Senior Research Data Scientist

Roku; New York (NY); On-site; USD 330,000 - 375,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Equity awards

Life insurance

Disability benefits

Parental leave

Wellness benefits

Paid time off

Job summary

Roku is seeking a Senior Research Data Scientist to lead a best-in-class causal inference platform measuring incremental impact of actions, features, and interventions on long-term outcomes. You will own the full lifecycle—from requirements to productionized pipelines—and communicate findings to senior leadership.

The role blends rigorous research with production engineering to inform growth, retention, and monetization strategy across the platform, ideal for an applied economist or

Qualifications

• PhD in Economics, Econometrics, Statistics or related field with strong causal focus.
• 10+ years applying causal inference and ML to real-world problems.
• Experience with observational methods and heterogeneous effects.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and productionize a causal inference platform.
• Research and implement causal estimation methods for Roku data.
• Build long-term outcome frameworks for projections from limited windows.
• Develop validation standards to ensure credibility of estimates.
• Leverage AI to create counterfactual scenarios and tools for users.
• Collaborate with Data Eng, PM, and Core Analytics to deploy solutions.
• Contribute to the data science vision across causal inference and experimentation.

Skills

Causal inference

Machine learning

Communication skills

Distributed computing

Python

SQL

Spark

Ray

scikit-learn

XGBoost

LightGBM

Education

PhD in Economics

Econometrics

Statistics

Job description

Teamwork makes the stream work. Roku is changing how the world watches TV. Roku is the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and we've set our sights on powering every television in the world. Roku pioneered streaming to the TV. Our mission is to be the TV streaming platform that connects the entire TV ecosystem. We connect consumers to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers unique capabilities to engage consumers.

About the role

As a Senior Research Data Scientist on Roku's Data Science team, you will lead the development of a best-in-class causal inference platform that measures and optimizes the true incremental impact of customer actions, product features, and business interventions on long-term outcomes. Partnering with the Customer Growth organization, you will build the methods and systems that enable Roku to make high-confidence decisions from observational data when randomized experiments are not feasible.

You will own the full lifecycle of causal measurement—from gathering business requirements and defining estimation approaches, to partnering with Engineering to productionize scalable causal pipelines and communicating findings to senior leadership. Your work will directly inform growth, retention, and monetization strategy across the platform, making this role ideal for an applied economist or econometrician who excels at the intersection of rigorous research and production engineering. This is someone equally comfortable deriving identification strategies and building estimators on terabyte-scale data.

For California, New York, and Massachusetts only – The estimated annual base salary for this position is between $330,000- $375,000 annually. Compensation packages are based on factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, certifications, and specific geographical location. This role is eligible for health insurance, equity awards, life insurance, disability benefits, parental leave, wellness benefits, and paid time off.

What you'll be doing

• Design, build, and productionize a causal inference platform that standardizes how Roku measures the incremental impact of customer actions and business decisions
• Research and implement causal estimation methods, including heterogeneous treatment effects, tailored to Roku's data and business questions
• Build long-term outcome frameworks that enable impact projection from limited observation windows
• Develop diagnostic and validation standards at scale to ensure credibility of causal estimates
• Leverage AI to create counterfactual scenarios and build tools that help users run, understand, and act on causal estimates correctly
• Work cross-functionally with Data Engineering, Product Management, and Core Analytics to translate business questions into well-defined causal problems and deploy production-ready solutions
• Contribute to the technical vision of the Data Science team and the broader research agenda across causal inference, predictive modeling, and experimentation

We're excited if you have

• PhD in Economics, Econometrics, Statistics, or a closely related quantitative field with a strong emphasis on causal inference
• 10+ years of experience applying causal inference and machine learning methods to real-world problems, with a demonstrated track record of measurable impact
• Deep expertise in observational causal methods such as propensity score matching, Double Machine Learning, doubly robust estimation, instrumental variables, and difference-in-differences
• Experience building reusable causal inference tools or platforms beyond one-off analyses
• Proficiency with Spark, Ray, SQL, Python, and ML frameworks such as scikit-learn, XGBoost, and LightGBM
• Experience with terabyte- or petabyte-scale datasets in distributed computing environments
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate econometric findings into clear business recommendations
• Technology industry experience; connected TV, streaming, or advertising experience is a plus

What are some of the benefits?

Roku is committed to offering a diverse range of benefits as part of our compensation package to support our employees and their families. Our comprehensive benefits include global access to mental health and financial wellness support and resources. Local benefits include statutory and voluntary benefits which may include healthcare (medical, dental, and vision), life, accident, disability, commuter, and retirement options (401(k)/pension). Employees are supported in taking time off, in accordance with local leave policies and other personal needs to support their evolving work and life needs. It is important to note that not every benefit is available in all locations or for every role. For details specific to your location, please consult with your recruiter.

Hybrid working

Roku fosters an inclusive and collaborative environment where teams generally work in the office Monday through Thursday. Fridays are generally flexible for remote work, except for employees whose specific roles or assigned office location require five days’ a week attendance.

Accommodations

Roku welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and provides reasonable accommodations and adjustments in accordance with applicable law. If you require reasonable accommodation at any point in the hiring process, please direct your inquiries to [e-mail].