Founding Data Lead

About the role
The owner of
Pocket’s data foundation and decision-making systems end to end
. You make our data reliable, accessible, and actionable across
product, growth, marketing, sales, finance, and operations
.
Pocket has already reached
hundreds of thousands of customers
and is scaling toward millions. Our data spans customer acquisition, e-commerce, hardware, app usage, subscriptions, customer support, and international markets. Your job is to connect these sources into a
trusted system that helps us understand our customers and consistently make better decisions
.
You will build the core data infrastructure, define how Pocket measures the customer journey, and work directly with teams to turn analysis into clear recommendations. You should be equally comfortable
writing SQL, designing data models, investigating customer behavior, and explaining to founders what the company should do next
.
This is a
hands-on, founder-facing role
for someone who wants to build Pocket’s data function from the ground up—not simply maintain dashboards or respond to reporting requests.
What you'll own
Pocket’s data strategy, architecture, and analytics foundation
A reliable
single source of truth
across Shopify, Amazon, advertising platforms, the Pocket app, device usage, subscriptions, customer support, and finance
Data pipelines, warehouse architecture, transformation models, documentation, monitoring, and data quality
Product instrumentation, event taxonomy, identity resolution, and customer lifecycle tracking
Definitions and governance for
company-wide metrics and KPIs
Analysis of the complete customer journey:
acquisition, purchase, activation, engagement, subscription conversion, retention, churn, and referral
Customer cohort analysis, behavioral segmentation, and identification of Pocket’s highest-value users
CAC, LTV, payback period, contribution margin, attribution, incrementality, and marketing efficiency analysis
Product adoption, feature usage, retention, and experimentation measurement
Executive dashboards and recurring reporting for founders and functional leaders
Proactive analysis and recommendations
—not just reporting what happened, but explaining why it happened and what Pocket should do next
Self-serve analytics that enables teams to answer common questions without compromising data quality
The long-term development of Pocket’s data function, including selecting tools and helping build the future data team
What we're looking for
3+ years of experience
across data analytics, analytics engineering, data science, data engineering, or a similarly quantitative role
Experience working in a
high-growth startup or technology company
Experience analyzing customer cohorts at the scale of
hundreds of thousands of users
, ideally while the company was growing toward millions
Advanced SQL skills and strong working knowledge of Python
Hands-on experience with modern data warehouses, transformation tools such as dbt, BI platforms, and product analytics tools
Experience
building reliable data pipelines and models
—not only analyzing existing datasets
Strong understanding of
cohort analysis, retention, funnels, segmentation, experimentation, CAC, LTV, and attribution
Experience supporting product, growth, marketing, sales, finance, and executive decision-making
An
obsession with data accuracy, consistency, documentation, and reliability
The ability to turn ambiguous business questions into structured analyses and clear recommendations
Strong product and commercial judgment—you understand that
the purpose of data is to improve decisions and outcomes
Clear communication skills and the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders
High ownership, low ego, intellectual honesty
, and the ability to execute without constant direction
Consumer technology, DTC, e-commerce, subscription, mobile app, or hardware experience is a strong plus
Experience building a data function or operating as an early data hire is a strong plus
What we offer
The opportunity to
build Pocket’s data function from the ground up
Ownership of data across a rapidly scaling consumer hardware and software company
Direct access to founders
and significant influence on company and product strategy
High autonomy and the ability to turn your insights directly into action
Complex customer, product, subscription, marketing, and commercial datasets at meaningful scale
The opportunity to build the systems Pocket will use as it grows from
hundreds of thousands to millions of customers
Base salary of $150,000–$180,000
, depending on experience
Meaningful equity
through Pocket’s employee stock option plan
About the interview
Quick intro call (15 min)
— experience, motivation, compensation expectations, and location fit**
2.
Data case study
based on a realistic Pocket business problem
3.
Technical interview
covering data architecture, SQL, analytics, and data reliability
4.
Cross-functional interview
with Product, Growth, or Engineering
5.
Interview with the founders**
Reference check
Offer
Onboarding
About Pocket
Pocket is a
Y Combinator W26 company
building a premium hardware plus software product in the AI voice recorder space. We are obsessed with
quality and speed
. We are scaling very fast in the US and European markets and building a device experience that can become the
category leader
.
Visa: Will sponsor.