Senior Data Scientist (Optimization)

The internet is experiencing a transformation – ad blindness and blocking are forcing media companies and advertisers to rethink the way they connect with consumers. This evolution is changing the way we consume content and how we interact with brands. Nativo is enabling this shift by developing the media and advertising platform of the future, enabling brands and media companies to engage consumer with content rather than interrupt them with ads.

For brands, Nativo provides the ultimate technology for distributing content into native placements and measuring its impact across premium publications. For media companies, Nativo is the platform of choice for automating the workflows around native ad serving. From the hands and minds of an amazing team, Nativo has engineered a platform that is recognized as the best in market. Nativo is respected, well-funded, and growing rapidly. Nativo is playing a vital role forging the path of media and advertising’s evolution.

The Data Scientist will be part of a team responsible for designing and improving of our big data & data-science infrastructure. The team is also responsible for providing various advanced optimization technology & targeting solutions for large-scale problems in other areas of our system. We process over a billion events daily and the amount of data we process is growing rapidly. We believe in being smart, innovative, pragmatic, polished, and efficient and are looking for people that fit those values. This role reports to our Director of Data Science in Engineering.

What you'll do:

• Develop various predictive models to help solve various big data problems
• Build and Improve our Real/Time Ads Optimization Engine
• Adapt & improve various parts of the Nativo’s big data infrastructure/stack to handle the above models
• Work with various team members to help improve areas which deal with high volume low latency problems, using various statistical/mathematical models
• Research on the latest & greatest data–science techniques such as Deep Learning technology, XGBoost, etc. in order to improve our data – science engines.

What you need:

• Good background and experience with statistical and other advanced math problem solving
• Good understanding of Multi-Arm Bandits, Bandit Algorithm and Contextual Bandits
• Solid understanding of Optimization techniques such as Linear / Integer Programming’s (Knapsacks, Solvers, etc.)
• Solid understanding of different regression models / GLM and regularizations such as Ridge, Lasso, Elastic Net
• Programming experience, ideally in Python, Scala, Java or R, but we are open to other experience if you’re willing to learn the languages we use
• Good understanding of Matrix Factorization, Gradient Boosting, Random Forest, Batch/Stochastic Gradient Descent, Neural Network, SVM, etc.
• Good understanding of evaluation metrics such as F1 scores, R2, RMSE, AUC, ROC, confusion matrix, logloss, etc.
• Knowledge of machine learning libraries and such as Vowpal Wabbit, H2O, Tensorflow, Theano, Keras or xgboost, and ability to apply machine learning at scale
• Proven experience writing advanced algorithms on top of Big Data infrastructure
• Knowledge in a variety of non-SQL big data open source products such as Spark, EMR/Hadoop, etc.
• Ability to operate in an agile, entrepreneurial start-up environment
• Excellent teamwork skills with an ability to reach out and use team strengths to get the work done with minimal supervision
• Good communication skills
• You must be motivated, driven, and passionate about programming and technology
• Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Statistics, or Computer Science related

What We Offer:

At Nativo, you make an immediate impact. Nativo is made up of smart, talented and driven people looking for other potential team members with the same attitude of innovation and excellence. We offer incredible opportunities to learn and work on projects that transform digital advertising. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package that includes stock options, health coverage, employer-matched 401k, cutting edge work, and the opportunity to join a rapidly growing startup with a proven product.