Staff Data Scientist

Company at a Glance OpenX is focused on unleashing the full economic potential of digital media companies. We do this by making digital advertising markets and technologies that are designed to deliver optimal value to publishers and advertisers on every ad served across all screens. At OpenX, we have built a team that is uniquely experienced in designing and operating high-scale ad marketplaces, and we are constantly on the lookout for thoughtful, creative executors who are as fascinated as we are about finding new ways to apply a blend of market design, technical innovation, operational excellence, and empathetic partner service to the frontiers of digital advertising. OpenX is seeking a Staff Data Scientist to join our Data Science team. Our exchange processes hundreds of billions of ad requests daily and generates petabytes of data, requiring advanced machine learning, deep learning, and modern AI techniques delivered through scalable platforms to create value for customers. A Staff Data Scientist is a senior technical leader whose impact spans multiple teams and business domains. In this role, you will solve complex marketplace problems, set technical direction for your domain, architect major ML systems, mentor other scientists, and partner with engineering and product leaders on data-driven strategy. Problems at this level include auction and marketplace optimization, bidding and yield strategy, relevance and prediction systems at exchange scale, causal measurement of marketplace changes, and capabilities for training, validating, and monitoring ML systems in production. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in applied machine learning, strong judgment in selecting methods for business problems at scale, and a track record of translating business needs into high-impact data science solutions. Key Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership & Architecture

Architect robust, scalable, and maintainable ML systems for broad use across the exchange, spanning training pipelines, real-time inference, validation, and monitoring

Serve as a go-to expert in deep learning and related advanced data science domains, with the breadth to guide method selection across adjacent areas

Lead the evaluation and adoption of new AI/ML modeling techniques, frameworks, and research advancements relevant to OpenX’s marketplace problems

Define and evolve technical standards and best practices within their domain, influencing broader adoption across the organization

Execution & Strategy:

Identify and lead high-impact, cross-team data science initiatives, such as improving bidding strategies, building new prediction systems, or redesigning experimentation frameworks

In partnership with engineering and product leadership, drive the data science roadmap for a product area or platform capability

Partner with product managers and commercial stakeholders to translate marketplace problems into data science solutions with measurable business outcomes

Solve novel, ambiguous problems requiring innovation in methodology, algorithms, or feature engineering

Mentorship & Influence:

Mentor and develop senior data scientists, helping them grow toward broader technical leadership

Raise the skills, impact, and scientific rigor of teams around them through guidance, architectural patterns, and strategic direction

Communicate technical strategy and build consensus for complex decisions across senior leadership and cross-functional teams

Required Qualifications:

Ph.D. in Data Science, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, Operations Research, or related technical field with 6+ years of relevant industry experience; OR M.S./B.S. with 8+ years of relevant experience and a demonstrated track record of leading cross-team technical strategy and delivering organization-level impact

Deep expertise in deep learning and broad fluency across the modern ML toolkit, with strong familiarity with optimization methods; additional experience in areas such as causal inference or experimentation design is a plus

Proven ability to architect and deliver complex, production-grade ML systems that operate at scale

Strong track record of nurturing DS/ML projects to maturity with significant business impact, including supporting and improving those systems beyond initial deployment

Mastery of probability and statistics, especially techniques that scale to massive datasets

Strong Python and SQL skills; experience with ML frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch

Strong communication and presentation skills, including proficiency in conveying complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences

Track record of cross-team technical leadership and mentorship of senior data scientists and technical partners

Desired Characteristics:

Experience developing, evaluating, or optimizing bidding algorithms for RTB environments.

Experience working with a cloud platform like GCP/AWS/Azure, with emphasis on GCP and the Vertex AI platform

Experience with ML pipeline and orchestration tools such as TFX, Kubeflow, or Airflow

Familiarity with other programming languages such as Java and Go

Experience working in digital media, marketing technology, or advertising technology — especially in marketplace, auction, or exchange systems

Track record of setting technical standards or best practices adopted beyond a single team

Experience representing data science capabilities or strategy in cross-functional forums