Director, Data Science

Shoptalk; United States; Remote; USD 175,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

People Inc. is seeking a Director of Data Science to lead customer intelligence and personalization across entertainment brands.

You will shape products and experiences by turning data into actionable insights, collaborating with Product, Marketing, and Editorial to scale models, measurements, and insights. Responsibilities include leading a team to build CLV models, optimize engagement across apps and newsletters, and drive data-driven product decisions with advanced analytics and

Qualifications

• PhD or advanced degree in Data Science, Economics, Business Analytics, Mathematics, Statistics, or similar quantitative field, or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of data science and machine learning experience focusing on customer behavior, product analytics, and marketing problems.
• 5+ years leading a team of data scientists.
• Strong ability to lead product and funnel analytics on web and mobile with actionable insights.
• Solid foundation in causal inference, survival analysis, and time series for marketing/customer behavior.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL for data analysis and model development.
• Familiarity with Claude Code/Codex and their use in data science workflows.
• Strong strategic and operational capabilities and excellent leadership/communication skills.
• Ability to communicate complex analyses clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Drive adoption of new data science methods and technologies.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a data science team to develop predictive models for customer lifetime value.
• Analyze customer interactions across app, web, social, and email touchpoints.
• Own product funnel and engagement analyses, including onboarding, adoption, stickiness, and session behavior.
• Build customer segmentation models to identify high-value users and inform content/product recommendations.
• Translate user insights into differentiated experiences across apps, newsletters, and other touchpoints.
• Design online A/B testing experiments to measure impact of product changes and marketing interventions.
• Ensure collaboration between data science and other departments.
• Advocate for data tools and capabilities to advance the function.
• Align data initiatives with company objectives.

Skills

Python

SQL

Leadership

Communication

A/B testing

Causal inference

Time series

NLP

Education

PhD or advanced degree

Tools

BigQuery

Claude Code

Job description

Director, Data Science

Job Description

About The Position | Major Goals and Objectives and Location Requirements:

People Inc. is America’s largest print and digital publisher, reaching tens of millions of readers every day. We’re hiring a Director of Data Science to lead customer intelligence and personalization for our entertainment brands, helping shape products and experiences that inform, engage, and inspire our audiences.

In this role, you’ll build a deeper understanding of our customers across product engagement, marketing response, and lifecycle behavior. You’ll partner closely with Product, Marketing, and Editorial teams to turn data into actionable insights that drive growth, while working with Data Operations and Engineering to ensure our models, measurement systems, and insights can scale effectively.

You’ll apply statistical modeling and machine learning to product and marketing challenges across customer segmentation, acquisition, engagement, retention, and lifetime value, with a particular focus on mobile app experiences. You’ll own models and analyses that support personalization, automated marketing, attribution, experimentation, and lifecycle optimization across apps, newsletters, and other customer touchpoints, translating complex audience behavior into clear recommendations and measurable business impact.

Schedule Requirements:

In-office Expectations:

This position is fully remote with no in-office requirements, (might require coming into an office periodically for team meetings, etc.)

About The Team | The Team and/or Brand:

People Inc. is the largest premium publisher in the world. Every day, tens of millions of people come to us for help and inspiration. Our library of hundreds of thousands of articles helps our users understand how to deal with day-to-day challenges. You will work with a team of data scientists, collaborating with cross-functional groups to leverage this incredible dataset to understand both our content and our users' needs. This knowledge will be used to identify and build out new products that leverage the behavioral information within our extensive data.

About The Position’s Contributions:

Weight % Accountabilities, Actions, and Expected Measurable Results

• Lead and grow a data science team to develop predictive models that estimate customer lifetime value using advanced statistical and machine learning techniques.
• Analyze and understand customer interactions across app, web, social media, and email touchpoints to identify and optimize engagement opportunities.
• Own product funnel and engagement analysis, including onboarding completion, feature adoption, feature stickiness, and session behavior, as distinct from marketing-funnel metrics such as acquisition and retention.
• Leverage data-driven insights to build customer segmentation models, identifying high-value users and informing content and product recommendations.
• Partner with Product and Editorial teams to translate user understanding into differentiated experiences across the app, newsletters, and other customer interactions, feeding insights directly into the product development cycle. This includes the sizing of opportunities and assessment of product success.
• Design online A/B testing experiments to measure the impact of product changes, personalization, and full-funnel marketing interventions.
• Ensure effective collaboration between data science teams and other departments.
• Advocate for resources and tools to advance data capabilities.
• Align data initiatives with company objectives.

The Role’s Minimum Qualifications and Job Requirements:

Education:

PhD or advanced degree in Data Science, Economics, Business Analytics, Mathematics, Statistics, or similar quantitative field, or equivalent experience.

Experience:

• 7+ years of experience in data science and machine learning with a strong focus in the area of customer behavior, product analytics, and marketing-focused problems.
• 5+ years of experience leading a team of data scientists.
• Ability to lead product and funnel analytics on web and mobile platforms with a focus on providing actionable insights, not just data outputs.
• Solid foundation in causal inference, survival analysis, and time series analysis, especially as applied to marketing and customer behavior.
• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL for data analysis and model development.
• Familiarity with Claude Code/Codex and how they can be used reliably (and where they fail) in a data science workflow.
• Strong strategic and operational capabilities.
• Excellent leadership and communication skills.
• Ability to communicate complex analyses clearly to non-technical marketing and business stakeholders.
• Drives adoption of new data science methods and technologies to continually expand what the product can do.

Specific Knowledge, Skills, Certifications and Abilities:

• Experience with large-scale search and recommendation systems in media, e-commerce, or advertising space.
• Experience working with large-scale analytics platforms (e.g., BigQuery).
• Exposure to reinforcement learning or bandit approaches for personalization or offer optimization.
• Advanced experimentation techniques, including multivariate testing, factorial designs, and CUPED.
• Experience with Bayesian statistical methods for inference and decision-making under uncertainty.
• Experience with forecasting models and advanced lifecycle or retention modeling.
• Applied NLP experience for content classification, semantic search, or audience understanding.
• Track record of leading end-to-end data science projects from problem framing through deployment and impact measurement.
• Confidence and pride in representing Data Science as a strategic partner to Marketing and other business teams.

% Travel Required (Approximate):

~5%, ability to travel periodically/quarterly for team meetings/events preferred but flexible based on candidate needs

It is the policy of People Inc. to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, the Company will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. Accommodation requests can be made by emailing [e-mail].

The Company participates in the federal E-Verify program to confirm the identity and employment authorization of all newly hired employees. For further information about the E-Verify program, please click here: https://www.e-verify.gov/employees

Pay Range

Salary: Remote: $175,000.00 - $210,000.00

The pay range above represents the anticipated low and high end of the pay range for this position and may change in the future. Actual pay may vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to work location, experience, and performance. The range listed is just one component of People Inc's total compensation package for employees. Other compensation may include annual bonuses, and short- and long-term incentives.

In addition, People Inc. provides to employees (and their eligible family members) a variety of benefits, including medical, dental, vision, prescription drug coverage, unlimited paid time off (PTO), adoption or surrogate assistance, donation matching, tuition reimbursement, basic life insurance, basic accidental death & dismemberment, supplemental life insurance, supplemental accident insurance, commuter benefits, short term and long term disability, health savings and flexible spending accounts, family care benefits, a generous 401K savings plan with a company match program, 10-12 paid holidays annually, and generous paid parental leave (birthing and non-birthing parents), all of which may vary depending on the specific nature of your employment with People Inc. and your work location. We also offer voluntary benefits such as pet insurance, accident, critical and hospital indemnity health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance.