Social Scientist, Performance

Hive Science LLC; Durham (NC); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Hive Science LLC in Durham, NC is seeking a Social Scientist, Performance to design and scale experiments, analyze real-world campaign data and push scientific rigor into live products.

The role emphasizes causal inference, advanced quantitative methods, and strong Python/R coding, with hybrid work in our Durham office. PhD-level expertise or equivalent is required along with the ability to convey complex results to business audiences.

Qualifications

• Exceptional experimental design skills in real-world settings.
• Deep expertise in causal inference and incrementality measurement.
• Hands-on experience with advertising and campaign data metrics.
• Understanding of ad platforms, auctions, pacing and bias in results.
• Commercial experience in ad tech, marketing measurement or consumer products.
• Strong data validation for predictive or modeled outputs.
• Advanced quantitative training at PhD level or equivalent.
• Ability to explain complex methods to business audiences.

Responsibilities

• Design and scale experiments for Hive products, including holdouts and A/B tests.
• Build repeatable experimentation frameworks for new products and partners.
• Maintain Hive's validation standards for out-of-sample performance and uncertainty.
• Work with Hive scientists to ensure results are scientifically meaningful.
• Help set the scientific bar for when a product is ready to ship.
• Analyze campaign performance data: impressions, CTR, conversions, CPA, ROAS.
• Design tests that reflect auction dynamics, delivery optimization and pacing.
• Work with large, messy real-world datasets to answer viable questions.
• Turn results into case studies, benchmarks and proofs for commercial teams.
• Balance rigor, cost, speed and feasibility in live campaigns.

Skills

Experimental design

Causal inference

Advertising data

Model validation

Python

R

Claude Code fluency

Explain complex methods

Geographic data

Education

PhD or equivalent in social/quantitative psychology, computational social science, statistics, economics, or related

Tools

Claude Code

Python

R

Job description

Social Scientist, Performance (Durham, NC)

Location:

October 14, 2026

Hive Science is a tech start-up whose technologies are in use by many of the world’s largest brands including Land Rover, Edward Jones & numerous other fortune 500 brands. The Hive platform is delivering novel intelligence at the intersection of quantitative social psychology, behavioral science & AI/ML to accelerate & transform how work is done. We’re looking for someone to join our team and get on board this rocket ship with us..

About the role:

What you'll do

Design and scale experimentation

• Design rigorous experiments for Hive products, including holdouts, back-tests, and A/B, geo and incrementality tests with customers and partners.
• Build repeatable experimentation frameworks, so each new product or partner can be tested quickly and consistently.
• Maintain and extend Hive's validation standards, covering out-of-sample performance, calibration, stability and uncertainty.
• Work with Hive's scientists to keep results scientifically meaningful as well as statistically significant.
• Help set the scientific bar for when a product is ready to ship.

Work with real-world campaign and media data

• Analyze campaign performance data such as impressions, reach, frequency, CTR, conversions, CPA and ROAS.
• Design tests that account for how ad platforms actually work: auction dynamics, delivery optimization, pacing, audience overlap, and non-random delivery that can confound naive comparisons.
• Work with large, messy real-world datasets, and know which questions the data can and can't answer.

Make it commercially useful

• Design experiments that answer the questions customers, partners and procurement teams actually ask.
• Turn results into case studies, benchmarks and proof points for commercial teams.
• Make pragmatic tradeoffs among rigor, cost, speed and what's feasible in live campaigns.
• Work with Product to prioritize the experimental work that most strengthens Hive's differentiation.
• Communicate assumptions, uncertainty and limitations clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.

Use AI as a force multiplier

• Use Claude Code and other AI tools daily to accelerate coding, analysis, diagnostics and documentation.
• Independently validate AI-generated code, assumptions and interpretations, and help set team standards for reproducible AI-assisted science.

Requirements:

• Exceptional experimental design skills. You've designed and run many experiments, in the field and in live commercial settings, and know how to get clean answers from messy real-world conditions.
• Deep expertise in causal inference, including randomized experiments, quasi-experimental methods and incrementality measurement.
• Hands-on experience with advertising and campaign data: impressions, CTR, conversions, CPA, ROAS, attribution and lift measurement.
• A working understanding of how ad platforms and delivery algorithms behave (auctions, optimization, pacing, targeting) and how they bias experimental results.
• Commercial experience in ad tech, marketing measurement, media, consumer intelligence, market research or consumer-facing products.
• Strong experience validating predictive or modeled data: calibration, generalization, uncertainty and bias.
• Advanced quantitative training (PhD or equivalent experience) in a field such as social or quantitative psychology, computational social science, statistics, economics, quantitative marketing or a related discipline.
• An instinct for the difference between a model that predicts well and one whose outputs mean what they claim to.
• Experience with geographic or multilevel data is a plus.
• Strong coding in Python and/or R, with comfort working directly with large datasets.
• Fluency with Claude Code, including an understanding of AI failure modes and how to verify output.
• The ability to explain complex methods simply and persuasively to commercial audiences.

Backgrounds that could be a strong fit
We care more about experimental rigor, commercial judgment and creativity than about a specific discipline. Strong candidates might come from marketing science, ad measurement, experimentation teams at ad platforms or tech companies, media agencies, behavioral science, quantitative social science, economics or market research.

Additional Information:

• Location: Hybrid, 3 days a week in our Durham office. You must live within commuting distance.
• Employment type: Full-time.
• Work authorization: You must have an existing right to work in the US. We're not able to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

Why do you have a passion for the work that you do? What excites you about combining your skills with quantitative social psychology & behavioral science?

Tell us about a time when your work impacted customer success: