Senior / Principal Data Scientist - Discovery
Back to Jobs
RobloxGet Smart Job AI Coach in the appFree on iOS and Android 






Senior / Principal Data Scientist - Discovery
307,430–373,680 / Year
Location
San Mateo, CA, United States
Experience
Senior
Posted
Jul 10, 2026
Apply by
August 9, 2026
Applicants
0
Early applicantFull-timeHybrid
Job Description
Every day, tens of millions of people come to Roblox to explore, create, play, learn, and connect with friends in 3D immersive digital experiences– all created by our global community of developers and creators.
At Roblox, we’re building the tools and platform that empower our community to bring any experience that they can imagine to life. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together, from anywhere in the world, and on any device. We’re on a mission to connect a billion people with optimism and civility, and looking for amazing talent to help us get there.
A career at Roblox means you’ll be working to shape the future of human interaction, solving unique technical challenges at scale, and helping to create safer, more civil shared experiences for everyone.
**WHY DATA SCIENCE & ANALYTICS?**
The Data Science & Analytics organization's mission is to increase our speed, frequency and acumen of making decisions at scale by instilling a data-influenced approach to building products. We cover a wide area of the data spectrum including analytical data engineering, product analytics, experimentation, causal inference, statistical modeling and machine learning. Aligned and partnering with product verticals, we use this extensive tool belt to discover new opportunities and unmet use cases, influence and shape the product roadmap and prioritization, build data products and measure impact on our community of players and developers.
**WHY DISCOVERY EXPERIENCES?**
Roblox is not just a platform; it is a complex, two-sided marketplace where millions of creators meet over 70 million daily active users. The **Discovery Experiences** team is the technical heartbeat of this ecosystem. We own the surfaces—Home, Search, Matchmaking, and Notifications—that determine how users navigate the metaverse.
As a **Data Scientist**, you will own the ranking initiatives that power these canvases. You aren't just building models; you are building the economic and social frameworks that decide which experiences thrive. You will report directly to the **Senior Director of Data Science** and serve as a high-visibility IC leader driving the roadmap for our most critical consumer touchpoints.
**You Will:**
- **Algorithmic Vision:** Lead the development of ML solutions and ranking frameworks that power our discovery canvases. You will move beyond local optimizations to solve for long-term ecosystem health and user retention.
- **Strategic XFN Partnership:** Act as the primary scientific advisor to Product and Engineering leaders. You will use data to inform, drive, and accelerate innovations via deep-dive insights and ML prototypes.
- **Causal Inference & Experimentation:** Leverage advanced causal inference methodologies to measure the effectiveness of platform initiatives (e.g., social features or site-wide events) that are often susceptible to complex network effects.
- **Foundational Scaling:** Develop frameworks to scale the hypothesis generation process, ensuring that our experimentation velocity matches our massive growth.
- **First-Principles Problem Solving:** Apply creative, first-principles reasoning to ambiguous problems, such as balancing the visibility of established "top tier" experiences with the discovery of new, niche UGC content.
**You Have:**
- Advanced degree (Masters or PhD) in a quantitative field (Statistics, CS, Physics, Applied Math, or Economics).
- 10+ years of experience (or 6+ with a PhD) in Data Science, Economics, or ML Engineering, specifically within **large-scale recommendation systems** or **UGC content platforms**.
- Expert in the modern data stack (Python, R, SQL, Hive, Spark, Airflow) and have a deep theoretical and practical understanding of Deep Learning.
- Ability to design sophisticated experiments that account for the nuances of a two-sided marketplace and social network effects.
- Ability to distill high-dimensional problems into succinct, actionable narratives for non-technical executive audiences.
For roles that are based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA: The starting base pay for this position is as shown below. The actual base pay is dependent upon a variety of job-related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, business needs and market demand. Therefore, in some circumstances, the actual salary could fall outside of this expected range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. All full-time employees are also eligible for equity compensation and for benefits as described on **[this page](https://careers.roblox.com/total-rewards)**.
Annual Salary Range
$307,430—$373,680 USD
Roles that are based in an office are onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with optional presence on Monday and Friday (unless otherwise noted).
Roblox provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Roblox also provides reasonable accommodations to candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruiting process.
For US based roles only, please note the Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the development of ML solutions and ranking frameworks for discovery canvases.
- Act as the primary scientific advisor to Product and Engineering leaders.
- Leverage advanced causal inference methodologies to measure platform initiative effectiveness.
- Develop frameworks to scale hypothesis generation and experimentation velocity.
- Apply first-principles reasoning to ambiguous problems regarding content visibility.
Requirements
- Advanced degree (Masters or PhD) in a quantitative field (Statistics
- CS
- Physics
- Applied Math
- or Economics)
Skills Required
PythonRSQLHiveSparkAirflowDeep LearningRecommendation SystemsCausal InferenceExperimentationStrategic thinkingCommunicationProblem solvingLeadership
Benefits
- Equity compensation
- Health insurance
- 401(k) match
- Unlimited PTO
- Remote work
App exclusive · Free
Smart Job AI Coach
Your personal interview coach on every job — readiness tips, profile improvements, and role-specific prep. Available only in the Pulse Job app.
Interview readiness
See how prepared you are and what to improve for each role.
Personalized tips
Actionable suggestions based on your profile and the job.
After you apply
Keep coaching momentum from job detail through application success.
Similar roles for you
Matched using this role's title and skills. Open the job search anytime to see every listing.

E-Learning Developer – Sales Enablement
CooperSurgical
Full-timeEasy applyHybrid
FarehamSenior

Integration & Test Systems Engineer (Epsilon3 Developer)
AST SpaceMobile
Full-timeWork from Office
MidlandMid

Senior Python Developer
Brightvision
100,000–150,000 / Year
Full-timeEasy applyWork from Home
RemoteSenior

Senior Python Developer (Django)
Code2day
Full-timeWork from Home
TexasSenior

Data Systems Developer (IT Data Management – Journey)
Polk County
90,096–121,176 / Year
Full-timeEasy applyHybrid
Thurston County – LaceyMid
Python Developer – Credit Risk
US Bank
Full-timeEasy applyHybrid
WarsawMid