Applied Scientist

About the Role

We’re looking for an Applied Scientist (Mid-Principal LEVELS) to push the boundaries of applied machine learning and AI at Opendoor. While this role will have a significant impact on our valuation systems — ensuring we provide the most accurate and transparent pricing possible — the scope goes well beyond pricing. You’ll work across a range of challenging ML problems, from multi-modal modeling to operational optimization, helping us rethink how we use structured and unstructured data to make better decisions for our customers.

What You'll Need

• Strong software engineering and coding skills in Python, with experience contributing to production codebases
  
  
• Experience developing and deploying ML models end-to-end — from research and prototyping to implementation in production systems
  
  
• Hands-on experience with deep learning architectures, including ConvNets, Transformers, or similar
  
  
• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in computer science, statistics, mathematics, or a related quantitative field
  
  
• Solid foundation in statistics and experimental design
  
  
• Strong communication and collaboration skills — you’re comfortable working with cross-functional stakeholders and can communicate technical ideas clearly
  
  

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with Pyspark and distributed data processing
  
  
• Background in search, recommendation systems, or personalization
  
  
• Experience working with large language models (LLMs) or vision-language models (VLMs)
  
  
• A genuine interest in real estate — no prior experience required, but you'll engage deeply with housing data
  
  

What You'll Do

• Design and deploy architectural improvements to our deep neural network (DNN)-based home valuation models
  
  
• Build interpretable ML models that can help us explain pricing decisions to customers
  
  
• Incorporate unstructured data — like images, videos, or text — into our forecasting and valuation pipelines using cutting-edge AI models (LLMs, VLMs, etc.)
  
  
• Collaborate with Engineering and Ops to enhance our human-in-the-loop pricing systems
  
  
• Improve the feature engineering and model training pipelines that power our production systems
  
  
• Rethink our risk and optimization models using real-world data and domain insight
  
  

We’re a small, nimble team — there’s ample opportunity to work across the entire research and modeling stack.

Compensation

The base pay range for this position is $156,800-$335,000 annually, plus RSUs. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on your qualifications, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We also offer a comprehensive package of benefits including unlimited PTO, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, and 401(k) to eligible employees.

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