Principal Data Scientist

Who We Are

Second Dinner is an award-winning independent game development studio that is here to make the most fun games in the world. Not super fun games. Not SUPER DUPER fun games. We mean the MOST fun games. In fact, our game MARVEL SNAP has earned multiple Mobile Game of the Year Awards (Game Awards, DICE), Best Strategy Game (IGN), and the Apple Design Award for Innovation!

Second Dinner is a remote-first studio, so while we are headquartered in Irvine, California, most of our team is fully remote across the United States. We want the most talented teammates wherever they call home. A diverse team with varied perspectives makes us a better company and will help us make better games. If you can bring something new to the table and expand our point of view, that's a huge upside.

Our Data & Analytics Team

At Second Dinner, data plays a crucial role in conveying the voices of our players and informing our decisions, which leads us to great games and player experiences. Our team informs decision-making with scientific and methodological rigor. We build data and ML-powered player experiences directly into the game. We innovate in analytics tooling and data science capabilities to redefine what is possible in game development and operations.

Your Role

You will report to the VP of Data and AI, and your primary responsibility is to drive the data science and experimentation initiatives in Marvel SNAP. You will help level up SNAP team’s capability in rigorous decision-making with data and experiments. You will partner with the AI team to enhance and expand the game for SNAP players. You will collaborate with Product Management (PM), Design, Marketing, and many other disciplines to help make our game wildly fun and drive growth worldwide. If you love crafting world-class game experiences, collaborating with extraordinarily talented cross-functional teams, and creating data science and analytics solutions to impact millions of players directly, then APPLY!!!

What You’ll Do:

• Partner with PM, Design, and Marketing to identify growth opportunities and translate them into data science initiatives.
• Collaborate with PM and Design to improve our game live operations by introducing rigorous quantitative practices.
• Educate and support the SNAP team on decision science and relevant best practices.
• Partner with PM and Analytics to identify, define, compute, and validate the relevant and actionable metrics to measure the success of product features and events.
• Apply analytics, experimentation, and machine learning techniques to empower personalization in our game.
• Lead excellence in our approach to experimentation and hypothesis-driven development. Lead the design, implementation, and analysis of experiments.
• Partner with central technology teams to guide data collection and adopt new solutions that are valuable to SNAP.
• Evangelize data science, analytics, and experimentation. Level up the data literacy of the company.
• Contribute as a key member in determining the vision and strategy for data and analytics.

What You’ll Need:

• Advanced degree in Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Engineering, or related quantitative field.
• Expertise in Python and SQL.
• Extensive experience in data science and analytics.
• Expensive experience in predictive modeling and applied ML.
• Extensive experience in experimentation for consumer-facing products (A/B test, multivariate test, quasi-experiment, causal inference).
• Experience developing personalized recommendation systems.
• Strong ability to convey technical and statistical concepts clearly and concisely among audiences with different backgrounds.
• Strong ability to partner with stakeholders to lead product improvement and innovations.
• Fundamental understandings for ETL/ELT.
• Demonstrated success in a highly collaborative cross-functional work environment.
• Passionate player of mobile games.
• Mindset for serving a diverse and global player base.

Nice to Have, But Not Necessary:

• Ph.D. in Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, or related field.
• Experience with AWS, Databricks, Tableau, and Looker.
• Experience with Apache Spark.
• Experience with Unity and C#/C++.
• Experience collaborating with data engineers and ML engineers on ML/AI systems.
• Experience working in online video games, preferably free-to-play mobile games.
• Passion for making video games.

The total compensation for this position includes a new hire offer base salary range of $190,000 - $280,000 USD + equity + comprehensive benefits + potential for discretionary performance bonuses.

Individual pay within this salary range may span multiple levels within the discipline and is determined by assessed job-related skills, experience, relevant education or training. It also factors in market demands and business needs. The disclosed range is not adjusted based on location and may be subject to change or modification based on business needs in the future. Your recruiter can answer any questions about new hire total compensation during the hiring process.

An overview of the benefits and perks at Second Dinner:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plans with Second Dinner paying 100% of premiums for employees and 75% for dependents for many plans
• 401(k) contribution with no waiting period
• 16 weeks paid parental leave with no waiting period
• Home office improvement bonus
• Paid Vacation & Sick time
• Remote-first with core overlap hours between 10AM and 4PM PT
• Company Winter Holiday shutdown (Dec 25-Jan 1)
• Company Summer Holiday shutdown (week of July 4)
• Company Events - In-person Summer all-hands gathering, in-person holiday party, annual camping event, and virtual events throughout the year

We are an equal opportunity employer that places high value on diversity and inclusion. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, age, disability status, sex (including pregnancy), gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military status, or veteran status.

You must be eligible to work in the United States to be considered for this position.