Chess Data Science Lead — High-Impact, Remote

chess; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Chess.com, the world's largest chess platform, is hiring a data science leader to translate strategy into measurable objectives, grow a lean team, and collaborate with senior leadership. You will design algorithms and models that power fair play and engaging features for 250M+ players, while shipping reliable solutions in a fully remote environment.

You should balance rigorous modeling with delivering initial versions and mentoring colleagues to operate faster and more independently.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of data science leadership with measurable impact.
• Strong Python and SQL skills; experience with data pipelines at scale (BigQuery/GCP).
• Ability to communicate findings to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Own high-impact data science work across product data science and fair play.
• Partner with product, engineering, and design to translate stats into decisions.
• Design and deploy models to identify cheating at scale and improve user learning experiences.
• Manage a lean data science team, set objectives, and mentor teammates.

Skills

Data science leadership

Python & SQL

BigQuery/GCP

Communication with stakeholders

Mentoring data scientists

Chess knowledge

Tools

Cursor

Claude Code

Cloud storage

Job description

Chess.com, the world's largest chess platform, is hiring a data science leader to translate strategy into measurable objectives, grow a lean team, and collaborate with senior leadership. You will design algorithms and models that power fair play and engaging features for 250M+ players, while shipping reliable solutions in a fully remote environment.

You should balance rigorous modeling with delivering initial versions and mentoring colleagues to operate faster and more independently.