Senior Data Scientist – Mail Intelligence

Yahoo Mail is the ultimate consumer inbox with hundreds of millions of users. It’s the best way to access your email and stay organized from a computer, phone or tablet. With its beautiful design and lightning fast speed, Yahoo Mail makes reading, organizing, and sending emails easier than ever.

About Our Team:

As part of Yahoo Mail Data Science & Analytics, our team is the driving force behind experimental analysis, data science, and business intelligence for Yahoo Mail. We thrive on data and insights to craft outstanding product experiences. Our commitment is towards providing data-driven guidance that fuels user growth and product innovation, maintaining high-quality data standards, and devising insightful A/B tests and advanced analyses.

Mail Intelligence is the intelligent layer of Yahoo Mail, responsible for overseeing end-to-end AI and machine learning components within the platform. The squad delivers cutting-edge AI capabilities that enhance user experience, scales personalization features, powers AI-driven functionalities (including generative AI and LLMs), and provides smart signals and insights driven by Mail data across the Yahoo ecosystem.

Key Capabilities include:

• Mail Content Classification & Targeting (Kamino taxonomy, spam/abuse detection)

• Mail Extraction (product, coupon, travel, and event extraction)

• Text Summarization & TLDR

• User Action Predictions & Personalization (Priority Inbox, user profiles, segmentation)

• AI-Powered Experiences (Smart Reply, Nudges, ranking & arbitration)

Why Join Us:

• Be at the forefront of AI innovation in one of the world's largest consumer email platforms.

• Work alongside a world-class team of ML engineers, research scientists, and product leaders building the intelligent layer of Yahoo Mail.

• Shape the analytics strategy for capabilities that directly impact 200M+ monthly users.

• Grow your career in a high-visibility role with direct influence on Yahoo Mail's AI-driven product roadmap.

Position Overview:

As a Senior Data Scientist for Yahoo Mail Intelligence, you will be the dedicated analytics partner for the Mail Intelligence squad, collaborating with product, engineering, and research science teams to measure, evaluate, and optimize Yahoo Mail's AI and ML-powered capabilities. 

Your focus will be on designing rigorous experimentation frameworks for backend ML features, evaluating AI model performance, and translating complex data into actionable insights that drive product innovation at scale.

Your Day-to-Day:

• Partner with Mail Intelligence product, engineering, and research science teams to frame AI/ML challenges into data-analyzable questions, devise analysis strategies, and translate findings into actionable insights.

• Design and lead A/B testing and experimentation for backend ML features — including classification models, extraction pipelines, TLDR summarization, personalization, and ranking/arbitration logic.

• Evaluate ML model performance through offline and online metrics, coverage analysis, and quality assessments to inform model iteration and deployment decisions.

• Conduct ad-hoc data mining and statistical analysis to understand user behaviors, feature adoption, engagement patterns, and the impact of AI-powered experiences.

• Develop and maintain measurement frameworks and dashboards (Tableau, Looker) to track Mail Intelligence KPIs, squad OKRs, and feature health.

• Advocate for and enforce high standards in data logging and instrumentation to ensure data integrity and accuracy across backend systems.

• Collaborate cross-functionally with frontend squads (Inbox & Organize, Commerce, Read Write Search) to ensure alignment of experimentation logic and data flows for features powered by Mail Intelligence signals.

• Drive the development of reporting strategies to accurately reflect business results and guide future AI/ML investment decisions.

Who You Are:

• A seasoned data science professional with a track record of solving complex business problems in AI/ML-driven product environments, digital media, or consumer technology.

• Experienced in evaluating and measuring machine learning model performance in production systems, with an understanding of classification, extraction, NLP, and recommendation systems.

• Skilled at designing and analyzing experiments for backend features and ML systems, where measurement complexity goes beyond standard front-end A/B tests.

• Experienced in agile, iterative, and fast-paced experimentation environments, managing multiple projects within a matrixed team.

• An effective communicator who presents insights to both technical (ML engineers, research scientists) and non-technical (product managers, leadership) stakeholders with clarity and rationale.

• A proactive self-starter who identifies data-driven opportunities and influences product strategy through analytical rigor.

Your Skills:

• Expertise in data querying languages (e.g., SQL) and scripting languages (e.g., Python).

• Experience with big data technologies, including BigQuery, Hive, Hadoop, and Spark.

• Proficiency in visualization tools such as Tableau and/or Looker

• Hands-on experience with Experimentation Frameworks for A/B Testing and Multivariate Testing, particularly for backend/ML features.

• Strong machine learning knowledge, covering classification, NLP/text summarization, predictive modeling, clustering, neural networks, and ranking systems.

• Proficiency in statistical techniques, including correlation analysis, design of experimentation, regression methods, time series analysis, and causal inference.

• Familiarity with ML evaluation methodologies — precision/recall, F1, coverage analysis, and offline/online metric reconciliation.

Qualifications Required:

• Minimum of 7+ years of work experience (minimum of 4 years with a Ph.D.) in data science, product analytics, or a similar role in consumer technology, AI/ML products, digital media, or product development.

• Master's Degree in Math, Engineering, Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science, or a related field.

• Subject matter expertise in consumer internet products, ideally with exposure to AI/ML-powered features.

• Strong understanding of experimentation design and analysis in complex, multi-layered systems.

Preferred:

• Experience working directly with ML/AI engineering and research science teams.

• Experience in email, messaging, or communication platforms.

• Familiarity with NLP, LLMs, and generative AI measurement and evaluation.

• Experience with project management tools like those from Atlassian (JIRA, Confluence).

• Experience with GCP (Vertex AI, BigQuery) and cloud-based ML infrastructure.

The material job duties and responsibilities of this role include those listed above as well as adhering to Yahoo policies; exercising sound judgment; working effectively, safely and inclusively with others; exhibiting trustworthiness and meeting expectations; and safeguarding business operations and brand integrity.

At Yahoo, we offer flexible hybrid work options that our employees love! While most roles don’t require regular office attendance, you may occasionally be asked to attend in-person events or team sessions. You’ll always get notice to make arrangements. Your recruiter will let you know if a specific job requires regular attendance at a Yahoo office or facility. If you have any questions about how this applies to the role, just ask the recruiter!

Yahoo is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, and will not be discriminated against based on age, race, gender, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability or any other protected category. Yahoo will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law. Yahoo is dedicated to providing an accessible environment for all candidates during the application process and for employees during their employment. If you need accessibility assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability, please submit a request via the Accommodation Request Form (www.yahooinc.com/careers/contact-us.html) or call +1.866.772.3182. Requests and calls received for non-disability related issues, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.

We believe that a diverse and inclusive workplace strengthens Yahoo and deepens our relationships. When you support everyone to be their best selves, they spark discovery, innovation and creativity. Among other efforts, our 11 employee resource groups (ERGs) enhance a culture of belonging with programs, events and fellowship that help educate, support and create a workplace where all feel welcome.

The compensation for this position ranges from $128,250.00 - $266,875.00/yr and will vary depending on factors such as your location, skills and experience.The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of discretionary annual bonus or commissions. Our comprehensive benefits include healthcare, a great 401k, backup childcare, education stipends and much (much) more.

Currently work for Yahoo? Please apply on our internal career site.