Principal Marketing Data Scientist

Principal Marketing Data Scientist

At Quizlet, our mission is to help every learner achieve their outcomes in the most effective and delightful way. Our $1B+ learning platform serves tens of millions of students every month, including two-thirds of U.S. high schoolers and half of U.S. college students, powering over 2 billion learning interactions monthly. We blend cognitive science with machine learning to personalize and enhance the learning experience for students, professionals, and lifelong learners alike. We're energized by the potential to power more learners through multiple approaches and various tools.

Join us to design and deliver AI-powered learning tools that scale across the world and unlock human potential. Our Data Science team at Quizlet partners with the Product, Marketing, and Finance teams to define the metrics that matter and to turn noisy signals into clear, causal decisions. This role sits at the intersection of AI & Data and Marketing, building the measurement and insights that unlock dramatic top-of-funnel growth.

We're hiring a Principal Marketing Data Scientist to be the technical and strategic engine behind TOF growth—designing trusted measurement, separating correlation from causation, and turning models into concrete decisions on budget, channels, audiences, and creative. You won't manage people; you'll lead through expertise, partnering closely with marketing data science, data engineering, martech, and channel owners to deliver repeatable, compounding impact. This is an onsite position in our San Francisco office. To help foster team collaboration, we require that employees be in the office a minimum of three days per week: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and as needed by your manager or the company. We believe that this working environment facilitates increased work efficiency, team partnership, and supports growth as an employee and organization.

In this role, you will:

Own TOF measurement & incrementality

Design an always-on cross-channel measurement architecture (paid, organic/SEO, owned, influencer/affiliate, brand, CTV/offline)

Stand up geo/user holdouts, heavy-ups, synthetic controls, CUPED/diff-in-diff, and brand-lift/survey programs; produce trustworthy incremental reach/qualified visit estimates

Triangulate MMM + incrementality + platform MTA with decision rules (MMM for budget setting, holdouts for validation, platform data for operations).

Forecast, allocate, and de-risk spend: build response curves from media → reach → qualified visits → sign-ups → LTV with uncertainty bounds

Deliver marginal dollar recommendations by channel/geo/audience

Model payback windows (30-day to 3-year LTV) across offer/price/creative scenarios; define guardrails for frequency, saturation, and diminishing returns

Ship reporting that drives decisions (not just dashboards)

Build exec-ready views that connect leading indicators (brand search, share of voice, qualified-visit rate, creative score) to lagging outcomes (sign-ups, retention, LTV)

Run always-on traffic-source health with red-flag monitoring and forward projections; quantify the cost to hit growth targets under uncertainty

Unlock audience & creative leverage by creating a creative learning agenda and taxonomy; analyze fatigue, hooks, and motifs; document lift and roll into playbooks

Drive cohort and growth-segment insights by acquisition date/platform/geo/demo/channel to inform media, landing experiences, and lifecycle sequencing

Raise the bar on tooling, data quality, and privacy

Specify and evaluate the measurement stack (analytics/MMP, incrementality/MMM, survey/brand tracking, CDP/tagging); prioritize buy-vs-build

Define event/identity standards and data quality SLAs across web/app; navigate ATT and Privacy Sandbox constraints with first-party data

Lead through influence: coach peers, set analysis and code standards, and create documentation that makes insights reusable

Translate ambiguity ("grow awareness") into hypotheses, experiments, and clear trade-off recommendations for senior leaders.

What you bring to the table:

15+ years in marketing analytics/data science (consumer tech), including principal-level individual contributor impact; depth in TOF growth

Hands-on leadership of incrementality testing (geo/user holdouts, heavy-ups, synthetic controls) and MMM programs; fluency in limits of MTA and calibration across methods

Proven budget allocation work: response curves, scenario planning, and payback/LTV modeling that drove quarterly investment decisions

Advanced SQL and Python or R (pandas/NumPy; Bayesian modeling with PyMC/Stan a plus)

Production analytics in BigQuery/Snowflake/Redshift with dbt modeling and orchestration (Airflow/Dagster)

Executive-grade storytelling via Looker/Tableau/Mode; KPI design that ladders to business outcomes

Practical literacy with GA4, tag managers, MMPs, ad platforms (search/social/video/display/CTV), CDP, and survey/brand-lift tools

Demonstrated ability to separate seasonality from media effects and to turn noisy platform signals into causally sound recommendations

Bonus points if you have:

Linking brand tracking and surveys to search volume and site traffic; measuring brand-to-performance spillovers

SEO/ASO opportunity sizing; content decay/refresh modeling; creative-analytics pipelines (LLM/vision-assisted tagging)

International growth (market selection, localization measurement)

Experience in education or other high-intent, seasonal categories

Compensation, Benefits & Perks:

Quizlet is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Salary transparency helps to mitigate unfair hiring practices when it comes to discrimination and pay gaps. Total compensation for this role is market competitive, including a starting base salary of $249,000 - $342,000, depending on location and experience, as well as company stock options

Collaborate with your manager and team to create a healthy work-life balance

20 vacation days that we expect you to take!

Competitive health, dental, and vision insurance (100% employee and 75% dependent PPO, Dental, VSP Choice)

Employer-sponsored 401k plan with company match

Access to LinkedIn Learning and other resources to support professional growth

Paid Family Leave, FSA, HSA, Commuter benefits, and Wellness benefits

40 hours of annual paid time off to participate in volunteer programs of choice

Massive reach: 60M+ users, 1B+ interactions per week

Cutting-edge tech: Generative AI, adaptive learning, cognitive science

Strong momentum: Top-tier investors, sustainable business, real traction

Mission-first: Work that makes a difference in people's lives

Inclusive culture: Committed to equity, diversity, and belonging

We strive to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome! We work to create a holistic interview process, where both Quizlet and candidates have an opportunity to view what it would be like to work together, in exploring a mutually beneficial partnership. We provide a transparent setting that gives a comprehensive view of who we are!

At Quizlet, we're excited about passionate people joining our team—even if you don't check every box on the requirements list. We value unique perspectives and believe everyone has something meaningful to contribute. Our culture is all about taking initiative, learning through challenges, and striving for high-quality work while staying curious and open to new ideas. We believe in honest, respectful communication, thoughtful collaboration, and creating a supportive space where everyone can grow and succeed together.

Quizlet's success as an online learning community depends on a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As an equal opportunity employer and a tech company committed to societal change, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds. Women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply. Come join us!