Senior Data Scientist

Do you want to build intelligent bidding algorithms that handle millions in ad spend and drive real impact? Join Skyscanner’s Marketing Data Science team, where we leverage machine learning and attribution modelling to optimise paid marketing and scale user growth globally! We're looking for a Senior Data Scientist to develop smarter, more efficient ways to reach the right travellers at the right time.

As a Senior Data Scientist at Skyscanner, you'll drive high-impact projects with a test-and-learn approach. You will engage in the full data science lifecycle, from problem definition and data exploration to model development and evaluation. You will also collaborate closely with engineering teams to ensure seamless deployment, monitoring, and scaling of solutions in production environments. You will also work closely with Growth Marketing and Marketing Analytics teams to translate business goals into data science solutions, ensuring our models align with campaign strategies.

What You'll Do:

• Work with cross-functional teams of engineers, product, and marketeers to drive our marketing initiatives.

• Build bidding algorithms to optimise marketing spend ensuring we maximise ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) and scale efficiently.

• Research new ways of modelling data for actionable traveller insights that can improve our audiences profiling.

• Investigate new ways to improve existing attribution models, helping us understand how to allocate our spending more efficiently.

• Be an advocate for robust experimentation to measure true marketing impact, using techniques such as uplift modelling, geo-experiments, or Bayesian methods.

• Work closely with ML Engineers to deploy, monitor, and retrain machine learning models in production using scalable MLOps practices.

What We Are Looking For:

• An experienced Senior Data Scientist with prior experience in the marketing space (SEO, SEM, Paid marketing, Affiliates, Lifecycle and retention).

• Experience working with marketing platforms such as Google Ads, Meta, or DSPs, leveraging APIs for bidding optimisation and audience targeting.

• Strong programming skills with Python and SQL. Experience with Spark, Apache Airflow is a plus.

• Strong experience designing and analysing A/B tests, geo-lift experiments, and holdout tests to measure marketing impact.

• Experience with Git and CI/CD.

• Ability to identify and scope new opportunities for data science to impact Skyscanner’s acquisition growth vision positively.

• Ability to manage multiple stakeholders and priorities in a dynamic, cross-disciplinary environment.

• Curious and inquisitive mindset, focusing not just on modelling, but also on data quality, business metrics, and system interactions.

• Comfortable working independently while also supporting fellow data scientists within the team.

• Fluent in English, with the ability to effectively communicate complex ideas to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Join us at Skyscanner and help shape the future of advertising through data-driven innovation!

What else can we offer you…

You’ll join a brilliantly diverse group from all corners of the world. After all, travel is about finding new perspectives and experiencing new people and cultures – and Skyscanner is strongest when our teams are both inclusive and diverse. We recognise and challenge everyday biases, remove obstacles to inclusion and ensure all our people can thrive and be themselves.

Skyscanner is a hybrid working company and most roles can be either Full Time or Part Time. We believe when people meet regularly in person, we are better able to innovate, learn, collaborate and inspire. We ask people to be in the office on average 8 days per month.

Already a global leader in travel, we want to elevate the way we work to a whole other level. In return, you’ll get meaningful things like medical insurance, headspace subscriptions, a home office allowance and the option to buy more holiday. You’ll have the opportunity to work from any country for 4 weeks a year, and 30 days in our other global offices. Everything, in other words, to help you relax and give your best.

For more details on Engineering at Skyscanner, check our Engineering Blog and follow Skyscanner Engineering on Twitter.