Data Scientist I

The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world’s leading independent platform for digital advertising, with nearly 4,000 employees across more than 30 offices. Our technology helps advertisers reach the right audiences across the open internet — from streaming TV and podcasts to mobile apps, news, and more.

Advertising powers the content people love. By making it more transparent, effective, and responsible, we help support trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide. The world’s brands and agencies rely on us to reach their customers and grow their businesses responsibly.

The scale of our platform brings unique technical challenges — from processing massive datasets in real time to building systems that operate reliably on a global scale. When you work here, your impact is worldwide. We welcome diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and build teams that learn from one another. If you’re driven to solve meaningful challenges, we’d love to meet you.

ABOUT THE ROLE
Our team is responsible for the development of algorithms that help
power our Audience Targeting with the ultimate goal of helping
thousands of customers run effective advertising campaigns. Many of our
problems involve deep learning algorithms to train and develop inference
at scale. Some of the challenges include the parsing of noisy labels and
data, working with large output spaces (thousands of labels), and
unreliable ground truth.
Data scientists on our team work closely with engineering throughout the
lifecycle of the product, from ideation to productionalization and monitoring.
Our data scientists are end-to-end owners. You will participate actively in all
aspects of designing, researching, building, and delivering data-focused
products for our clients.
We are a team built on a foundation of generosity and openness, and we
expect our data scientists to help make others better and raise the bar for
those around them. As a Data Scientist, you will contribute meaningfully
through leading others.
WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR
 You have a sustained track record of making significant, self-directed
end-to-end contributions to complex multi-layered
impactful machine learning projects.
 You think beyond just the task at hand to deeply understand the 'why'
behind what you are doing and anticipate problems that may be
several degrees removed from obvious requirements.
 You make your team better by proactively advocating for and driving
improvements not just to what the team produces, but also the ways in
which the team works.
 You have a strong sense of data intuition. At our scale, many off-the-
shelf modeling techniques (open source and enterprise) simply don't
work. You are able to work from first principles to develop solutions
and adapt them to a unique environment.
 You are a broadly skilled data scientist with deep expertise working
with embedded models in always-on production systems and working
across a variety of technologies and data sources.
 You have a product-focused mindset. You have the passion and ability
to contribute to the process of discovering what will delight our clients
and push forward one of the world’s largest and most influential
industries toward a vision of openness, transparency, and evidence-
based decision-making.
 You work with confidence and without ego. Our data scientists have
deep knowledge and exercise a high degree of leadership in their daily
work. You have strongly-held, defensible ideas, and advocate for what
you believe is right. You are also adept at identifying
and evaluating trade-offs, willing to be proven wrong, and quick to
support your fellow teammates.
 You value, seek out, and foster diversity. We are a global team from
many diverse backgrounds, with different experiences and
perspectives. To complement this team, you will welcome ideas that
are different from your own and be skilled at finding and building from
common ground.
 You are a creative thinker, not bound by "the way things have always
been done." What you know is less important than how well you learn
and innovate. We don't need data scientists who know all the answers;
we need data scientists who can invent the answers no one has
thought of yet, to the questions yet to be asked.
 You have an abundance of intellectual curiosity and are enthusiastic to
learn (and teach) new technologies/techniques.
 You are comfortable working on an agile, distributed team spanning
multiple time zones and continents.
 You are able to communicate effectively across both technical and
non-technical audiences.
WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TABLE
We do not expect you to know every technology we use when you start at
TTD. What we care most about is that you can learn quickly and solve
complex problems using the best tools for the job. However, we find that the
most successful candidates typically come in with something like the
following experience:
 BS/MS with 4+ years or a PhD with 2+ years of experience working in a
DS or ML role that involves bringing products from ideation to
production.
 Experience in deep learning, TensorFlow/PyTorch preferred.
 The ability to communicate with diverse stakeholders, making
architecture recommendations, ensuring effective execution, and
measuring quality of outcomes.
 Experience running heavy workloads on a distributed computing
cluster (especially EMR or Databricks), leveraging technologies like
Spark to work with large datasets preferred.
 Proficient in at least two of: R, Python, Java, or Scala. Expert at one of
those. Strong SQL skills.
 Proficient in software engineering concepts like containerization and
version control preferred.

In accordance with various US state laws, the range provided is the Trade Desk's reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount may differ based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, skills, and location. All employees may be eligible to become The Trade Desk shareholders through eligibility for stock-based compensation grants, which are awarded to employees based on company and individual performance. The Trade Desk also offers other compensation depending on the role such as variable compensation-based incentives and commissions. Plus, expected benefits for this role include comprehensive healthcare (medical, dental, and vision) with premiums paid in full for employees and dependents, retirement benefits such as a 401k plan and company match, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, well-being benefits, reimbursement for certain tuition expenses, parental leave, sick time of 1 hour per 30 hours worked, vacation time for full-time employees up to 120 hours thru the first year and 160 hours thereafter, and around 13 paid holidays per year. Employees can also purchase The Trade Desk stock at a discount through The Trade Desk’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

The Trade Desk also offers a competitive benefits package. Click here to learn more.

Note: Interns are not eligible for variable incentive awards such as stock-based compensation, retirement plan, vacation, tuition reimbursement or parental leave

At the Trade Desk, Base Salary is one part of our competitive total compensation and benefits package and is determined using a salary range. The base salary range for this role is $85,300—$156,400 USD

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to creating an inclusive hiring experience where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Please reach out to us at accommodations@​thetradedesk.​com to request an accommodation or discuss any accessibility needs you may require to access our Company Website or navigate any part of the hiring process.

When you contact us, please include your preferred contact details and specify the nature of your accommodation request or questions. Any information you share will be handled confidentially and will not impact our hiring decisions.