Staff Data Scientist, Ads

Reddit is a community of communities. It’s built on shared interests, passion, and trust and is home to the most open and authentic conversations on the internet. Every day, Reddit users submit, vote, and comment on the topics they care most about. With 100,000+ active communities and approximately 101M+ daily active unique visitors, Reddit is one of the internet’s largest sources of information. For more information, visit redditinc.com.

Location: US remote-friendly

Reddit has a flexible first workforce. At Reddit we continue to grow our teams with the best talent. We're completely remote friendly and will continue to be after the pandemic.

Advertising is Reddit’s primary revenue driver and we have an ambitious goal to turn it into a massive business. Although several large digital ad platforms already exist, advertisers are being increasingly drawn to Reddit because of our passionate communities. We believe our community-centric platform has created the opportunity for Reddit to build a highly differentiated ads business.

About the Ads Data Science Team:

The Ads Data Science team at Reddit leverages data to maximize advertiser value on Reddit through robust data foundations, metrics, and strategic insights generated through experimentation and cutting-edge DS methods. 

We work on a wide range of challenging problems in the areas of ads and platform measurement, campaign and creative management, advertiser growth and retention, monetization, and the intersection of brand and community engagement. We are a highly collaborative team of passionate data scientists and engineers who are constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible with machine learning and statistical modeling.

About the Role:

Reddit’s Ads Data Science team is looking for a highly experienced Staff Data Scientist to advance the intelligence powering the advertiser experience on Reddit. In this role, you'll take deep ownership of a high-impact problem space within advertising, specializing in a critical area such as advertiser growth, measurement, new advertiser experience, ads inventory expansion, ad formats, etc.

This is a high-impact, high-autonomy role where you'll influence strategic direction, set a high technical bar, and drive cross-functional initiatives across one or more critical focus areas in the Ads organization.

Responsibilities:

• Drive Strategic Impact Across Ads Domains: Take end-to-end ownership of complex problem spaces such as funnel acceleration and advertiser LTV.
• Develop Advanced Models and Frameworks:  Build and deploy predictive models, optimization frameworks, and decision-support systems that power Reddit’s strategic investments in advertiser acquisition and retention.
• Translate Ambiguity into Measurable Outcomes: Define core business and performance metrics, and design robust methodologies to measure the impact of product and modeling changes on advertiser ROI and user experience.
• Lead Through Cross-Functional and Technical Influence:: Collaborate deeply with engineering, product, and sales to align on strategic goals, translate insights into action, and drive execution. Set a high technical bar by mentoring others and championing best practices across modeling, experimentation, and measurement.
• Drive Innovation in Ad Systems: Leverage causal inference, economic analysis, and large-scale data systems to solve novel problems in a rapidly evolving ad ecosystem.

Qualifications:

• Required:
  • Platform experience and a deep understanding of the ads ecosystem
  • Master's or Ph.D. in Statistics, Computer Science, Economics, Operations Research, or a related quantitative discipline
  • For M.S. holders: 10+ years of industry experience in applied science, data science, or machine learning engineering roles
  • For Ph.D. holders: 6+ years of relevant experience applied science, data science, or machine learning engineering roles
  • Demonstrated expertise in at least one of the following:
    • Ads Creative & Format Evaluation
    • Measurement & Experimentation at Scale
    • Consumer or Customer Growth and Lifecycle Analysis
  • Advanced proficiency in statistical programming (Python or R) and SQL
  • Experience with machine learning or optimization techniques
  • Strong understanding of experimental design, causal inference, or A/B testing methodologies
  • Exceptional problem-solving and communication skills, with a track record of influencing product and engineering partners
  • Experience working in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with cross-functional te