Our vision at Descript is to build the next-generation platform for fast and easy creation of audio and video content. We are trusted by some of the world's top podcasters and influencers, as well as businesses like BBC, ESPN, HubSpot, Shopify, and The Washington Post for communicating via video. We've raised $100M from leading investors such as the OpenAI Startup fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, and Spark Capital.
As an early member of the data science team, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping our growth strategy, strengthening our data-informed decision making culture, and helping scale the business. You bring strong ownership, curiosity — all grounded in a can-do, growth mindset.
What You’ll Do
- Take ownership of user acquisition and activation through deep understanding of the space and strong thought partnership with Marketing and Product leads
- Proactively identify growth opportunities and influence growth strategy through in-depth analysis and actionable insights
- Define and own core success metrics, perform opportunity sizing, make sure teams are focused on the most impactful work, and hold a high bar for execution
- Evolve our data culture, set the best practices so the teams move fast and slow as needed while maximizing learning
What You Bring
- 5+ years of experience in a Product Data Scientist or similar role within high-growth tech companies, with 3+ years working on a growth-focused team.
- Strong product and business intuition to identify opportunities and guide strategy in complex, fast-evolving environments.
- Strong sense of ownership and a bias toward action — you’re proactive, self-starting, and take initiative to drive impact.
- A growth mindset and intellectual curiosity — you ask the right questions, seek clarity in ambiguity, and are eager to learn and iterate.
- Analytical depth: You bring a strong grasp of statistical analysis, experimentation, and causal inference, and know when to apply the right methods.
- Fluency in SQL and proficiency in at least one programming language such as Python or R.
- Exceptional communication skills — you go beyond the numbers to craft compelling, actionable narratives that influence decisions.
- A collaborative approach: you work well across disciplines, and build trusted relationships with cross-functional partners.
- Prior experience at a fast-growing creative tool startup is a plus.
The base salary range for this role is $170,000- $208,000/year. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, location, and may vary from the amount above.
Descript is building a simple, intuitive, fully-powered editing tool for video and audio — an editing tool built for the age of AI. We are a team of 150 — with a proven CEO and the backing of some of the world's greatest investors (OpenAI, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital).
Descript is the special company that's in possession of both product market fit and the raw materials (passionate user community, great product, large market) for growth, but is still early enough that each new employee has a measurable influence on the direction of the company.
Benefits include a generous healthcare package, catered lunches, and flexible vacation time. Our headquarters are located in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA. We're looking to hire people who are local and able to join us at the office when needed. We're flexible, and you're an adult—we don't expect or mandate that you're in the office every day. But we do believe there are valuable and serendipitous moments of discovery and collaboration that come from working together in person.
Descript is an equal opportunity workplace—we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. We believe in actively building a team rich in diverse backgrounds, experiences, and opinions to better allow our employees, products, and community to thrive.
Top Skills
What We Do
Descript builds simple and powerful collaborative tools for new media creators. We strive to eliminate the tedious work that often stands between an idea and its expression, so that creators can focus on developing their craft instead of their usage of tools.
Descript is a next generation digital media platform that offers a new "engine" that lets you edit audio by editing text (instead of waveforms).
That means it does transcription (both automated and human-powered, whichever you prefer), but more interestingly, it lets you move the audio around by simply editing the transcript.
If you're new to editing audio, you'll find it far easier - it's basically like using a word processor. If you're experienced, Descript is faster than waveform editing - and more fun.
If you work with voice audio (as opposed to music), Descript is what the future looks like...join us and change the world.
