Research Scientist (L5) - Member Understanding Foundations

Netflix is one of the world's leading entertainment services, with over 300 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, films and games across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can play, pause and resume watching as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, and can change their plans at any time.

As Netflix expands into delivering a broader range of entertainment options and business models, it is increasingly important that we build a holistic understanding of who our consumers are and how they experience our product. We are seeking a Research Scientist to support the vision, understanding, and development of Machine Learning algorithms that provide insights into our consumers. This high-impact role will be pivotal in uncovering opportunities, influencing product decisions, and informing future directions. The ideal candidate will excel in opportunity discovery, cross-functional collaboration, and have a passion for leveraging their ML expertise to continuously improve our understanding of our members. 

Responsibilities

• Research, develop, and iterate on machine learning models that improve Netflix’s understanding of our members.

• Drive your own roadmap, determining what areas are best served by rapid iteration and which ones deserve deeper development.

• Collaborate with Data Scientists, ML Scientists, and Engineers on a variety of projects to ensure we maximize our ability to understand our members.

• Stay up to date with research in areas related to Sequential models, LLMs, and identifying when and where to implement new best practices and methodologies.

• Present your research and insights to all levels of the company, in both technical and non-technical settings.

About You

• You have substantial, relevant industry experience in building scalable ML models and translating this expertise into business impact.

• You hold an advanced degree (PhD) in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field with a focus on machine learning, artificial intelligence, or computer vision, or equivalent industry experience.

• You have strong software engineering skills in Python and are proficient in using frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.

• You are flexible with your approach, able to pivot between research goals and implementing end-to-end solutions with ease.

• You excel at solving complex problems with innovative solutions, developing novel algorithms, and adapting existing methods from the literature to new challenges. 

• You are an excellent communicator, capable of explaining complex technical details to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• You thrive in fast-paced, dynamic environments with ambiguity, making positive contributions to team collaboration and company culture.

Our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options. To determine your personal top of market compensation, we rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to determine your compensation in the market range. The range for this role is $170,000 - $720,000.

Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs.  Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more detail about our Benefits here.

Netflix is a unique culture and environment.  Learn more here. 

Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment