Senior Data Scientist - Payments Operations in City of London

We power people’s progress. At Preply, we’re all about creating life-changing learning experiences. We help people discover the magic of the perfect tutor, craft a personalised learning journey, and stay motivated to keep growing. Our approach is human-led, tech-enabled - and it’s creating real impact. We’ve just reached unicorn status with a $150M Series D, accelerating our vision to transform education through human-led, AI-enhanced learning. Today, 100,000+ tutors teach 90+ languages to learners in 180 countries - and we’re only getting started. As a category-defining company, we’re shaping what the future of learning looks like at global scale. Every Preply lesson sparks change, fuels ambition, and drives progress that matters. Joining Preply means helping define the future of education at global scale, and building something that truly matters for millions of people, every day.

Meet the team: At Preply, data is at the heart of every decision we make. We run hundreds of A/B tests to continually optimize our product, each with its own analytical and tracking challenges. The complexity of our subscription model, along with the unique dynamics of tutor-learner interactions, offers an exciting opportunity for those looking to make a real impact. As a Data Scientist for the Payments Operations (PayOps) team, you will play a crucial role in optimizing our payments ecosystem and driving our monetization strategy forward. Embedded within a cross-functional squad, you’ll collaborate closely with product managers, tech leads, designers, and other key stakeholders to deliver data-driven insights that shape business decisions. Your work will focus on analyzing and improving payment workflows, including checkouts, pay-ins, and payouts, to ensure a seamless experience for our students and tutors alike, as well as leading our Fraud management function. Our Data Team is dedicated to empowering top-quality decision-making.

What you’ll be doing:

• Develop a deep understanding of the Payment Operations dynamics of our product, including user behavior and the economics of Preply’s marketplace.
• Analyze data related to payment processes, including pay-ins and pay-outs, to uncover insights and identify opportunities for optimization.
• Monitor transaction performance to detect and troubleshoot anomalies in payment flows (e.g., failed transactions, latency issues, fraud patterns).
• Lead systematic analysis of fraud and risk patterns, including regular review, cleaning, and optimization of existing risk rules, and the development of data-driven, smart rules that go beyond static or manual blocks.
• Act as a key data partner to ML Platform and AI teams, bridging Product, Payouts, and Payment Operations with advanced analytics and modeling capabilities, ensuring data science fully complements product and operational ownership in payments and fraud.
• Quantify and model the impact of new product features and initiatives, identifying growth opportunities and contributing to the prioritization of our product roadmap.
• Help define key performance indicators, tracking events, and engagement metrics that align with business goals and product improvements.
• Design, execute, and evaluate large-scale experiments to test new ideas and measure their effectiveness in driving business outcomes.
• Build strong relationships with data and technical leaders to foster collaboration and drive cross-team initiatives.

What you need to succeed:

• At least 4 years of experience in fraud management and payment operations analytics, including ML‑based fraud systems, pattern analysis, rule management, and product optimization through experimentation.
• Experience designing and analyzing A/B tests with a strong grasp of relevant statistical concepts.
• Strong understanding of data analysis concepts such as conversion, LTV, cohort analysis, retention, etc.
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages (e.g., SQL, Python), with the ability to write efficient and scalable code.
• Experience with advanced statistical modeling, predictive analytics or machine learning.
• Curiosity, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, as well as the ability to proactively identify and address challenges.
• Ability to craft compelling stories with data and communicate complex insights in a clear and engaging way, driving change among diverse stakeholders.
• Interest in the bigger picture, feeling excited to impact the product roadmap and strategy.

Nice to have:

• Background in 2-sided marketplaces or digital businesses (B2B, B2C, B2B2C).
• Experience with product analytics tools (e.g. Amplitude, Mixpanel, Heap).
• Familiarity with data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker, Power BI).
• Master's degree or PhD in a quantitative field.
• Previous experience in mentoring or coaching others.

Why you’ll love it at Preply:

• An open, collaborative, dynamic and diverse culture;
• A generous monthly allowance for lessons on Preply.com, Learning & Development budget and time off for your self-development;
• A competitive financial package with equity, leave allowance and health insurance;
• Not in Barcelona? We offer an attractive relocation package to join us in our Preply Barcelona Hub.
• Access to free mental health support platforms;
• Access to Gympass-partnered wellness and gym centers throughout Spain to promote and support well-being and physical health;
• The opportunity to unlock the potential of learners and tutors through language learning and teaching in 175 countries (and counting!).

Preply is committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of diverse backgrounds can thrive. We will consider all applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or veteran status.

Our Principles:

• Care to change the world - We are passionate about our work and care deeply about its impact to be life changing.
• We do it for learners - For both Preply and tutors, learners are why we do what we do. Every day we focus on empowering tutors to deliver an exceptional learning experience.
• Keep perfecting - To create an outstanding customer experience, we focus on simplicity, smoothness, and enjoyment, continually perfecting it as every detail matters.
• Now is the time - In a fast-paced world, it matters how quickly we act. Now is the time to make great things happen.
• Disciplined execution - What makes us disciplined is the excellence in our execution. We set clear goals, focus on what matters, and utilize our resources efficiently.
• Dive deep - We leverage business acumen and curiosity to investigate disparities between numbers and stories, unlocking meaningful insights to guide our decisions.
• Growth mindset - We proactively seek growth opportunities and believe today’s best performance becomes tomorrow’s starting point. We humbly embrace feedback and learn from setbacks.
• Raise the bar - We raise our performance standards continuously, alongside each new hire and promotion. We build diverse and high-performing teams that can make a real difference.
• Challenge, disagree and commit - We value open and candid communication, even when we don’t fully agree. We speak our minds, challenge when necessary, and fully commit to decisions once made.
• One Preply - We prioritize collaboration, inclusion, and the success of our team over personal ambitions. Together, we support and celebrate each other’s progress.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Preply is committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of diverse backgrounds can thrive. We believe that the presence of different opinions and viewpoints is a key ingredient for our success as a multicultural Ed-Tech company. That means that Preply will consider all applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or veteran status.