Principal Data Scientist, Media Personalization

Company Description

VERSANT is a leading force in news, sports and entertainment - home to iconic and trusted brands that inspire, inform, and delight audiences. Our unique combination of content, technology and services enriches the cultural fabric, igniting passions, sparking conversations, and connecting people to what they love most.

As an independent, publicly traded company, VERSANT brings together powerhouse cable networks - including USA Network, CNBC, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Golf Channel - with dynamic digital and direct-to-consumer brands such as Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass, and SportsEngine. Together, these businesses reflect our commitment to delivering exceptional experiences across every screen and service.

VERSANT is an industry-changing media company fueled by innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. With a strong foundation and a forward-looking vision, VERSANT empowers creativity, embraces change, and drives connection in an ever-evolving world.

Job Description

We're looking for a Principal Data Scientist to spearhead data science initiatives focused on news media and cable networks. You'll develop, apply and optimize AI & ML solutions to drive measurable improvements in engagement, subscriber growth, retention, and lifetime value.

This role will partner with product, editorial, marketing, and leadership - identifying AI/ML opportunities, translating product & business needs into technical solutions, and translating recommendations to leadership.

What you’ll do:

• Leverage structured and unstructured data from various media and entertainment sources to prepare datasets for advanced analytics and modeling.
• Design and apply advanced statistical and machine learning techniques for feature engineering, segmentation, prediction, and optimization to support user and/or content personalization, including applications such as recommendation engines and/or dynamic paywalls.
• Select and apply appropriate methods based on business context and data characteristics, including collaborative and content-based filtering, K-means, hierarchical clustering, logistic regression, XGBoost, matrix factorization, and neural networks.
• Assess and validate statistical models using appropriate performance metrics to ensure precision and accuracy such as accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, ROC, AUC.
• Develop and apply advanced analytics to understand consumer behavior patterns across digital touchpoints, including cross-channel attribution modeling, to enable data-informed retention initiatives.
• Interpret complex analytical insights and translate them into clear, actionable business strategies that improve business outcomes.
• Support scalable deployment of data products by following best practices in CI/CD processes and contribute to agile project management through tools like Jira for sprint planning, tracking, and team coordination.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with technical and non-technical stakeholders to gather requirements, define project scope, and lead data science initiatives, demonstrating strong communication, leadership, and team-building skills.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in data Science, statistics, computer science, or related quantitative field
• 5+ years’ experience in data science roles with demonstrated impact on engagement, subscription and retention
• Advanced skills in Python and R, strong SQL proficiency, and hands-on experience with machine learning and/or AI libraries for building and deploying intelligent systems
• Leverage cloud platforms and big data tools (e.g. Databricks, AWS, Azure), staying current with evolving technologies and architecture for scalable data science workflows
• Strong background in building predictive churn models, CLV, NLP, causal inference and uplift modeling
• Experience with user-level and/or content personalization, including developing algorithms, models, or scoring frameworks that support personalized experiences for digital subscription platforms.

Additional Information: Travel may be required for this position for company or department meetings. Hybrid: This position has been designated as hybrid, generally contributing from the office a minimum of three days per week from our NY and/or NJ office. Subject to change based on Manager discussion or business need.

Salary: $180,000 - $210,000 (bonus and LTI eligible). This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other benefits and perks.

Additional Information

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to [email protected] .

VERSANT Media is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We include a good faith pay range for each position to comply with applicable state and local pay transparency laws and to promote equity across our organization. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, experience, and location and may include additional forms of compensation and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc.

VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.