Head of Data Science & Analytics

Big Viking Games•Toronto, ON

1d•CA$190,000 - CA$230,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Big Viking Games is seeking a Head of Data Science & Analytics to build and lead their data function. This is a hands-on leadership role for an individual who can operate strategically and also perform the foundational analytics work themselves. Initially, the role will be a solo operator, responsible for transforming raw data into actionable insights to improve decision-making across various departments including product, live operations, monetization, marketing, finance, player experience, and executive leadership. The ideal candidate will understand how modern AI can enhance analytics, workflows, reporting, automation, and productivity, with experience in implementing AI tools being highly valued. This newly created position offers a significant opportunity to shape the data strategy, operating model, tooling, reporting structure, and future team.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in data science, analytics, business intelligence, product analytics, or a related data discipline.
Experience operating in a gaming, digital product, SaaS, consumer technology, marketplace, or live-service environment.
Strong hands-on analytical skills, including advanced SQL and experience with Python, R, or similar analytical tools.
Proven ability to translate ambiguous business problems into structured analysis, clear recommendations, and executive-level narratives.
Experience building dashboards, reports, KPI frameworks, and decision-support tools for senior leadership.
Strong understanding of product analytics, user behavior, retention, engagement, monetization, segmentation, cohort analysis, forecasting, and experimentation.
Experience working with data engineering, product, finance, marketing, and executive teams.
Experience implementing or adopting AI tools, GenAI, copilots, agentic workflows, workflow automation, or AI-enabled analytics processes.
Ability to operate independently in a hands-on capacity before a larger team is built.
Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex analysis in clear business language.
Demonstrated ability to build structure in an environment where data, processes, tooling, or reporting may still be maturing.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Snowflake or similar modern cloud data platforms.
Experience with gaming analytics, live-service games, virtual economies, content performance, player segmentation, in-game monetization, or player lifecycle analytics.
Experience with BI tools such as Looker, Tableau, Power BI, Sigma, Mode, Metabase, or similar platforms.
Experience with dbt, data modeling, data governance, experimentation platforms, or modern analytics engineering practices.
Experience building AI agents or automated workflows using tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, LangChain, Zapier, Make, n8n, Retool, or internal workflow automation tools.
Experience building a data function, hiring analysts, or scaling a small data team.

Responsibilities

Build and own the company’s data science and analytics function from the ground up.
Partner with executive leadership, product, live operations, marketing, finance, and technology teams to turn business questions into clear insights, recommendations, and action plans.
Develop the core analytics roadmap across player behavior, retention, engagement, monetization, game health, content performance, live operations, user segmentation, forecasting, and business performance.
Personally perform hands-on analysis, including SQL querying, dashboarding, data modeling, KPI development, reporting, statistical analysis, and business case development.
Improve the quality, consistency, and reliability of company metrics, reporting, and data definitions.
Identify gaps in data collection, instrumentation, data architecture, reporting, and operational visibility.
Partner with engineering and data stakeholders to improve data pipelines, data quality, data governance, and access to trusted datasets.
Design dashboards and executive reporting that help leaders understand what is happening, why it is happening, and what should be done next.
Lead analysis on player lifecycle, cohort behavior, monetization trends, feature performance, content performance, game economy, and live-service operations.
Support experimentation, A/B testing, measurement frameworks, and decision-ready analysis for product and business initiatives.
Implement practical AI-driven solutions to accelerate analytics workflows, automate repetitive reporting, improve insight generation, and support better business decisions.
Explore and deploy AI agents, copilots, workflow automations, and other tools that improve productivity across analytics, operations, product, and leadership reporting.
Establish best practices for responsible AI use, data privacy, analytical rigor, documentation, and repeatable workflows.
Over time, hire, coach, and lead a high-performing data science, analytics, and/or BI team.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits package (health, dental, and vision) including HSA/WSA spending account from Day 1
Participation in the Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP)
RRSP participation and matching
15 Vacation Days + 10 Wellness Days

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