Principal Data Scientist (f/m/d)

What's next in music happens on SoundCloud first. As the world’s largest open audio platform, SoundCloud is powered by a connected community of creators, listeners and curators who share, discover and influence what’s new, now and next in music and audio.

We are looking for an impact-driven Principal Data Scientist to solve and help others solve exciting problems across the SoundCloud product using Machine Learning and other Data Science tools. You will work closely with other data scientists and engineers to find opportunities, build, tune, instrument, and evaluate data science models.

Our Data Scientists work on a wide range of products and problems having direct impact on our millions of daily active users. We want people that come equipped with an open mind, creativity and a get-it-done attitude.

About the role

In this role you will be responsible for leading the efforts to build data products and internal solutions for some of the hardest problems at SoundCloud. You will see projects through from start to finish performing research, prototyping solutions, production deployment at scale and A/B testing to validate your solutions. We love specialists with deep experience, and we expect to use that experience alongside a Data Scientist’s ability to be general and tackle a wide range of problem areas.

Some projects you might work on include:

• Develop, adapt, combine, and choose data science methodology (statistics, machine learning, optimization, experimentation) to address complex problems.
• Evaluate and validate correctness of data models and theoretical approaches. Assess and validate performance of models to meet business objectives.
• Deepen in personalized user journeys to gain a comprehensive understanding of user behavior, develop targeted advertising, and improve digital experiences.
• Provide guidance on how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of current solutions with changes that affect the bottom line of the organization
• Communicate complex information to a wide and non technical audience. Determine data requirements and performance metrics to measure company wide business objectives.

About You

You are a Principal Data Scientist with a curious analytical mindset, experience with software engineering, and a track record of shipping solutions at large scale. You have a broad toolkit that spans languages and runtimes, and you can get up-to-speed with new tech stacks quickly. You enjoy working cross-functional with Engineers, Product Managers and peer Data Scientists. You have:

• You have a Ph.D. or M.Sc. in a quantitative field (Statistics, Machine Learning, AI, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, etc.) or demonstrated industry experience productionizing machine learning algorithms.
• A minimum of 10 years of experience in a full-time industry position (not academic).
• Demonstrated experience with and solid knowledge of cloud technologies (GCP, AWS).
• Experience of software engineering techniques including version control, continuous integration, unit testing.
• A deep understanding of the lifecycle of a Data Science project, with experience in research, solution development, tuning and inspecting models, etc.
• Experienced wrangling very large datasets by writing and maintaining data processing pipelines.
• Strong engineering background, with experience with Scala, Python or similar languages that are used to ship production models and systems.
• You have solid analytical capabilities; you know not just how to solve problems with machine learning but also where and when.
• An ability to tell a story about data, to explore and reveal patterns, and to communicate to stakeholders about your discoveries and hypothesis.
• Worked in cross-functional teams and are able to work in multiple parts of a tech stack.
• You value the soft-side of applied research (e.g. communication, mentorship, team-work).
• You are excited by the opportunity to directly impact the daily experience and happiness of millions of people around the world.

Diversity at SoundCloud

SoundCloud is for everyone. Diversity and open expression are fundamental to our organization; they help us build a social platform and global community where anyone can create, discover, and share sounds. We acknowledge the challenges in our industry, and strive to develop an inclusive culture where everyone can contribute.*

• We’re international! We operate in the US, Berlin and London and all of our communication is in English.
• We have a flexible, friendly and inclusive office environment in Mitte
• Our environment is a learning one, with specific focus on development, including a professional development allowance and a possibility to use 20% of your time for a personal project.
• You can contribute to our Engineering Blog post.
• Not located in Berlin? No worries, we offer extensive relocation support including allowances, one way flights, temporary accommodation and, by partnering with Expath, on the ground support on arrival. Interested in a gym membership, photography course or book? We have a Creativity and wellness benefit!
• We offer free German courses at beginning, intermediate and advanced.