Data & Applied Scientist Microsoft
Redmond, WA

Job Description

Minecraft is one of the most popular video games of all time, with more than 175 million copies sold. Minecraft inspires millions to create together and has created one of the most active and passionate player communities in the world. We're looking for an ambitious, results-driven leader with a passion for achieving high impact, high quality results to join our team.

Basic Requirements:

* 5-7 years of experience with data analytics or business intelligence
* 2-5 years of experience of Python, R or other programming languages
* Advanced working knowledge of data mining using SQL, ETL and Data Warehouses. Need to be able to formulate complex SQL queries and have experience working with BI and visualization tools.
* Experience as a people manager, leading a team of high performers and managers to deliver great results
* Strong stakeholder management skills, able to build relationships, and actively listen to the needs of peers to build effective roadmaps for delivery of data that drives decisions and actions
* Excellent verbal, written and collaborative communication skills in a cross-team environment with the ability to translate complex information
* Be self-driven, and show ability to deliver on ambiguous projects with incomplete or dirty data
* Passion for games, the game community and game design
* M.S. in Computer Science, Statistics, Operations Research or similar quantitative field

Preferred Requirements:

* Experience in BI leadership for games or applications with large user base
* Experience working with Azure Data Factory ("Kusto"), Azure SQL Servers, Hive or Cosmos
* Experience training and developing data science skillsets
* Experience guiding data science career progression
* Experience maintaining Sharepoint subsites and distribution groups
* Experience with visualization tools like Power BI, Tableau, Business Objects, etc.
* Program management or business intelligence experience
* Strong executive presence
* Minecraft fan
* PhD preferred

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

As the Director of Data Science for Minecraft, you will be responsible for leading our data efforts, including leading a team of managers, data scientists, analysts, and engineers to deliver actionable data insights that lead to policy changes and actions that have a material impact on the Minecraft business and game. You will remove roadblocks so that we can drive towards aggressive business goals; as a great people manager, you will grow and mentor our next set of data leaders; you will work with stakeholders within Minecraft who are the consumers of data and your team's insights to determine the right projects and priorities for the data team, you will also work with partner teams to help them to achieve strategic Minecraft objectives, and you will have great impact by influencing at the CVP level through strategic framing, thought leadership, and data driven insights.

This role requires strong data skills, strong people management skills, an entrepreneurial attitude. and the ability to influence senior leaders. Our ideal candidate has both a CEO and CTO mindset, and prior experience leading a large, client facing data team. Equally important is the ability to lead and build consensus among a diverse group of stakeholders. This will require cultivating social capital, navigating competing priorities and roadmaps among limited resources, while executing clear and consistent status updates for highly visible projects. That includes working among stakeholders both within the large Minecraft franchise and partner Microsoft teams.

Some key qualities that we are looking for: you are results-oriented (and have a track record of repeatedly delivering great results in an intelligence organization); you have the intellect and horsepower to solve really complex problems in both the areas of data engineering and sciences; you treat data as a product owner, and do what it takes to make your team successful; you have relentlessly high standards (some may say too high); you are customer obsessed; you operate well in an ambiguous environment; and finally, you have a burning desire to be a part of something really big and make a difference in the world.

Role Responsibilities:

* Work with game developers and producers to design the in-game telemetry events used for gameplay analysis
* Design and lead product analysis plans that truly help impact the franchise vs. simply "showing off" vanity metrics. These will aim to provide truly actionable insights for future release and DLC development using standard business KPIs along with in-game telemetry events
* Maintain and organize in-game telemetry specs, adhering to NGP + GDPR compliance and other corporate PII policies
* Partner with central Xbox teams to implement new Microsoft technologies (e.g. Playfab) effectively for the Minecraft franchise and each game.
* Establish core measurements and methods that can be used across multiple game modes, game services, and hardware
* Deliver progression modeling, impact analysis, balance analysis, multiplayer performance, cheat detection, and social impact analysis
* Provide regular, timely reporting and performance monitoring to studio teams and key business stakeholders. Also maintaining centralized site for reporting that is easily accessible, and broadcasted among the franchise.
* Recommend new architectural designs and enhancements to existing data systems to optimize for high speed, low latency reporting and self-service analytics for stakeholder clients
* Provide actionable insights to drive the creation of effective CRM nudges and business optimizations to increase revenue and player engagement