Data Scientist, Optimization - Real-Time Supply Management

At Lyft, our purpose is to serve and connect. We aim to achieve this by cultivating a work environment where all team members belong and have the opportunity to thrive. Data Science is at the heart of Lyft’s products and decision-making. Data Scientists at Lyft operate in dynamic environments, moving quickly to build the world’s best transportation solutions. We tackle a wide range of challenges - from shaping long-term business strategy with data, to making critical short-term decisions, to developing algorithms and models that power both internal systems and customer-facing products. Driver Incentives Science owns the algorithms and systems behind incentive design, influencing driver engagement and marketplace efficiency — from real-time supply positioning to longer-horizon earnings and engagement programs. The team is responsible for designing pay and incentive mechanisms that are efficient and good for driver experience over the long run. As a Data Scientist specializing in Algorithms, you'll partner closely with product, engineering, and operations leaders to build and scale incentive systems, shape long-term mechanism design strategy, and deliver on critical business goals tied to marketplace efficiency and driver earnings. Candidates with strong optimization backgrounds — think mathematical programming, control theory, or operations research — are a great fit, though we welcome strong candidates from machine learning or causal inference as well. The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced environment and brings a hands-on, entrepreneurial mindset to drive results. Responsibilities: Collaborate with engineering and product teams to design, implement, and iterate on new features and algorithmic improvements for driver incentives and pay mechanisms. Design, develop, and deploy optimization models, algorithms, and systems for problems such as budget allocation, multidimensional cost-curve development, and incentive targeting. Write production model code;