Data Analytics Leader

Job description

We are building AI to simulate the world through merging art and science. We believe that world models are at the frontier of progress in artificial intelligence. Language models alone won’t solve the world’s hardest problems – robotics, disease, scientific discovery. Real progress requires models that experience the world and learn from their mistakes, the same way that humans do. And this kind of trial and error can be massively accelerated when done in simulation, rather than in the real world. World models offer the most clear path to general-purpose simulation, changing how stories are told, how scientific progress is made and how the next frontiers of humanity are reached. Our team consists of creative, open minded, caring and ambitious people who are determined to change the world. We aspire to continuously build impossible things and our ability to do so relies on building an incredible team. If you are driven to do the same, we'd love to hear from you. ABOUT THE ROLE Preferable to have someone near an office in NYC or San Francisco, but open to hiring around the US for the right candidate. Runway runs on data. We have a fast-growing self-serve business, an expanding enterprise motion, and millions of creators generating an extraordinary volume of signal every day. What we don't yet have is a dedicated data leader. Today analytics is distributed across product, engineering, and finance — good instincts, real numbers, but no single owner of the definitions, no semantic layer everyone trusts, and no system that lets any person at Runway get a reliable answer without asking someone first. We're hiring a Data Analytics Leader to own that end-to-end. This is our first data hire. You'll own the metrics that define the business, build the semantic and AI foundations that make data genuinely self-serve, and push insights onto teams rather than waiting for requests. You'll start as the primary IC, writing queries and models yourself, and grow a small, high-caliber analytics team as the surface area expands. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Build the AI foundations for self-serve data. Stand up the semantic/metrics layer that serves as the single source of truth for both humans and natural-language agents, and the tooling on top of it so anyone at Runway can ask a question in plain language and get a correct, governed answer. This is the highest-leverage part of the role. - Own the numbers. Define and steward Runway's core metrics — self-serve ARR and funnel, enterprise usage, retention, cohort economics, unit costs — so there is one trusted answer to every important question about the business. - Push insights, don' just take orders. Proactively surface where the business is leaking, where a cohort is behaving strangely, and where the next 0→1 opportunity is hiding. - Own the analytics stack. Our stack is ClickHouse, Mixpanel, dbt, Dagster, Airbyte, Fivetran, Kinesis, and Python. You'll shape the modeling layer, governance, and instrumentation standards, and make sharp calls about how to build better systems. - Build the team. Start hands-on as the DRI, then hire and develop analysts as the business scales. Set the bar for what good analytical work looks like at Runway. WHAT YOU’LL NEED - 8+ years in data/analytics, including time as the most senior data person in a fast-moving company. A track record of analysis that changed product and company decisions. - Genuinely hands-on. You are fluent in SQL and Python and you can steer your agents to generate high quality insights. You are excited by being the person who builds the first models and answers the first questions. - Deep modern data stack proficiency. dbt and warehouse modeling are second nature; experience with ClickHouse, product analytics tools like Mixpanel, and orchestration (Dagster/Airflow) is a strong plus. - Semantic layer and AI-native data experience. You've built — or are hungry to build — the metrics layer and agentic tooling that lets non-technical people and LLMs query data safely and correctly. - Business fluency. You think in terms of revenue, retention, margin, and unit economics. You're comfortable working directly with finance and leadership, and you know when to run the multi-week analysis versus the napkin math that unblocks a decision today. - Comfort with rapid pace and high accountability culture. You move fast, decide with incomplete information, and default to shipping. - Excellent written and verbal communication. You can turn a messy question into a sharp, written answer that a non-technical audience acts on. Runway strives to recruit and retain exceptional talent from diverse backgrounds while ensuring pay equity for our team. Our salary ranges are based on competitive market rates for our size, stage and industry, and salary is just one part of the overall compensation package we provide. There are many factors that go into salary determinations, including relevant experience, skill level and qualifications assessed during the interview process, and maintaining internal equity with peers on the team. The range shared below is a general expectation for the function as posted, but we are also open to considering candidates who may be more or less experienced than outlined in the job description. In this case, we will communicate any updates in the expected salary range. Lastly, the provided range is the expected salary for candidates in the U.S. Outside of those regions, there may be a change in the range, which again, will be communicated to candidates. WORKING AT RUNWAY Great things come from great teams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwmj4ato2kw&ab_channel=Runway We’d love to hear from you. We’re committed to creating a space where our employees can bring their full selves to work and have equal opportunity to succeed. So regardless of race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, origin, ability, age, veteran status, if joining this mission speaks to you, we encourage you to apply. More about Runway - Universal World Simulator https://runwayml.com/world-simulator.html - GWM-1 https://runwayml.com/research/introducing-runway-gwm-1 - Gen-4.5 https://runwayml.com/research/introducing-runway-gen-4.5 - General World Models https://runwayml.com/research/introducing-general-world-models - Robotics SDK https://runwayml.com/research/introducing-runway-gwm-1#robotics-section - Conversational Real-time Agents https://runwayml.com/research/introducing-runway-gwm-1#avatars-section - Runway Studios https://runwayml.com/studios We're excited to be recognized as a best place to work: Crain's https://www.crainsnewyork.com/awards/best-places-work-2023 | InHerSight https://www.inhersight.com/companies/best/city/new-york-city-ny | BuiltIn NYC https://builtin.com/awards/new-york-city/2024/best-places-to-work | INC https://www.inc.com/best-workplaces/2024