Staff Data Scientist - Riot Data, Emerging Games

Riot Data Scientists combine their wide technical expertise across data processing, automation, machine learning ("ML"), artificial intelligence ("AI"), and experiment design to inform decisions and develop data-powered products. As a Staff Data Scientist, you’ll dive into projects with multi-game impact. You work at a cross team scope, guiding product vision, informing technical designs, and building datasets and models for our most important data applications. You lead by example, but you also lead by leading – you achieve results while elevating others' data science craft.

As a Staff Data Scientist on the Emerging Games Studios Data team, you will answer the question “How can data help us deliver the best possible player experience, at launch and beyond?” You will use pre-production datasets and simulations to help designers answer their most nuanced questions. You will build production quality ML models for skill estimation, game understanding, ecommerce use cases, and more. You will collaborate with producers, game designers, analysts, and engineers – on game teams and in partnership with shared platform teams. You will report directly to the Emergings Games Studios Data Lead.

Responsibilities:

• Use machine learning to build products or inform decisions that directly improve the player or fan experience.
• Own the ML and AI iteration loop including dataset creation, feature engineering, technical discovery and prototyping, model tuning, and model management.
• Build ML and AI tools and products for game development, working with stakeholders and engineers to design and deploy dashboards, web apps, forecasts, and simulations.
• Continually improve our data science practice by identifying novel applications of existing capabilities as well as brand new technical approaches to address critical game and business problems
• Mentor and advise data scientists in and technical best practices
• Represent data products to non-technical partners and collaborators

Required Qualifications: 

• Masters in Machine Learning, AI, Statistics, Math, or related Computer Science/Quantitative field, or equivalent professional experience (i.e. B.Sci with 5 years of professional experience, etc.)
• Expertise in Python and SQL.
• Expertise in machine learning frameworks such as tensorflow/keras, scikit-learn, or Spark MLlib
• Experience developing and deploying machine learning models at scale.
• Experience in the design, implementation, and analysis of online experiments
• Effective at storytelling with data to a diverse and non-technical audience.

Desired Qualifications:

• 2+ years of experience with applied data products in gaming or entertainment
• Experience with big-data platforms such as Spark and Airflow
• Experience with modern deep learning frameworks in practical applications
• Familiarity with game development engines, tools, and processes

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about the experiences of players, this could be the role for you!

Our Perks:

Riot has a focus on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy, in addition to other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner's Code and Community Code. Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming.

• (Los Angeles Only) Base salary range between $195,300.00 - $273,000.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.
• (St. Louis Only) Base salary range between $176,700.00 - $247,000.00 USD + incentive compensation + equity + 401K with company match + medical, dental, vision, and life insurance + short and long-term disability + open PTO.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance relating to an applicant's criminal history (LAMC 189.00).