Staff Applied Scientist

Requirements

• Advanced degree in data science, statistics, machine learning, economics, applied math, computer science, or a related field
• 7+ years of experience in data science or 5+ years of experience with a PhD
• Experience of owning projects end-to-end (from research to productionization at scale)
• Strong grounding in machine learning, statistics, experimental design, causal inference, and metric development
• Experience with recommendation systems or ranking models
• Experience with large-scale data processing (e.g., Spark, EMR, Databricks)
• Comfortable with practices that enable reproducible analyses and useful prototypes—clean code, version control, and code review

Nice to Have

• Experience in programmatic advertising, real-time auctions, or supply-side systems
• Familiarity with control theory, constrained optimization, or budget allocation systems
• Experience building or applying agentic AI workflows, including the use of LLMs for automation, decision support, or data-driven product features

What You'll Be Doing

• Build and maintain control systems that dynamically allocate ad budgets across sell-side partners based on quality signals and performance targets
• Design and analyze experiments using causal inference methods to measure the impact of inventory decisions on advertiser KPIs
• Build recommendation systems and curation frameworks to help buyers find supply at scale
• Develop time series models to anticipate supply volume shifts
• Partner with engineering, product, and business teams to translate research into production-ready systems
• Define the applied science roadmap for the team

Perks and Benefits

The Trade Desk does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm recruiters. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of The Trade Desk. The Trade Desk is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.