Principal Data Scientist - Personalization

As a Principal Data Scientist at VIZIO, you will lead the design and delivery of machine learning solutions that power personalization and ad targeting across the platform. You will own complex, ambiguous problems end-to-end, translating product and customer needs into scalable ML models, and iterating them through rigorous evaluation and experimentation. Working closely with Product and Engineering partners, you will influence direction, navigate technical trade-offs, and advance long-term ML strategy. You will set the technical standard for modeling and experimentation, contribute hands-on advanced deep-learning models at scale, and mentor other data scientists with a focus on quality and impact. What you will do

• Tackle ambiguous, high-impact problems by translating product and business questions into well-scoped ML and data science work.
• Build, evaluate, and iterate on advanced deep-learning models for personalization and recommendation.
• Design and apply rigorous offline metrics and online experimentation frameworks to measure model and system performance.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to align on scope, trade-offs, and execution across multiple teams.
• Help define best practices for modeling, experimentation, and ML development, with a focus on robustness and maintainability.
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to other data scientists through reviews, collaboration, and hands-on problem solving.

What you bring

• Extensive experience designing, training, and deploying machine learning models for real-world systems, particularly in personalization, recommendation, ranking, or targeting.
• Deep technical foundations in machine learning and statistics, including experience with representation learning, deep-learning architectures, optimization, and model evaluation.
• Production Python experience, comfortable with distributed data tools such as PySpark, and expertise in modern ML frameworks (eg, PyTorch, JAX).
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, technically complex problem spaces, taking ownership from initial formulation through deployment and iteration.
• Enjoy raising the technical bar through mentorship, design reviews, and hands-on collaboration with other data scientists.

• Option 1: Bachelor's degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field and 5 years' experience in an analytics-related field.
• Option 2: Master's degree in the same fields and 3 years' experience in an analytics-related field.
• Option 3: 7 years' experience in an analytics or related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Data science, machine learning, optimization models, or related experience.
• PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Operations Research, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Econometrics, or related disciplines.
• Publications or active peer-reviewer in related journals or conferences.
• Successful completion of assessments in Python, Spark, Scala, or R.
• Experience using open-source frameworks such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow, or Torch.
• Background in creating inclusive digital experiences, including knowledge of WCAG 2.2 AA standards and assistive technologies.

Health-medical, vision, and dental coverage; wellness programs and mental-health resources.

Retirement-401(k) with company match.

PTO-paid time off, sick leave, parental leave, and other family care leaves.

Professional development-access to training, leadership programs, and clear career advancement paths.

Additional compensation-annual or quarterly performance bonuses, and stock award options for certain positions. Salary Range