter is to influence business decisions, enhance scientific rigor, and improve the operational efficiency of other analysts and data scientists at the company.  We do this by creating new tools, methods, and insights using approaches from the frontier of Economics, and in a way that is easily accessible to wide ranging audiences.  Past focus areas include experimentation, marketplace dynamics, pricing, platform economics, choice modeling, forecasting, market simulations, and much more.  

About the Role

The role of Lead Economist at Thumbtack is a unique opportunity to have autonomy and use your Economics training and expertise to shape the strategy and operation of a growing marketplace.  As a Lead Economist, you will lead high-impact projects from end-to-end, including identifying important opportunities, collaborating with cross-functional teams, conducting rigorous economic analyses, and communicating results to stakeholders at all levels of the organization.  In some cases your insights will shape product roadmaps, while in others you will build tools that are used by other analysts or by engineers in the product.  As a senior member of the team, you will also contribute to our broader analytics team and scientific company culture by providing consulting and leading courses. 

Responsibilities

Lead Economists have a balanced mix of responsibilities including deep analytics, cross-functional collaboration, insights communication, and business acumen and strategic thinking:

• Identifies, scopes, and delivers projects on their own with high impact, leveraging the right resources
• Proactively coordinate and collaborate with cross-functional partners to maximize the impact of your work
• Clearly communicate insights and business implications to ranging audiences with the appropriate levels of complexity, using powerful ideas to shape team roadmaps 
• Apply economic theory to provide insight and frameworks for how to think about important questions in simple and intuitive ways 
• Apply advanced econometric methods that appropriately balance rigor with practical considerations (time to complete, marginal value of complexity, etc)
• Manage and prioritize simultaneous projects with competing demands, executing and delivering results within pre-committed timelines
• Lead courses on applied economics and mentor other analysts 

Must-Have Qualifications

If you don't think you meet all of the criteria below but still are interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box, and we're looking for someone excited to join the team.

• PhD in Economics or related field
• 3+ years of professional experience in economics, analytics, or data science (e.g. in tech, consulting, government, etc)
• Proficiency with the full empirical economics toolkit (methods for causal inference such as IV, panel data methods, discrete models, etc)
• Familiarity with and interest in economics concepts related to marketplaces (network effects, dynamic pricing, product differentiation, reputation systems, matching mechanisms, etc) 
• Proficiency with R or Python, including strong data visualization skills 
• Experience setting up, running, and analyzing experiments
• Exemplary analytical problem-solving skills, including strong business judgment and innovative solutions, and the ability to thrive in ambiguity

Nice-To-Have Qualifications

• Professional experience working on a marketplace or platform product
• Experience with common ML methods, especially those with applications to economics (causal trees,  lasso variable selection, etc) 
• Running experiments in network or platform/market settings
• Academic research related to marketplaces 
• Current or prior technical depth in data extraction and data infrastructure
• Experience with code management tooling such as Github

Benefits & Perks

• Virtual-first working model coupled with quarterly in-person events and Camp Thumbtack
• 20+ company-wide holidays including two week-long shutdowns
• Libraries (collaborative workspaces) in San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Toronto, and Manila
• Stipends for remote work support, home office set-up and internet
• Subscriptions and Employee Assistance Program for mental health and well-being
• Cell Phone Reimbursement, Thumbtack services (North America only)

Thumbtack embraces diversity. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and do not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, age, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, military or veteran status, genetic information, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial, state, or local law. We also will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, consistent with applicable law. If you are a California resident, please review information regarding your rights under California privacy laws contained in Thumbtack’s Privacy policy available at https://www.thumbtack.com/privacy/. 

Thumbtack is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation for a medical condition or disability during any part of the application process, please contact recruitingops@thumbtack.com. 

*Currently, Thumbtackers can live anywhere in Ontario or British Columbia, Canada or the Philippines or in any of the following US states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, Washington DC. Our long term vision is to hire across all of the United States and Canada, but this expansion will take a few years.