Economist

Key Skills

C Programming, C++, Cloud computing, Data science techniques, Java Programming, Machine learning techniques, MATLAB Programming, Python Programming, PyTorch, R Programming, Scala Programming, SQL, TensorFlow

Job Description

WHY DATA SCIENCE & ANALYTICS?

The Data Science & Analytics organization's mission is to increase our speed, frequency and acumen of making decisions at scale by instilling a data-influenced approach to building products. We cover a wide area of the data spectrum including analytical data engineering, product analytics, causal inference, economics, statistical modeling and machine learning. Aligned and partnering with product verticals, we use this extensive toolbelt to discover new opportunities and unmet use cases, influence and shape the product roadmap and prioritization, build data products and measure impact on our community of players and developers.

Why Economics at Roblox?

As an Economist, you'll be the champion of the user experience – methodological development and application to drive material improvements in item recommendation effectiveness and salience, and advancing marketplace monetization for creators. Your contributions and innovations will bring joy to our engaged users, and advance their engagement and personalization. You will partner with Product, Engineering, and Machine Learning Eng (MLE) leadership and teams to create and strategize on new features, signals, insights, and algorithms to improve our recommendations. In this critical role, you will lead in the refinement and expansion of the central marketplace for creators, designing and running experiments and advancing scaled causal inference approaches to advance incrementality and effectiveness.

You Are:

• Expert in a specialized economics area: multi-sided platform economics, mechanism design, empirical industrial organization, causal inference, or macroeconomic policy
• Experienced in applying economic theory to real marketplaces, deriving strategic insights, and advancing business objectives
• Proficient in data and applied methodologies. You use cutting-edge techniques (or develop new ones) to extract value and drive insights for strategic topics.
• A strong communicator. You understand that analysis must be presented in meaningful ways and lead spirited discussions about the findings. You can explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences and discuss appropriate tradeoffs.
• Passionate about developing other technical talent. You are motivated to share your expertise and develop other team members while leading your own space.
• Expert in data transformation and programming, using languages including Python, R, and SQL. You are experienced in automating efforts and crunching massive volumes of data using big data frameworks such as Spark, Hadoop or Flink.

You Will:

• Help advance data-informed decision making through economic theory and scientific rigor
• Create and motivate metrics reflective of first-principles, and use them to advance user experience and marketplace health
• Accelerate product development through your understanding of the underlying data and your ability to partner with product and technical leaders to provide insights
• Design science roadmaps and experimentation agendas to determine success of product feature launches
• Access raw data, and then transform it, and analyze it in a compelling way--all using a custom analytics tool kit built from state-of-the-art open-source libraries

Basic Qualifications:

• PhD in Economics, Statistics, Applied Math, Physics, or other technical field
• 10+ years of industry or academic experience in data science, economics, analytics, or machine learning engineering
• 5+ years of experience using scripting languages (Python, R), and big data query/processing languages and tools such as SQL, Hive, Spark and Airflow

Preferred Qualifications:

• Additional experience, including research, in your area of economics speciality
• Broader experience applying economic theory to craft and advance marketplaces
• Experience in varied environments and track record of simplifying complex and ambiguous problems

For roles that are based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA: The starting base pay for this position is as shown below. The actual base pay is dependent upon a variety of job-related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, business needs and market demand. Therefore, in some circumstances, the actual salary could fall outside of this expected range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. All full-time employees are also eligible for equity compensation and for benefits.

Annual Salary Range

$359,170—$415,750 USD

You’ll Love: 

• Industry-leading compensation package
• Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage
• A rewarding 401k program
• Flexible vacation policy
• Roflex - Flexible and supportive work policy 
• Roblox Admin badge for your avatar
• At Roblox HQ: 
• Free catered lunches five times a week and several fully stocked kitchens with unlimited snacks
• Onsite fitness center and fitness program credit
• Annual CalTrain Go Pass