Lead Machine Learning Scientist, Advertising

The mission () of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for.

About the Role

The New York Times is a technology company committed to producing the world's most reliable and highest quality journalism. Our ability to do so relies on a talented team of expert technologists who help NYT learn from a tremendous abundance of data unique to this company.

We are looking for a Lead Machine Learning Scientist to join the ML Science Group and lead our collaboration with The NYT's Advertising mission. You will lead a small team of ML scientists that develops, deploys, and tests ML and AI models, training on our first party data. You will be a strategic partner to our Advertising mission, proposing and planning new ML projects to enhance the advertising business. You will report to the head of ML Science, and collaborate closely with partners across the company. You will report to our Lead Machine Learning Scientist, Community. This is a hybrid role, working in our New York, NY office.

Responsibilities :

You will reframe advertising our company goals as machine learning tasks that deliver accurate predictions, relevant insights, and optimization

You will turn models into data products, collaborate with engineering teams, and integrate into processes throughout The Times

You will identify novel project opportunities / capabilities that solve critical problems and act on those proposals

You will provide technical and team leadership in machine learning projects, ensuring standards of data governance, privacy, and security, and contributing to the vision of the team

You will scope ongoing product improvements, prioritize requests from your team

You will build and facilitate relationships across the organization to ensure our projects' goals are met

You will manage ML scientists and mentor them through pairing and algorithm, model, and code review

You will demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence () and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.

Basic Qualifications :

PhD plus 4+ years experience, or 7+ years experience, in statistics, computer science, computational social science, or another quantitative / computational discipline

4+ years of experience in creatively reframing business challenges as Machine Learning tasks

4+ years of experience with data cleaning, preparation, feature engineering, and model selection techniques

1+ years of experience mentoring peers or junior data scientists through pairing and algorithm, model, and code review

1+ years of experience coding in production environments using Python and SQL, developing and deploying complex Machine Learning models that are integrated into company process

Preferred Qualifications :

1+ years of experience applying machine learning to advertising in a production environment

Familiarity with ads user and content taxonomies

1+ years of experience developing with LLMs or training language, image, and / or other embedding models in production environments.

2+ years of experience collaborating cross-functionally with product managers and software engineers

2+ years of experience scoping and staging work into well-defined milestones and delivering on communicated timelines

REQ-019043

The annual base pay range for this role is between :

$166,000 — $185,000 USD

The New York Times Company is committed to being the world’s best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do so, we embrace a diverse workforce that has a broad range of backgrounds and experiences across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate on the basis of an individual's sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)’s Know Your Rights Poster is available here () .

The New York Times Company will provide reasonable accommodations as required by applicable federal, state, and / or local laws. Individuals seeking an accommodation for the application or interview process should email reasonable.accommodations@nytimes.com. Emails sent for unrelated issues, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.

The Company encourages those with criminal histories to apply, and will consider their applications in a manner consistent with applicable "Fair Chance" laws, including but not limited to the NYC Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act.

For information about The New York Times' privacy practices for job applicants click here () .

Please beware of fraudulent job postings. Scammers may post fraudulent job opportunities, and they may even make fraudulent employment offers. This is done by bad actors to collect personal information and money from victims. All legitimate job opportunities from The New York Times will be accessible through The New York Times careers site () . The New York Times will not ask job applicants for financial information or for payment, and will not refer you to a third party to do so. You should never send money to anyone who suggests they can provide employment with The New York Times.

If you see a fake or fraudulent job posting, or if you suspect you have received a fraudulent offer, you can report it to The New York Times at NYTapplicants@nytimes.com. You can also file a report with the Federal Trade Commission () or your state attorney general () .