Principal Data Scientist

Warner Bros. Discovery; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Warner Bros. Discovery in San Francisco invites applications for Principal Research Scientist (Recommender Systems).

The role leads ML/AI projects to advance personalization and search for HBO Max, mentoring ML/DS researchers and engineers. You will collaborate with product, engineering, content, marketing, and research teams to identify ML opportunities, design scalable systems, and deliver impactful solutions.

Qualifications

• Masters or PhD in a quantitative field preferred.
• 8+ years of ML/AI experience with a track record.
• Strong background in personalization and recommender systems.
• Experience with large-scale data processing and cloud ML platforms.
• Ability to communicate complex results to non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead large ML/AI projects and mentor team members.
• Develop and deploy scalable recommender systems.
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to identify ML opportunities.
• Present modeling results to senior leadership.

Skills

Recommender systems

Personalization

Information retrieval

Machine learning

Deep learning

NLP

Reinforcement learning

Causal inference

Big data

Python

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Education

Master's in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Statistics, or OR Operations Research (PhD preferred)

Tools

SQL

AWS

Snowflake

Spark

Google Cloud

Job description

Welcome to Warner Bros. Discovery... the stuff dreams are made of.

When we say, "the stuff dreams are made of," we're not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD's vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the storytellers bringing our characters to life, the creators bringing them to your living rooms and the dreamers creating what's next...

From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive.

Principal Research Scientist (Recommender Systems)

The Job

The Principal Research Scientist (Recommender systems) will lead large and complex technical projects by developing innovative machine learning algorithms and directing the work of talented Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers and engineers towards building scalable ML solutions for HBO Max. This role will be focused on advancing personalization and recommender systems and search to drive user experience and growth.

The person in the role will partner closely with product, engineering, content, marketing, and research stakeholders across WBD to identify ML opportunities, accelerate AI innovation, and to ensure delivery of impactful solutions for the business.

The Daily

• Develop innovative data science solutions that utilize machine learning and deep learning algorithms, statistical and quantitative modeling approaches to support product, engineering and marketing initiatives.
• Be a hands‑on leader to mentor the team in the latest machine learning approaches, and to introduce new technologies and processes.
• Partner with ML engineering leadership to design and develop scalable machine learning systems to accelerate the learning cycle.
• Identify data science opportunities that deliver business value.
• Formulate key areas of the ML/AI roadmap, and educate both internal and external stakeholders at all levels to drive implementation and measurement.
• Provide thought leadership to enable ML/AI applications.
• Develop and evangelize best practices for scoping, building, validating, deploying, and monitoring ML/AI products.
• Prepare and present ML modeling results and analytical insights that help drive the business to senior leadership.

The Essentials

• Masters in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Statistics, Operations Research, or other equivalent quantitative fields (PhD preferred)
• 8 + years of work experience in Machine Learning, AI and Data Science with a proven track record to drive innovation and business impacts
• Strong experience in Recommender systems, personalization systems, collaborative filtering and information retrieval systems.
• Strong machine learning, deep learning, and statistical modeling expertise, such as causal inference modeling, ensembles, neural networks, NLP, reinforcement learning and bandits
• Familiarity and experience with modern large language model based techniques for recommender systems and personalization.
• Advanced knowledge of SQL and experience with big data platform (AWS, Snowflake, Spark, Google Cloud etc.)
• Proficiency in machine learning and deep learning languages and platforms (Python, TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch etc.)
• Experience in deploying machine learning algorithms and advanced modeling solutions
• Proven ability to deliver results in a fast-paced, high-energy environment
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain complex analysis and algorithms to non-technical audience
• Works effectively cross functional teams to build trusted partnership
• Working experience in digital media and entertainment industry preferred

How We Get Things Done...

This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at www.wbd.com/guiding-principles/ along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with yo