Senior Data Scientist

Taboola; Los Angeles, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) matching

Paid parental leave

Flexible PTO

Hybrid work schedule

Job summary

Taboola’s R&D team in Downtown Los Angeles is seeking a Data Scientist to advance the Realize platform, focusing on recommendation and ranking algorithms. You will design predictive models, deploy ML systems, and collaborate across teams to drive performance advertising for 600M+ daily users.

Ideal candidates hold a Master’s or PhD with 5+ years Python/Java experience and strong ML framework skills. Expect a hybrid work setup and opportunities to work with real-time data pipelines.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or Ph.D in CS/EE/Physics/Computational Economics or similar.
• 5+ years hands-on Python and Java experience.
• Proficiency with ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Spark MLlib).
• SQL proficiency for data exploration and analysis.
• System-architecture mindset for scalable, high-performance ML systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and build predictive customer behavior models for targeting and personalization.
• Implement ML/STATISTICAL algorithms and deliver models to production.
• Own ML projects end-to-end from design to deployment and maintenance.
• Build evaluation harnesses and test frameworks for ML systems with benchmarks and guardrails.
• Present findings to product and tech leads in a clear, actionable way.
• Populate HDFS/Hadoop with logs from Kafka or data from SQL systems.
• Design and support algorithms on Hadoop, Spark, and distributed Big Data systems.

Skills

Python

Java

ML frameworks

SQL

Communication across teams

End-to-end ML ownership

Education

Master’s or Ph.D. in CS/EE/Physics/Computational Economics

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Spark MLlib

HDFS

Kafka

Job description

Realize your potential by joining the leading performance-driven advertising company and a proud Great Place to Work® Certified employer in the US

As a Data Scientist on Taboola’s R&D Team in Downtown Los Angeles, utilizing some of the latest technology and tools, you will work on the recommendation and ranking algorithms that drive Realize — Taboola’s performance advertising platform serving 600M+ daily active users — and building agentic AI systems alongside it.

The models you build directly influence campaign performance and revenue outcomes for advertisers worldwide.

To thrive in this role, you’ll need:

• Master’s degree or Ph.D, ideally in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Computational Economics, or similar
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in Python and Java
• Proficiency with ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, Tensorflow, Spark MLlib)
• SQL proficiency for data exploration and analysis
• System-architecture mindset — ability to design scalable, reliable, high-performance systems and reason about how a model fits into the larger data and serving infrastructure.
• Experience taking end-to-end ownership of ML systems: design, build, ship, measure, and maintain — using AI-assisted “vibe coding” tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude, GitHub Copilot).
• Experience building automated evaluation harnesses and test frameworks for ML systems — defining benchmarks, baselines, and guardrails that let a team ship confidently and repeatedly
• Ability to communicate technical findings clearly, and to collaborate effectively across teams (including early morning or evening syncs with our Tel Aviv team)

Bonus points if you have:

• Experience with recommendation systems, ranking algorithms, or personalization at scale
• Familiarity with real-time ML and large-scale data mining

How you’ll make an impact:

• Design and build predictive customer behavior models for targeting and personalization
• Implement the applicable Machine Learning or statistics based algorithm for prediction and optimization and deliver the trained model to production
• Take end-to-end ownership: design, build, ship, measure, and maintain models and the services around them—rapidly prototyping and delivering complete projects/products using AI-assisted “vibe coding” workflows.
• Act as a Harness Engineer: build the evaluation harnesses, automated testing frameworks, benchmarks, and guardrails that let the team experiment, measure model quality, and ship AI/ML systems safely and repeatedly, following a TDD process.
• Present findings to the product team and technical team leads in a clear and actionable way.
• Build and maintain code to populate HDFS, Hadoop with log from Kafka or data loaded from SQL production systems
• Design, build and support algorithms of data transformation, conversion, computation on Hadoop, Spark and other distributed Big Data Systems

Why Taboola?

If you ask Taboolars what they love about working here, they’ll tell you that they’ve been empowered to realize their full potential while growing and learning from and with smart and talented people. They’ll also share more about:

• Adam Singolda, Taboola Founder and CEO says; “You can copy anything from another business but you can’t copy a company’s culture.”
• Well-being: Enjoy comprehensive benefits (health, dental, vision, 401k matching), a fully stocked kitchen and parking.
• Flexibility: We offer a hybrid work schedule with 3 days in-office with an option to come in more often if desired.
• Work with some of the biggest names: Our publisher partners include Yahoo, Conde Nast, Fox Sports, NBCU, ESPN, CBS, and E! Online. Our advertiser clients include Wells Fargo, Honda, Pinterest, and Expedia.

Ready to realize your potential?

Taboola is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity in all forms. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and believe such an environment is critical for success. Employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.

Taboola empowers businesses to grow through performance advertising technology that goes beyond search and social and delivers measurable outcomes at scale.

Taboola works with thousands of businesses who advertise directly on Realize, Taboola’s powerful ad platform, reaching approximately 600M daily active users across some of the best publishers in the world. Publishers like NBC News, Yahoo, and OEMs such as Samsung, Xiaomi and others use Taboola’s technology to grow audience and revenue, enabling Realize to offer unique data, specialized algorithms, and unmatched scale.

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#LI-Hybrid

The pay offered may vary depending on several factors such as location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. We may offer several perks as part of the compensation package that include a discretionary bonus, equity, flexible PTO, medical/dental/vision insurance, a competitive 401(k) match, paid parental leave, and more.