Staff Data Scientist I, Direct Marketing
About The Position
The Quantitative Science team at Root is responsible for the majority of marketing capital allocation, utilizing quantitative methods to test, maintain, and enhance marketing strategies across various distribution channels. As a Staff Data Scientist I on the Performance Marketing team, you will lead research in lead segmentation and bidding optimization to improve marketing profitability. Your responsibilities will include designing and executing research programs, enhancing modeling capabilities, and deploying high-impact solutions. You will also serve as a thought leader, modeling best practices and mentoring peers in producing rigorous, production-ready work. This role requires an ownership mentality, the ability to independently drive work, mentor junior team members, and collaborate on large-scale projects. You will regularly interact with cross-functional departments and the executive team, making strong communication skills essential. Join us to push technical boundaries and shape the future of data-driven performance marketing at Root.
Requirements
- Advanced degree in a quantitative discipline (Master’s or PhD preferred) and 8+ years of experience applying advanced quantitative techniques in industry.
- Demonstrated leadership in developing and deploying real-time models, emphasizing automation and innovation.
- Expert-level Python skills, including data querying, manipulation, and modeling.
- Extensive experience developing and applying advanced ML models, particularly ensemble methods.
- Skilled in version control (e.g. Git) with experience contributing to large-scale, collaborative projects.
- Hands-on experience with AWS tools (e.g., EC2, SageMaker, Redshift) or equivalent platforms for scalable compute and storage.
- Excellent business intelligence and visualization skills, with the ability to effectively communicate insights and technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Ownership mentality, with a demonstrated ability to take initiative, drive work forward, and mentor others.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and influence strategic decisions.
Responsibilities
- Lead the development and advancement of ML models for bidding, targeting, and marketing optimization across paid search, lead aggregators, affiliates, direct mail, and emerging performance channels.
- Partner with Lifetime Value, Engineering, Marketing, and external vendors to translate business opportunities into scalable ML solutions.
- Set the technical direction of the Performance Marketing team by building and prioritizing a multi-quarter research roadmap spanning modeling, experimentation, and ML operations.
- Proactively identify and frame high-leverage opportunities across performance marketing, evaluate competing technical approaches, and prioritize investments.
- Mentor data scientists and MLEs in research design, ML model development, technical decision-making, and production engineering practices.
- Design and build production-ready ML systems while setting standards for maintainable code, reproducible research, automated testing, deployment, and operational reliability.
- Build monitoring frameworks for interconnected ML systems, enabling the team to detect model degradation, data issues, and changes in channel performance.
- Lead zero-to-one prototypes and introduce new modeling or ML operations capabilities that can reshape how Root allocates and optimizes performance marketing spend.
Benefits
- Competitive bonus and equity offering
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
