Data Scientist

Data Scientist, Live Services Insights - 12month Fixed term Contract

Who We Are

2K develops and publishes interactive entertainment globally for console systems, handheld gaming devices and personal computers, including smartphones and tablets. We are proud to publish and support many of today’s most critically acclaimed gaming franchises, including NBA 2K, PGA TOUR 2K, WWE 2K, Borderlands, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, BioShock, XCOM, and Sid Meier’s Civilization.

What We Need

We are seeking a highly skilled and deeply experienced Data Scientist, Live Services Insights to lead a talented team of analysts in developing and refining data-driven, test-based approaches to drive Live Services strategy and execution for the 2K portfolio of sports franchises and partner studios, including Visual Concepts, HB Studios, and many more.

This role will be responsible for developing recurring and ad-hoc reporting structures critical to executing Live Services initiatives and guiding strategic product decisions through the delivery of relevant and impactful recommendations founded in data.  As such, the ideal candidate must have a deep understanding of video games and live services across the industry, but especially the range of 2K games under this team’s remit, to make maximum sense of every dataset and enable the extraction of relevant and actionable insights.  They must have the ability to see around corners and predict the potential implications and outcomes of myriad approaches and decisions, based on historical outcomes of our own products as well as competing franchises, current and past, throughout the industry.

This role requires a strong relationship builder, as in addition to cultivating strong and lasting Studio relationships, it will also partner closely with key cross functional Publishing teams, including brand marketing, performance marketing, product development and analytics to identify, model and execute solutions.  They must be an articulate communicator, and instill the same in their team, to ensure key findings are shared in a clear and timely manner, maximizing impact and influence on a wide range of live service and commercial business decisions.  Finally, the ideal candidate for this role will have a passion for professional development, teaching up-and-coming analysts the skills necessary to become leaders in this ever-evolving space.  Sounds amazing, right? It is – and this could be you!

Who We Think Will Be a Great Fit

The ideal candidate is incredibly passionate about gaming, data-driven decision-making and contributing to the tremendous success of every 2K Studio and franchise. They are curious by nature and foster that same curiosity within their team and across partner teams.  They are methodical (but agile), objective and hypothesis-driven, and adept at parsing large data sets with the experience to which data is actually required and where in the data to look for each answer.  They are proactive in identifying potential issues and opportunities and rigorous in testing hypotheses, eager to uncover actionable insights that help move the needle for 2K.  They must be a solution oriented, creative problem solver and self-starter, with tremendous passion and enthusiasm for inspiring meaningful decisions and optimizations across the portfolio.

What You Will Do

• Establish vision and operationalize large datasets into consumable insights and KPIs reports across the 2K sports title, allowing for urgent triage of player issues with studio devs.
• Become an expert around product performance and player behavior trends around new game launches. Provide launch reporting and ad-hoc analysis for live services, studio dev, and growth stakeholders.
• Explore new datasets, provide definitions for metrics and create aggregations used for reporting and analysis. Provide guidance to team members on usage of new telemetry collected.
• Lead the development of bespoke, franchise-specific frameworks to objectively measure the impact of Live Service initiatives on engagement and monetization and create sustainable tracking to monitor player behavior
• Analyze and communicate the ongoing performance trends, strategic insights and optimization recommendations to partner Studios, Sports Product leadership and key Publishing stakeholders
• Communicate telemetry requirements and improvements with developers to improve data pipeline for new game titles to ensure that analysis can be performed.

What Skills Are Needed

• A. or B.S. in Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Computer Science, Engineering Sciences (or in another quantitative discipline)
• 4+ years of experience in analytics with large, complex and multi-dimensional data sets
• Exceptional analytical, quantitative skills and business judgement to drive sophisticated scenario models and apply insights to strategy and planning
• Extensive experience with relational databases, SQL (experience with Vertica and/or Snowflake is a big plus) or experience with big data technologies such as Hadoop, Hive, Pig or other NoSQL DBs
• Excellent communication skills, with a proven track record of working across all levels of the organization
• Deep experience working with financial and behavioral/engagement data
• Expert Excel (incl. VBA macros, pivot tables, vlookups, etc.) and PowerPoint skills required
• Long-standing experience with data visualization tools, Tableau
• Global team management and execution experience required
• Deep video games industry experience with a strong focus in live service systems, features, activations and outcomes

Please note that 2K Games and its studios never uses instant messaging apps or personal email accounts to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews and when emailing, only use 2K.com accounts.

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