Director, PSI Analytics

Description

Hi, We’re AppFolio.

We’re innovators, changemakers, and collaborators. We’re more than just a software company — we’re a cloud-based powerhouse that creates products to make our customers’ lives easier. We’re revolutionizing the way people do business, and we want your ideas, your enthusiasm, and your passion to help us keep on innovating.

We love where we work, and you can, too.

Who Are We Looking For?

A leader of AppFolio’s Payments, Screening and Insurance (PSI) Analytics and Data Science team and a strategic partner to PSI leaders over a vast majority of AppFolio’s revenue. This leader should position PSI to be data-driven across product, pricing, forecasting and in any major business decisions by providing supporting insights via experimentation, opportunity identification, exploratory analyses and KPI visibility. They must also work with leaders to streamline business operations via auto-decision/auto-surface model deployment. Lastly, they need to ensure the security of our PSI businesses by minimizing risk and losses using automatic transaction and record sampling/monitoring and auto-escalation processes.

What You’ll Do

• Own/operate Analytics and Data Science strategy and execution for the majority of the company’s revenue across PSI; drive high revenue growth across these businesses by helping leaders translate business and product insights into strategies for optimal execution, via data analysis, modeling and experimentation.
• Establish and prioritize product and business analytics initiatives based on impact, urgency, and in alignment with overall business and strategic goals.
• Use Financial Services expertise to evolve/refine metric-set and revenue models across PSI, to inform business decision-making in a clear and timely manner.
• Lean into product/pricing experimentation and exploratory opportunity analyses to identify and deliver on optimized revenue outcomes.
• Ensure PSI is efficient and data-driven, with best in class operations and data utilization across all three businesses, to help prioritize and evaluate success of key business initiatives.
• Evolve the overall reporting to executive leadership across PSI to require minimal effort while maintaining timely and accurate performance reporting.
• Explore efficiency opportunities in operations via the introduction of data science backed utilities and auto-decisioning.
• Minimize losses by fraudulent activities or fines across PSI businesses through transaction/record monitoring, auto-escalations models and recurring sampling strategies.
• Successfully manage and develop PSI Analytics talent, for success in scaling long-term with planned business growth.
• All data analysts and data scientists should understand the space they support as deeply as their business/product counterparts and are considered invaluable, trusted advisors.
• Staff should be masters of the newest techniques/technologies, by investing in existing and new members of the team through training, certifications, mentorship and partnerships.
• Hire and maintain the necessary talent to execute the overall data analytics vision, with well-defined responsibilities and ownership, applying best practices using the WHO methodology to hire/build a team of A players while performance managing B/C players.
  
  
  

What We’re Looking For

• Strategic Influence - Proactively connect leaders towards the common goal of bettering PSI via Data Science. Leverage uniquely informed perspective to highlight business/customer ‘win/win’ opportunities to PSI senior leaders to inform and inspire action
• Advanced Business Acumen: Has a deep understanding of how businesses work and are knowledgeable in SaaS vertical practices, trends and technology. Applies the right financial, customer and product metrics, strategy and market knowledge to make sound business decisions.
• Hiring & Developing People: Hires the best and understands the value of building a strong team. An inspiring mentor for people managers, building a rock solid leadership bench of culture-carrying top performers who subscribe personally, and hold their teams to high standards of excellence.
• Innovation & Thought Leadership – Generates and brings other’s new and creative ideas forward. Follows industry trends and emerging and innovative methods from academia etc. to inspire team and business to operate as ‘best in class’ in the areas of Analytics & Data Science.
• Cross Functional Knowledge: Navigates across verticals and functions and understands how each department contributes to our mission. Able to build relationships and quickly establishes trust with others to make things happen. Brings teams and people together to accomplish important things.
• Customer Focus and Advocacy – Frames opportunities in the context of customer value and helps the business draw meaningful connections between business initiatives and customer value/impact; relentlessly advocates for improving the customer experience.
• Communication / Executive Presence: Has authentic communication skills including transparency and clarity in both formal and informal settings including: one-on-one, small and large groups across different levels and departments. Applies exceptional presentation skills to distill complex information into simple concepts & compelling stories.
  
  

Company Values-based Competencies

• Simpler is Better: Demonstrates the thought, discipline and inclination towards simple v. complex solutions.
• Great, Innovative Products are Key to a Great Business: Generates and brings other’s new and creative ideas forward.
• Great People Make a Great Company (Hiring & Developing): Has a nose for talent and hires the best people available from the inside or outside. Is not afraid of selecting strong people. A people builder who provides challenging and stretch goals to develop and motivate their team.
• Listening to Customers is in Our DNA: Applies a deep understanding of customers to make customer-friendly / customer-centered decisions.
• Small, Focused Teams Keep Us Agile: Spends their time and focuses the team on the critical few actions that are most important. Can eliminate roadblocks and demonstrates ability to say “no”.
• We Do the Right Thing; It's Good for Business: Always operates with integrity, especially when faced with tough situations.
  
  

Aligns with Analytics Values:

“Data driven” means our narratives, interpretations, and conclusions are based on results from analysis and do not lead analysis.

• Anticipate Risks: We consider any potential risk of harm with results to any relevant population (e.g., customers, customers’ customers, etc.) and use this as part of our decision to conduct analyses and if so, how to do so ethically.
• Consider All Variables: We consider a wide range of potential variables to consider in analysis to ensure analyses are thorough and as objective as possible.
• Approach Testing Scientifically: Testing criteria are established by scientific means in order to avoid any bias towards particular groups/cohorts.
• Build Models Transparently & Ethically: Model inputs and their contribution to model results/decisions are transparent, understood, and documented. Productionized models are regularly assessed for unethical feedback loops or impacts.
• Impact-Aware: Decision making connected to our tests and models consider impact to all relevant populations, including but not limited to the business.
  
  

Must-Haves

• MS or higher in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics or a related field; or equivalent professional experience.
• 2+ years in a Director+ role
• 2+ years of SaaS experience
• 2+ years of Financial Services experience
• 5+ years of people management experience
• 5+ years of work experience in a Data Analytics / Data Science role
• Strong business acumen and experience in a business setting
• Strong Tableau, SQL, R (or Python) and Excel skills required
• Working knowledge of Salesforce suggested
• Ability to support, work and communicate with a fast, cross-functional team
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Listening and interpersonal skills; ability to communicate ideas in both technical and business terms
• Highly self-motivated and directed
• Proven analytical and creative problem-solving abilities
• Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment
  
  

Our Story

AppFolio (NASDAQ: APPF) was founded in 2006 with the mission to revolutionize vertical industry businesses by providing great software and service. Our easy-to-use, cloud-based software helps our customers more effectively market, manage, and grow their businesses. Our software solutions exist in the real estate vertical, including AppFolio Property Manager and AppFolio Investment Management.

To find out more about what AppFolio has to offer, check out appfolioinc.com/careers.

Statement of Equal Opportunity

At AppFolio, we value diversity in backgrounds and perspectives and depend on it to drive our innovative culture. That’s why we’re a proud Equal Opportunity Employer, and we believe that our products, our teams, and our business are stronger because of it. This means that no matter what race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identification, national origin, age, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, or veteran status, you’re always welcome at AppFolio.