Staff Data Scientist, Rewards Economy & AI-Driven Loyalty

Mistplay Inc.; Northern, New York (KY, NY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Team lunches

Game nights

Company-wide events

Job summary

Mistplay is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to design and optimize our rewards economy. You will develop real-time models and contextual bandits to personalize rewards while balancing unit economics. This is a senior, cross-functional leadership role collaborating with Data, AI, Product, Analytics, and Finance teams.

You will drive AI-first strategies to improve engagement, retention, and efficiency, leveraging ML techniques across the loyalty platform and gaming context.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in Data Science, ML, Quant or Econometrics.
• Expertise in reinforcement learning (DeepQ, contextual bandits).
• Proficient in Python and PyTorch with strong data analysis using SQL.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and optimization of Mistplay's rewards economy.
• Develop real-time predictive models and optimization initiatives.
• Balance complex variables to ensure growth, cost-effectiveness and positive user value.
• Translate business goals into algorithmic constraints and incentive structures.

Skills

8+ years in Data Science

Reinforcement learning

Python

PyTorch

SQL

Econometrics

AI strategy

Real-time modeling

Education

Master’s or Ph.D. in Data Science/ML or related field

Tools

Python

PyTorch

SQL

Job description

Mistplay is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to design and optimize our rewards economy. You will develop real-time models and contextual bandits to personalize rewards while balancing unit economics. This is a senior, cross-functional leadership role collaborating with Data, AI, Product, Analytics, and Finance teams.

You will drive AI-first strategies to improve engagement, retention, and efficiency, leveraging ML techniques across the loyalty platform and gaming context.