Senior Data Scientist, Machine Learning - Platform

At Rockstar Games, we create world-class entertainment experiences. 

A career at Rockstar Games is about being part of a team working on some of the most creatively rewarding and ambitious projects to be found in any entertainment medium. You would be welcomed to a dedicated and inclusive environment where you can learn and collaborate with some of the most talented people in the industry. 

Rockstar Games is on the lookout for talented Data Scientists with strong software development skills who possess a passion for both games, and big data. This is a full-time permanent position based out of Rockstar’s unique game development studio in the heart of Manhattan or our studio in San, Diego, CA. 

WHAT WE DO

• The Rockstar Analytics team provide insights and actionable results to a wide variety of stakeholders across the organization in support of their decision making. 
• We partner with multiple departments across the company to design and implement data and pipelines. 
• We collaborate as a global team to develop cutting-edge data pipelines, data products, data models, reports, analyses, and machine learning applications. 
• The ML Platform vertical on the Analytics Team is tasked to build out high impact ML products for internal tooling and for personalizing in-game experiences for our players 
• We design, build, and maintain the foundational infrastructure of Rockstar’s Player Analytics ML platform.
• We work alongside an exploding team of innovative data-driven decision makers directly impacting Rockstar’s future. 

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build out foundational high impact infrastructure and tooling to enable Rockstar to leverage modern ML practices to drive company-wide strategy 
• Build common library tooling to enable data science staff to easily use Big Data and Cloud resources with a high level of abstraction
• Collaborate closely with internal Data Science members and external stakeholders to ensure we leverage ML to provide the best player experience for our critical titles
• Build standard toolsets for entry to resources across Machine Learning Engineers and Data Scientists, following proper Python OOD best practices
• Design, develop and maintain product-level Machine Learning application packages in an Agile product-focused CI/CD environment
• Use and optimize advanced distributed techniques to automate continuous training pipelines for traditional and Deep Learning (DL) models.
• Remain current with state of the industry to ensure products are meeting modern DL/ML standards and best practices Innovate and produce top quality ML data applications that are easy to iterate as stakeholder requirements evolve.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 5+ years in data science or similar role in the gaming, marketing, finance, or technology fields required. 
• 5+ years of experience in machine learning application development with Python 
• Strong understanding of distributed computing and cloud tech for machine learning products 
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field, with a strong quantitative background.
• Passion for Rockstar Games and our titles. 

SKILLS

• Deep knowledge of ML algorithms for supervised regression and classification tasks, unsupervised tasks, reinforcement learning tasks, as well as bagging, boosting, and stacking ensemble techniques. 
• Extensive experience designing and developing ML pipelines for distributed training on billions of rows of high dimensional data through to production. 
• Experience designing and developing cloud-based PySpark applications.
• Experience with back-end infrastructure for serving models at batch and real time with unified code base.
• Strong skills in diagramming complex data application architecture and data flows.
• Good understanding of practical deep learning techniques and implementation schemes.
• Experience developing cloud-based infrastructure tooling following proper Software Development Lifecycle practices.
• Understanding of using Docker for application packaging and versioning
• Experience building and working with infrastructure central to MLOps and how MLFlow manages the model lifecycle for model lineage tracking and environment agnostic model containerization
• Ability to develop and maintain good relations and communicate with people at all hierarchical levels.
• Proficiency in statistics such as distributions, predictive modeling, data validation, statistical testing, and regression.
• Strong problem-solving skills.
• Ability to reconcile technical and business perspectives.
• Autonomy and entrepreneurship.
• Strong team spirit 

PLUSES

Please note that these are desirable skills and are not required to apply for the position. 

• Experience with Azure ML & other base Azure Services.
• Experience with Databricks, MLFlow.
• Experience serving models for real-time applications.
• Experience with Snowflake.
• Graduate degree (MSc or Master’s, PHD), an asset.
• Game industry experience strongly desired. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

HOW TO APPLY

Please apply with a resume demonstrating how you meet the skills above. If we would like to move forward with your application, a Rockstar recruiter will reach out to you to explain next steps and guide you through the process.

Rockstar is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to hiring, promoting, and compensating employees based on their qualifications and demonstrated ability to perform job responsibilities.

If you’ve got the right skills for the job, we want to hear from you. We encourage applications from all suitable candidates regardless of age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, belief, or race.