Senior Data Scientist

Sony•San Diego, CA

7d•$180,000 - $205,000

About The Position

Join the Sony Engagement Platform Services (SEPS) Team, where innovation meets collaboration in the dynamic world of digital engagement. At SEPS, we are building the next-generation platform that powers how fans connect with the content—and the creators—they love. Our mission is to unlock meaningful, data-driven engagement across Sony’s entertainment ecosystem, from games and anime to music, film, and live experiences—empowering both internal teams and external partners to build at scale. Our mission is to create a world-class engagement platform that not only enhances existing revenue streams but also drives new opportunities through a robust ecosystem of partners and creators. By decoupling application development from platform services, we empower our teams to deliver exceptional solutions with agility and efficiency. If you are passionate about shaping the future of digital engagement and want to be part of a vibrant community that values creativity and collaboration, we invite you to explore the exciting opportunities within our team. Together, we will shape the future of fan experiences and define the foundation for what’s possible in the realm of engagement. To learn more visit: www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/technology/stories/entries/sep_introduction/ POSITION SUMMARY We are looking for a Senior Data Scientist to join a focused team within SEPS Data Science supporting payment, subscription, and risk experiences across PlayStation’s direct-to-consumer business. This is a hands-on role for someone who can use statistics, machine learning, experimentation, and strong data judgment to help teams make better decisions about how players pay, subscribe, and move through global payment flows. This role will be working closely with the Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) Global Payments Team that plays a central role in enabling consumers across the world to purchase hardware, digital content and services. The initial portfolio is expected to focus on payment method performance, payment flow optimization, subscription payment recovery, and ROI-based evaluation of experiments and business interventions. You will help teams understand customer behavior, payment success, cost and routing tradeoffs, and the business impact of new payment capabilities. Our team values practical scientific rigor: clear decision framing, trusted reusable metrics, transparent uncertainty, and recommendations that help teams move faster without sacrificing measurement quality. This role is best suited for someone who can lead ambiguous, high-impact data science initiatives, define analytical direction across multiple workstreams, and translate complex evidence into decisions that shape customer experience and business strategy.

Requirements

5+ years of professional experience in data science, applied statistics, machine learning, or a related quantitative discipline.
Bachelor’s or advanced degree in a quantitative field, or equivalent practical experience.
Advanced SQL and Python skills with deep expertise in experimentation, causal inference, statistical modeling, machine learning, and model evaluation.
Demonstrated success leading complex data science initiatives from problem framing through operationalization and impact measurement.
Proven ability to influence senior technical and business stakeholders and elevate data science practices across teams.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in quantitative field.
Experience in payments, subscriptions, digital commerce, fintech, gaming, media, marketplaces, or scaled consumer technology.
Deep expertise in experimentation, payment optimization, subscription analytics, forecasting, segmentation, churn, retention, or customer lifetime value.
Experience operationalizing models and working with large-scale platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, Spark, or BigQuery.
Experience creating metric layers, source-of-truth datasets, analytical frameworks, or reusable data science tooling.

Responsibilities

Lead high-impact data science initiatives across payments, subscriptions, commerce, fraud, risk, and player experience, translating ambiguous business needs into analytical strategies.
Define experimental, causal-inference, statistical-modeling, and machine-learning approaches for complex decisions with broad business impact.
Develop scalable models, measurement frameworks, and reusable analytical capabilities while setting standards for rigor, validation, and reproducibility.
Influence product and business roadmaps by advising senior stakeholders on opportunities, risks, investment tradeoffs, and expected outcomes.
Provide technical leadership through mentorship, peer review, methodology development, and cross-functional guidance without direct people-management responsibility.
Honesty, trustworthiness and ethical conduct are material requirements for the responsibilities outlined above

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage with coverage for spouses/domestic partners and child dependents, including access to a Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
Employee assistance plan and comprehensive behavioral health benefits
Fertility benefits, including, surrogacy, and adoption assistance programs
Basic and supplemental life insurance for employees as well as supplemental life insurance coverage for their spouses/domestic partners and children
Voluntary benefits such as group legal, identity theft protection, accident, and hospital indemnity insurance
Short-term & long-term disability plans
Up to 12 weeks of paid parental and caregiver leave
401(k) Plan with pre-tax, Roth, and after-tax options and company match with immediate vesting
Education assistance and student loan programs
Time off to include vacation, paid holidays, sick leave, Summer Fridays (early release), and a winter break between Christmas and New Year’s Day (based on business needs)
Referral bonuses (subject to eligibility)
Matching gift program
A wide variety of employee business resource groups (EBRGs)
Special discounts on Sony products, offered exclusively to Sony employees
Employee stock purchase plan (Sony covers commissions and fees for your Sony stock purchases made through after-tax payroll deductions)