About Playmerce

At Playmerce, we build an Engine that powers Shopify storefronts to convert at scale. We help merchants grow their store smarter by turning undecided visitors into revenue.

We’re a fast-growing startup backed by leading Finnish angel investors, led by an ambitious founding team with a proven track record, including a prior successful exit. We seek world-class talent to step into the most challenging and rewarding role: shaping the future of our company from the ground up.

You’ll thrive here if solving problems excites you and your ambition is to turn bold ideas into a company that makes a real impact. We operate in a fast-paced and no-hierarchy environment where building solutions is the primary focus.

People here are trusted to choose the right tools for the job, grow their expertise, and build products that scale globally. Our purpose is to help merchants become discovery economy era winners. Read the full story here.

The Position

Are you a builder at heart, a Founding Data Scientist ready to establish and lead data science from day one, using data to reimagine commerce? Do you want to contribute to high-impact technical initiatives that will define how a fast-scaling SaaS company uses data?

As a Founding Data Scientist at Playmerce, you'll deeply understand our unique product offering and create models and insights that scale its value exponentially. We possess unique behavioral data that e-commerce has never seen before, combined with traditional online store platform data, to help merchant customers turn insights into revenue growth.

What You’ll Do

• You’ll dig deep into our datasets to solve mission-critical customer problems that unlock new customer value and create revenue driving opportunities
• Apply statistical models, regression analysis, segmentation techniques, and experimental methods to optimize product performance.
• Work closely with product and engineering teams to translate complex datasets into prototypes and further to scalable, production-grade solutions
• Continuously innovate, build, train, and deploy AI/ML models that become real AI-powered products or product features customers love
• Help design and implement agentic workflows and communicate results, impact, and learnings clearly to stakeholders across the company

What We Expect

• An advanced degree in a STEM field (e.g., Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering) or equivalent experience. With strong grounding in statistics, ML modeling, experimentation, and optimization.
• 5+ years hands on experience in Data Science / ML / AI within industry or research.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL; fluency with tools like Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, and deep learning framework PyTorch.
• Familiar with deploying data science solutions on cloud platforms (AWS, GCP) and with MLOps practices.
• A proactive, curiosity-driven approach; comfort structuring ambiguous problems with hypothesis-led methods.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to make complex ideas accessible to non-technical audiences.

Nice-to-Haves

• Familiarity with large-scale, data-intensive SaaS products.
• Demonstrated project management strength and success collaborating within diverse, distributed teams.
• End-to-end experience bringing AI products from concept to production.
• Shopify ecommerce platform analytics expertise or something similar.

Technologies You’ll Work With

• Backend: Python, SQL
• Infrastructure: Git, AWS, Docker, PyTorch

What We Offer

• One of the most challenging and rewarding roles: shaping the future of a growing startup from the ground up.
• A competitive compensation package: a strong salary combined with stock options, giving you ownership in the company.
• Unique data set and problem for fertile innovation
• Custom work setup will AI tools of your choice e.g. Cursor, Claude Code, Gemini CLI and DL training resources
• Flexible work environment: ergonomic, centrally located offices and remote working options
• A supportive, inclusive culture with a strong focus on work-life balance

Next Steps

The position will be filled as soon as we find the right person, so make sure to apply as soon as you realize you really, really want to join us!

The compensation will be a negotiable combination of monthly pay and company options. The latter makes it exceptionally easy to be excited about our company growing and doing well, as you’ll own a piece of the pie.