Senior Research Scientist - AI-Driven Ad Optimization

Yahoo Holdings Inc. in; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 161,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Yahoo DSP Research is seeking a Principal Research Scientist to lead the next-generation budget control, pacing, and bidding algorithms. You will architect high-scale optimization and drive AI-augmented development loops from concept to production.

You will mentor engineers, set technical direction, and collaborate with product and business partners to ensure scalable, robust DSP systems. A strong foundation in optimization, ML, and production software is essential.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Operations Research, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field.
• 8+ years of hands-on experience designing and deploying large-scale optimization, control systems, or machine learning models in production environments.
• Deep mathematical foundation in probability, convex/stochastic optimization, and control theory.
• Demonstrated expertise in production programming languages (Python, Java, C++, SQL, or Spark) with experience in low-latency or distributed data architectures.
• Active hands-on experience with AI pair-programming and developer automation tools.
• Proven capability to evaluate, refine, and validate AI-generated research artifacts and code.

Responsibilities

• Lead research, architectural design, and production deployment of large-scale algorithms for budget pacing, bid optimization, and marketplace balancing.
• Architect and drive agentic AI workflows and automated experiment orchestration to accelerate research-to-production.
• Provide technical strategy and long-term vision for the DSP optimization ecosystem with leadership alignment.
• Apply optimization theory and ML to solve real-time marketplace dynamics under uncertainty.
• Direct AI-assisted code refactoring and automated testing suite generation to raise engineering standards.
• Own multi-quarter research initiatives from math formulation to production rollout with rigorous evaluation.
• Partner with engineering and product teams to ensure scalable algorithm execution.
• Mentor senior scientists and engineers, promoting an AI-forward research culture.
• Communicate strategy and results clearly to executives and cross-functional partners.

Skills

Python

Java

C++

SQL

Spark

AI pair-programming

Distributed systems

Education

Ph.D. in quantitative field

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Cursor

Claude

Gemini

ChatGPT

Job description

Yahoo DSP Research is seeking a Principal Research Scientist to lead the next-generation budget control, pacing, and bidding algorithms. You will architect high-scale optimization and drive AI-augmented development loops from concept to production.

You will mentor engineers, set technical direction, and collaborate with product and business partners to ensure scalable, robust DSP systems. A strong foundation in optimization, ML, and production software is essential.