> Markdown version of [/jobs/ext/1286580-senior-data-scientist-platform-economics-simulation](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/jobs/ext/1286580-senior-data-scientist-platform-economics-simulation). Every page supports `.md` or `Accept: text/markdown`. Links point to the HTML versions so they work for humans too. Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Senior Data Scientist - Platform Economics & Simulation - **Company:** PlayStation Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd. - **Location:** London, UK - **Experience:** Expert - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Distributed Computing Environment, Python (Programming Language), SQL Databases, Reinforcement Learning, Pyspark - **Published:** July 16, 2026 - **Apply:** https://uk.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=4907902e57142d54 ## About the Role * You think in counterfactuals. You instinctively separate incremental effect from what would have happened anyway, and you reason naturally about substitution, cannibalisation, and the economics of a content platform. A background in economics, econometrics, or a similarly causal quantitative discipline is a strong fit. * Proven industry experience turning causal and economic understanding into decisions that changed commercial outcomes, in areas such as customer value, retention, pricing, or decisioning. * Depth in causal methods used to explain and understand systems: treatment-effect estimation, uplift, structural or counterfactual reasoning * The ability to build, not just analyse: you can implement models, simulation, or offline-evaluation environments and take them to production. * Strong judgement on when a sophisticated approach is warranted versus a simpler one that answers the question. * Experience owning ambiguous problems end-to-end: framing the question, choosing the approach, and delivering something the business acts on. * Fluency with large, complex behavioural datasets and the craft to work with them at scale: Python, SQL, and distributed processing (e.g. PySpark), plus standard ML tooling as the work requires. * Excellent stakeholder communication: you can make a rigorous causal argument land with a non-technical commercial audience and move a decision. * A strong quantitative academic background, typically a Master's or PhD. Nice to Have: * Experience with incrementality and uplift modelling, or with experimentation frameworks. * Reinforcement learning or contextual-bandit decisioning, and offline evaluation for recommendation or decisioning systems. * Background in gaming, e-commerce, or subscription businesses. * Experience deploying and maintaining business-critical or consumer-facing models. * Experience working in agile, fast-paced environments. ## Description This role is the causal and economic core of that mission. Most analytics can tell you what happened; we're hiring someone who can rigorously explain why value moves, and turn that understanding into sharper decisions. You'll spend your time on two linked problems: explaining the economics of the platform (what drives revenue, retention, and engagement, and what to do about it), and building the simulation and offline-evaluation tooling that lets us test decision policies before we scale them. The team is both reactive and proactive: bringing proposals that turn causal understanding into incremental value, and responding when the platform needs answers. You'll work with a high degree of autonomy on ambiguous problems, and you'll be measured on the commercial decisions your work changes, not on model metrics alone. What You'll Do: * Explain why value moves across revenue, retention, and engagement, through value decomposition, cannibalisation and substitution analysis, meta-analysis across our models, and clear strategic trade-off framing. * Apply causal reasoning to understand our own models and players: why a model behaves as it does, whether an observed effect is incremental or displaced, and what genuinely drives lifetime value. * Build offline policy evaluation and simulation tooling that lets the platform identify the content, players, and policies that create incremental value, and stress-test decision policies before they scale. * Guide model development across the team, raising the standard of causal and economic thinking through review, mentoring, and example. * Turn causal understanding into concrete proposals, and respond with rigorous answers when the platform needs them. * Communicate assumptions, methods, and conclusions clearly enough that senior technical and commercial audiences can act on them with confidence. ## Related Videos - [Data Science in Retail](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/586-data-science-in-retail) - [On the straight and narrow path - How to get cars to drive themselves using reinforcement learning and trajectory optimization](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/205-on-the-straight-and-narrow-path-how-to-get-cars-to-drive-themselves-using-reinforcement-learning-and-trajectory-optimization) - [PySpark - Combining Machine Learning & Big Data](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/44-pyspark-combining-machine-learning-big-data) - [Fault Tolerance and Consistency at Scale: Harnessing the Power of Distributed SQL Databases](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1146-fault-tolerance-and-consistency-at-scale-harnessing-the-power-of-distributed-sql-databases) - [Empowering Retail Through Applied Machine Learning](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/976-empowering-retail-through-applied-machine-learning) - [Adding knowledge to open-source LLMs](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1522-adding-knowledge-to-open-source-llms) ## Related Articles - [Jobs in Tech: The State of the European Market](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/575-jobs-in-tech-the-state-of-the-european-market) - [Résumé-Driven Development: How IT trends affect the job market for software developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/59-resume-driven-development-how-it-trends-affect-the-job-market-for-software-developers) - [Data Analyst Salary in the UK](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/278-data-analyst-salary-in-the-uk) - [Data Engineer Salary UK](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/253-data-engineer-salary-uk) - [6 Emerging Technologies We’ll Learn About in 2025](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/381-6-emerging-technologies-we-ll-learn-about-in-2025) - [Software Engineer Salary London](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/252-software-engineer-salary-london)