Associate Principal Data Scientist San Francisco (USA) Activision Publishing USD 143,060-264,84[...] (San Francisco)

We are seeking an Associate Principal Data Scientist—a highly experienced and technically deep individual contributor who leads through influence, owns high-impact initiatives, and drives scientific excellence across experimentation and modeling.

Responsibilities:

Lead the design and execution of large-scale data science initiatives, shaping the roadmap for experimentation and modeling across teams.

Apply advanced statistical, optimization, and machine learning techniques (e.g., time-series, regression/classification, recommendation engines, reinforcement learning, and genAI) to drive system understanding and develop data-powered solutions across the organization.

Own design and evaluation of experimentation for optimization systems.

Provide technical direction, mentor senior data scientists, and set high standards for scientific rigor, communication, and reproducibility.

Partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Game Studios to frame ambiguous problems, scope solutions, and influence strategy.

Champion innovation by evaluating new methodologies and tools, and by raising the bar for scalable, interpretable, and actionable data science.

Skills to Create Thrills

Minimum Qualifications:

Master’s degree or PhD in a quantitative field (e.g., Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Operations Research).

14+ years of industry experience (or equivalent post-graduate experience) in data science, experimentation, statistical modeling, and machine learning, including work with large-scale systems.

Proficient in Python and SQL; familiarity with big data tools (e.g., Spark, Hive) and cloud computing platforms (e.g., GCP, AWS).

Strong systems thinking—able to zoom out and define strategy while also diving deep into code and analysis.

Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with demonstrated experience partnering across Product, Engineering and Business teams.

Demonstrated experience mentoring, influencing, and elevating the technical bar across a data science organization.

Bonus Points

Experience working with advertising data products or monetization systems.

Prior work with mobile gaming studios or player behavior modeling.

Experience in developing or maintaining experimentation platforms.

Familiarity with modern data orchestration and versioning (e.g., Airflow, dbt, MLflow).

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women, veterans, and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to . General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.

Rewards

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;

401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;

Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;

Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;

If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company. You can learn more by visiting .

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $143,060.00 - $264,846.00 Annual. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable.