Principal Data Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Define and shape the analytics strategy for one or more games, aligning analytical investment with long-term business objectives.
• Independently identify high-impact, ambiguous problems and drive them from conception to measurable business outcomes influencing roadmaps and investment decisions at the studio or org level.
• Implement novel analytical methodologies (statistical modelling, ML, causal inference, etc. ) and advocate for their adoption across the broader analytics organisation.
• Own architecture-level decisions on modelling approaches, data infrastructure, or measurement frameworks that other teams and analysts will build on.
• Deliver analytics and data science projects that substantially move core game metrics, setting the standard for rigour, creativity, and business impact.
• Influence senior and executive leadership through data-driven storytelling, shifting organisational strategy in line with new findings and insights.
• Mentor and develop senior and junior analysts, elevating the craft and building analytical capabilities across the team.
• Drive and empower game studios to make quantitatively informed, evidence-based decisions through scalable source-of-truth data platforms, frameworks, and dashboards.
• Lead the design, testing, verification, and implementation of machine learning models and product features within Zynga's games that impact millions of users.
• Champion best practices in experimentation, data governance, and analytical reproducibility org-wide.

Requirements:

• BS in Computer Science, Math, Statistics, Economics, or other quantitative field; Master's, MBA, or PhD strongly preferred.
• 8+ years of work experience in data science or analytics roles, with progressive increases in scope and impact.
• Fluent in SQL; strong programming skills in Python; adept in atleast one visualisation tool such as Tableau, Looker, or equivalent.
• Deep expertise in statistics, experimental design, causal inference, machine learning, and/or deep learning with a track record of production-scale deployment.
• Extensive experience analysing large datasets.
• Proven track record of leading complex, ambiguous, cross-functional initiatives from problem framing through production impact, with minimal direction.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leadership and drive org-wide strategic change through data.
• Experience mentoring and growing other data scientists and analysts.
• Proven ability to define analytics strategy or build analytics capabilities from the ground up.
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills, able to translate complex analysis into clear, actionable narratives for executive audiences.
• Ability to operate with high autonomy in ambiguous, complex problem spaces with minimal direction.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines: engineering, product, design, marketing, and studio leadership to deliver unambiguous business impact.
• Strong passion for gaming!