Staff Data Scientist – Experimentation: Innovation & Research

As a Staff Data Scientist, you will lead innovation in experimentation and causal inference, helping shape the future of decision-making and product innovation at SIE. You will drive innovative research in experimentation methodologies while mentoring other team members. You’ll be responsible for elevating our experimentation strategy, fostering a culture of curiosity and rigor, and helping cross-functional teams deliver player-first experiences through strong evidence-based decisions.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Drive innovation in experimentation research by shaping measurement frameworks and best practices, and by developing new methodologies that enhance the quality, speed, and scalability of experiments.
• Advance experimentation infrastructure and tooling, incorporating statistical and machine learning methods to refine analytical capabilities.
• Mentor and guide less-senior data scientists, building expertise in experimentation and causal inference while providing technical direction to ensure rigor and impact.
• Partner with product managers and business leaders to identify high-impact experimentation opportunities and align them with PlayStation’s strategic goals.
• Act as a thought leader in experimentation and causal inference, evangelizing best practices and fostering learning across teams.
• Contribute to research and prototyping of novel experimentation techniques that address complex real-world challenges, such as user behavior variability and data limitations.
• Champion a data-driven culture by establishing experimentation standards, ethical practices, and reproducibility
• Represent the team’s insights and innovations across the broader data science and product communities within PlayStation.
• Stay at the forefront of the field by monitoring emerging developments in experimentation, causal inference, and applied machine learning to continuously evolve capabilities.

What We’re Looking For:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent experience in Applied Math, Economics, Statistics, Computer Science, or related field. Ph.D. or equivalent experience preferred.
• Strong familiarity with the gaming industry and contemporary gaming experiences.
• 8+ years of experience in data science, including extensive hands-on work in experimentation, with at least 2+ years in a mentoring or technical leadership capacity.
• Proven track record of leading experimentation innovation and scaling frameworks within a dynamic business environment.
• Proficiency in SQL and statistical programming languages (e.g., R or Python), especially for causal inference, experimental analysis, and scalable modeling.
• Expertise in causal inference techniques and designing both randomized and quasi-experiments.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate cross-functionally and influence data strategies that inform business and product decisions.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, especially in conveying complex concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience working with modern data engineering and visualization tools (e.g., Airflow, Git, Tableau, MicroStrategy).
• A strong sense of ownership and an inclusive leadership style that encourages collaboration and innovation.

Benefits:

• Discretionary bonus opportunity
• Hybrid Working (within Flexmodes)
• Private Medical Insurance
• Dental Scheme
• 25 days holiday per year
• On Site Gym
• Subsidised Café
• Free soft drinks
• On site bar
• Access to cycle garage and showers

Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.

Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your data protection rights.