Senior Data Scientist - Yahoo News - Recommendations and Rankings

Yahoo serves as a trusted guide for hundreds of millions of people globally, helping them achieve their goals online through our portfolio of iconic products. For advertisers, Yahoo Advertising offers omnichannel solutions and powerful data to engage with our brands and deliver results.

A Little About Us

Our team is the driving force behind experimental analysis, data science and business intelligence for Yahoo News. We thrive on data and insights to craft outstanding product and content experiences. We aim to be part of the decision making process for all stakeholders across Yahoo pre, mid, and post decision making stages along the development cycle. Our commitment is towards providing data-driven guidance that fuels user growth and product innovation, maintaining high-quality data standards, and devising insightful A/B tests and advanced analyses. 

A Lot About You

As a Data Scientist for Yahoo News, you will collaborate with product managers and engineers to enhance the content recommendation system that powers personalized content discovery across the site You will focus on designing strategic research projects, utilizing your expertise in experimentation design and analytics, and storytelling around data in order to drive strategic insights and results. The ideal candidate will have a strong data science background, with experience in user retention and growth strategies, and a passion for creating exceptional user experiences at large scale. 

Your Day-to-Day:

• Work with ML product and engineering teams to frame business challenges into data-analyzable questions, define and implement new recommendation metrics, devise analysis strategies, and translate findings into actionable insights. 

• Strategic decision making based on A/B testing results. We need a specialist who can dive deep into data, uncover the underlying causes, and help shape our strategy to turn challenges into opportunities. 

• Develop and execute analytics strategies to optimize machine learning models and content ranking algorithms

• Work with the Product and Engineering teams to define performance metrics that can be understood by stakeholders of all levels. 

• Undertake ad-hoc data mining and statistical analysis to unravel user behaviors, engagement levels, and product performance.

• Advocate for and enforce high standards in data logging and instrumentation to ensure data integrity and accuracy.

• Offer guidance on A/B testing, including design and evaluation, to product teams.

• Utilize tools like Big Query and Jupyter Notebooks to extract data, apply statistical methods, and generate insights.

• Craft compelling visualizations in Tableau and Looker Dashboards to communicate findings to stakeholders.

Who You Are:

• A data scientist with experience working on consumer products. 

• An analytics leader and storyteller that can get at the signal through the noise and is an effective communicator who presents insights to both technical and non-technical stakeholders with clarity and rationale.

• Experienced in agile, iterative, and fast-paced experimentation environments, managing multiple projects within a matrixed team.

Your Skills:

• Strong proficiency in scripting languages (e.g., Python) and data querying languages (e.g., SQL) and.

• Experience with big data technologies (e.g., BigQuery, Spark, DBT etc.) to manipulate and analyze large datasets.

• Strong and proactive communication skills with the ability to present complex findings and vocalize strategic ideas to diverse audiences.

• Strong understanding of and experience with LLM integration. Expertise in data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker) to create intuitive and actionable dashboards.

• Hands-on experience with A/B Testing, multivariate testing, and experimentation frameworks.

• Knowledge of basic machine learning techniques, including predictive modeling and clustering. 

• Proficiency in statistical methods such as correlation analysis, regression models, design of experiments, and time series analysis.

Nice to Have:

• Familiarity with natural language processing (NLP) and its applications in content understanding.

• Subject matter expertise in the news, entertainment, or lifestyle fields.

• Experience in ad tech.

The material job duties and responsibilities of this role include those listed above as well as adhering to Yahoo policies; exercising sound judgment; working effectively, safely and inclusively with others; exhibiting trustworthiness and meeting expectations; and safeguarding business operations and brand integrity.

At Yahoo, we offer flexible hybrid work options that our employees love! While most roles don’t require regular office attendance, you may occasionally be asked to attend in-person events or team sessions. You’ll always get notice to make arrangements. Your recruiter will let you know if a specific job requires regular attendance at a Yahoo office or facility. If you have any questions about how this applies to the role, just ask the recruiter!

Yahoo is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, and will not be discriminated against based on age, race, gender, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability or any other protected category. Yahoo will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law. Yahoo is dedicated to providing an accessible environment for all candidates during the application process and for employees during their employment. If you need accessibility assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability, please submit a request via the Accommodation Request Form (www.yahooinc.com/careers/contact-us.html) or call +1.866.772.3182. Requests and calls received for non-disability related issues, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.

We believe that a diverse and inclusive workplace strengthens Yahoo and deepens our relationships. When you support everyone to be their best selves, they spark discovery, innovation and creativity. Among other efforts, our 11 employee resource groups (ERGs) enhance a culture of belonging with programs, events and fellowship that help educate, support and create a workplace where all feel welcome. Check out our diversity and inclusion (www.yahooinc.com/diversity/) page to learn more.

The compensation for this position ranges from $128,250.00 - $266,875.00/yr and will vary depending on factors such as your location, skills and experience. The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of discretionary annual bonus or commissions, in addition to equity incentives. Our comprehensive benefits include healthcare, a great 401k, backup childcare, education stipends and much (much) more.

Currently work for Yahoo? Please apply on our internal career site.