Data Scientist; Generative AI Focus

Position: Data Scientist (Generative AI Focus)
WE HAVE CREATED A WORLD WHERE ART AND SCIENCE ARE BEST FRIENDS

Known is a modern marketing company engineered for the unprecedented opportunities and challenges facing marketers today. We are about 250+ people strong, pairing PhD data scientists with award-winning creatives, strategists, engineers and expert research teams to produce some of the most innovative and cutting-edge creative work in culture. We believe that when creative truly collaborates with science, strategy, and technology, amazing things can happen.

Ad Age touted that "Known may be the ultimate example of a full-service agency," and honored us with top ten status on The Agency A-List for 2024 & 2025, and as Ad Age's Data & Insights Agency of the year for a record third year in a row. Without our incredible partnerships with our clients, spanning across the leading brands in finance, technology, entertainment, media, CPG, real estate, and many other categories, honors like this could not be possible, and also have helped us earn additional awards and recognitions over the years like:
Emmys, Clios, Effies, Cannes Lions Awards, Pro Max Agency of the Year, Fast Company's World Changing Ideas, Digiday's 2025 Best AI Platform and Digiday's Most Innovative Media Agency, to name a few.

We couldn't create this award-winning work without seeking out and hiring the best talent. What does it mean to be a Knowner? We are curious innovators, knowledge-hunters who are constantly challenging ourselves to do better and be better for our clients, for our team and for our world  offices around the U.S. are open and while most of our people work in a hybrid setting, we are a distributed workforce with a number of Knowners working remotely.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT US, LET'S TALK ABOUT YOU

About the role:

Known's Channel Data Science team is a group of data scientists embedded in our media buying practice to translate the domain knowledge we gain from running media for our clients to smart tools that push the limits of advanced advertising. Our work includes predictive modeling/optimization, building workflow automation apps, and the pioneering application of Generative AI for novel marketing solutions - all in the service of making our work less repetitive and manual, more optimized, and seeking better outcomes for our media activation and media consulting clients.

We are seeking a Data Scientist who can understand the core business objectives of our internal teams and our clients, and ideate, design, and develop innovative tools leveraging text-based Large Language Models (LLMs) and other Generative AI techniques. While experience in media is a plus, a passion for applying cutting-edge AI to marketing challenges is crucial.

A significant focus of this role will be to champion and implement Generative AI initiatives. In this role more generally, you will work with, and guide (for senior levels), other data scientists on a variety of projects, interface with our other teams at Known, and drive forward some of our most difficult and innovative data science projects, particularly those harnessing the power of LLMs.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

* Explore, develop, and deploy Generative AI (specifically LLM-based) tools for marketing applications, such as content ideation/generation, audience persona creation, automated reporting with natural language summaries, campaign strategy assistance, and enhanced customer insights

* Develop new techniques (e.g., traditional ML models, optimization algorithms, LLM fine-tuning, prompt engineering strategies, and automation) to improve Known IP and create tools for Known's clients

* Work with other data scientists and engineers to productionalize new tools, including GenAI-powered applications

* Stay current with advancements in Data Science and AI and identify opportunities for their application in the marketing domain

WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU HAVE

* A Bachelors, Masters or PhD from a well-regarded college or university. STEM degrees (e.g., Statistics, Economics, Data Science, Mathematics, Computer Science) are preferred

* Hands-on experience doing quantitative analysis, statistical modeling, optimization and/or machine learning

* Proven experience in developing and deploying solutions using Generative AI, particularly text-based Large Language Models (e.g., experience with APIs like OpenAI's, or open-source models)

* Experience utilizing Python and SQL

* Experience building data science software or analytical workflows

* Experience in advertising or advertising technology is a strong plus, especially if combined with GenAI application in this domain

* 2+ years (with Masters/PhD) or 3+ years (with Bachelors) of relevant experience

* 1+ years of experience building data science software, ideally including applications leveraging AI/ML models

* Academic projects, internships, or personal projects demonstrating application of modeling techniques preferred

Skills, abilities, and knowledge

* Superb communication and presentation skills

* An ability to translate business…