Data Science Manager
Level Up Your Career with Zynga!
At Zynga, we bring people together through the power of play. As a global leader in interactive entertainment and a proud label of Take-Two Interactive, our games have been downloaded over 6 billion times—connecting players in 175+ countries through fun, strategy, and a little friendly competition.
From thrilling casino spins to epic strategy battles, mind-bending puzzles, and social word challenges, our diverse game portfolio has something for everyone. Fan-favorites and latest hits include FarmVille™, Words With Friends™, Zynga Poker™, Game of Thrones Slots Casino™, Wizard of Oz Slots™, Hit it Rich! Slots™, Wonka Slots™, Top Eleven™, Toon Blast™, Empires & Puzzles™, Merge Dragons!™, CSR Racing™, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells™, Match Factory™, and Color Block Jam™—plus many more!
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in California, our teams span North America, Europe, and Asia, working together to craft unforgettable gaming experiences. Whether you're spinning, strategizing, matching, or competing, Zynga is where fun meets innovation—and where you can take your career to the next level.
Join us and be part of the play!
We are looking for a visionary and technically versatile Data Science Manager to join the Data Science & MLE group within our DS & Analytics organization.
In this pivotal role, you will lead a hybrid team of Data Scientists and Machine Learning Engineers, acting as the bridge between cutting-edge technical innovation and high-level business strategy. You won't just be managing a team; you will be the Technical Lead defining how we solve complex problems-from predicting player behavior to optimizing marketing budgets using the latest in Generative AI.
You will partner closely with Game Directors, Product Managers, and our central analytics teams to drive value across Zynga's diverse portfolio. If you are a leader who is "bilingual" in data-possessing deep Data Science expertise to guide methodology while bringing high MLE and Engineering skills to build scalable, production-ready systems-we want to hear from you.
Key Responsibilities
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Team Leadership & Mentorship: Recruit, retain, and develop top-tier talent within the Data Science & MLE team. Foster an inclusive culture of innovation where technical rigor meets creative problem-solving.
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Technical Direction & Engineering Standards: Act as the hands-on Technical Lead for the domain. You will supervise the end-to-end development lifecycle-from research to production-enforcing high standards and MLOps to ensure our models are scalable and maintainable.
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Strategic DS & Analytics Support: Drive the development of advanced analytical frameworks to solve core business challenges. You will guide the team in applying rigorous statistical and machine learning methods to areas such as Time Series Forecasting, Causal Inference, Marketing Optimization, Root Cause Analysis, and more.
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Strategy & Collaboration: Partner with Game Directors, BI Platform PMs, and embedded analytics teams to define the data strategy and roadmap. You will ensure that our technical initiatives are directly aligned with company-wide goals and solving the right problems.
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Global Alignment: Maintain a tight collaborative network with Data Science & Analytics managers in North America, ensuring global consistency in methodologies, knowledge sharing, and joint development.
Required Qualifications
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Experience: 5–10 years of experience in data science or machine learning roles, with 3+ years of experience in people management.
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Technical Proficiency: Expert proficiency in SQL and Python. You must be capable of writing and reviewing production-grade code and have hands-on experience with cloud environments (GCP, AWS, Databricks).
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Modeling Expertise: Strong background in Classical ML, Deep Learning, and familiarity with Generative AI (LLMs, Multimodal embeddings, Langchain or like technologies).
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Engineering Mindset: Proven ability to bridge the gap between Research and Engineering. Experience deploying models to production and maintaining them is essential.
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Education: Master’s degree in Computer Science, Math, Statistics, or a related quantitative field; a PhD is strongly preferred.
Preferred Qualifications
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Experience in the mobile gaming industry or high-velocity B2C tech environments.
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Passion for gaming and experience playing various game genres.
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Familiarity with modern data platforms (e.g., Vertex AI, Cloud Run, Sage).
What You'll Need to Succeed
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Independence & Proactivity: Ability to operate in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, managing timelines and mitigating risks effectively.
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Data-Driven Storytelling: Fluent English is mandatory. You need the ability to translate complex data science concepts into clear, compelling narratives for non-technical stakeholders to influence decision-making.
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Collaborative Spirit: A willingness to work across borders and time zones, partnering effectively with teams in Tel Aviv and North America.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, which means we are committed to creating and celebrating diverse thoughts, cultures, and backgrounds throughout our organization. Employment with us is based on substantive ability, objective qualifications, and work ethic – not an individual’s race, creed, color, religion, sex or gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, alienage or citizenship status, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, status as a victim of domestic violence or sex offenses, reproductive health decision, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law.
As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to providing the necessary support and accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities, health conditions, or impairments (subject to any local qualifying requirements) to ensure their full participation in the job application or interview process. Please contact us at accommodationrequest@zynga.com to request any accommodations or for support related to your application for an open position.
Please be aware that Zynga does not conduct job interviews or make job offers over third-party messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, or others. Zynga also does not engage in any financial exchanges during the recruitment or onboarding process, and will never ask a candidate for their personal or financial information over an app or other unofficial chat channel. Any attempt to do so may be the result of a scamp or phishing attack, and you should not engage. Zynga’s in-house recruitment team will only contact individuals through their official Company email addresses (i.e., via a zynga.com, naturalmotion.com, smallgiantgames.com, themavens.com, gram.gs email domain).