Principal Data Scientist, Personalized Media Analytics

Versant • New York, NY

6h • $180,000 - $210,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

We're looking for a Principal Data Scientist to spearhead data science initiatives focused on news media and cable networks. You'll develop, apply and optimize AI & ML solutions to drive measurable improvements in engagement, subscriber growth, retention, and lifetime value.
This role will partner with product, editorial, marketing, and leadership - identifying AI/ML opportunities, translating product & business needs into technical solutions, and translating recommendations to leadership.

Requirements

• Master’s or PhD in data Science, statistics, computer science, or related quantitative field
• 5+ years’ experience in data science roles with demonstrated impact on engagement, subscription and retention
• Advanced skills in Python and R, strong SQL proficiency, and hands-on experience with machine learning and/or AI libraries for building and deploying intelligent systems
• Leverage cloud platforms and big data tools (e.g. Databricks, AWS, Azure), staying current with evolving technologies and architecture for scalable data science workflows
• Strong background in building predictive churn models, CLV, NLP, causal inference and uplift modeling
• Experience with user-level and/or content personalization, including developing algorithms, models, or scoring frameworks that support personalized experiences for digital subscription platforms.

Responsibilities

• Leverage structured and unstructured data from various media and entertainment sources to prepare datasets for advanced analytics and modeling.
• Design and apply advanced statistical and machine learning techniques for feature engineering, segmentation, prediction, and optimization to support user and/or content personalization, including applications such as recommendation engines and/or dynamic paywalls.
• Select and apply appropriate methods based on business context and data characteristics, including collaborative and content-based filtering, K-means, hierarchical clustering, logistic regression, XGBoost, matrix factorization, and neural networks.
• Assess and validate statistical models using appropriate performance metrics to ensure precision and accuracy such as accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, ROC, AUC.
• Develop and apply advanced analytics to understand consumer behavior patterns across digital touchpoints, including cross-channel attribution modeling, to enable data-informed retention initiatives.
• Interpret complex analytical insights and translate them into clear, actionable business strategies that improve business outcomes.
• Support scalable deployment of data products by following best practices in CI/CD processes and contribute to agile project management through tools like Jira for sprint planning, tracking, and team coordination.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with technical and non-technical stakeholders to gather requirements, define project scope, and lead data science initiatives, demonstrating strong communication, leadership, and team-building skills.

Benefits

• This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other benefits and perks.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal