Data Scientist II - Game Studios Data

Riot Data Scientists combine their wide technical expertise across data processing, automation, machine learning ("ML"), artificial intelligence ("AI"), and experiment design to inform decisions and develop data-powered products. As a Senior Data Scientist, you’ll dive into projects with multi-game impact. You work at a cross team scope, contributing to product vision, informing technical designs, and building datasets and models for our most important data applications. You lead by example and while also participating in peer mentorship and the data science community..

As a Data Scientist II on the Game Studios Data team, you will answer the question “How can data help us deliver the best possible player experience, at launch and beyond?” You will use pre-production datasets and simulations to help designers answer their most nuanced questions.  You will build production quality ML models for skill estimation, game understanding, ecommerce use cases, and more.  You will collaborate with producers, game designers, analysts, and engineers – on game teams and in partnership with shared platform teams. You will report directly to the Data Science Manager within the Games Studios Data team. 

Responsibilities

• Use machine learning to build products or inform decisions that directly improve the player or fan experience
• Deeply understand the landscape of skill-related problems across our titles, flag new product opportunities, and establish best practices for experimentation and evaluating success within the context of Skill systems
• Own the ML and AI iteration loop including dataset creation, feature engineering, technical discovery and prototyping, model tuning, and model management.
• Build ML and AI tools and products for game development, working with stakeholders and engineers to design and deploy dashboards, web apps, forecasts, and simulations.
• Continually improve our data science practice by identifying novel applications of existing capabilities as well as brand new technical approaches to address critical game and business problems
• Develop relationships with game producers, designers, QA, product managers, and engineering to ensure ML-oriented game features can launch successfully
• Represent data products to non-technical partners and collaborators

Required Skills 

• Masters in Machine Learning, AI, Statistics, Math, or related Computer Science/Quantitative field, or equivalent professional experience (i.e. B.Sci with 3 years of professional experience, etc.)
• Expertise in Python and SQL
• Expertise in machine learning frameworks such as tensorflow, torch, scikit-learn, or Spark MLlib
• Experience in the design, implementation, and analysis of online experiments
• Experience developing and deploying machine learning models at scale
• Effective at storytelling with data to a diverse and non-technical audience

Desired Skills 

• Previous experience working on skill-based matchmaking systems (or in optimizing experiences) for large, multiplayer online games
• Experience designing and implementing online services and features at scale
• 2+ years of experience with applied data products in gaming or entertainment
• Experience with big-data platforms such as Spark and Airflow
• Experience with modern deep learning frameworks in practical applications
• Familiarity with game development engines, tools, and processes

For this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!

Our Perks:

Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.

Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner's Code and Community Code. Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusion (D&I) at the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming.

It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:

• Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company data
• Communication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minors
• Accessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networks
• Ensuring a safe interactive environment for players and other Rioters

These duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security.