Principal Data Scientist, Marketing & Personalization

About the position At Fanatics Commerce, we’re more than just a leader in licensed sports merchandise – we’re a team united by a relentless passion for our fans and a commitment to innovation. We live by our BOLD Leadership principles: We Build Championship Teams, we’re Obsessed with Fans, we embrace a Limitless Entrepreneurial Spirit, and we approach every challenge with a Determined and Relentless Mindset. If you’re ready to contribute to a dynamic, fast-paced environment that thrives on collaboration and growth, we want you to be part of our team. Role Overview: We are seeking a Principal Data Scientist to serve as a senior individual contributor and tech lead driving Marketing Data Science for Fanatics Commerce. This is a high-impact, high-visibility role that shapes the future of our marketing effectiveness through rigorous data science and machine learning. You will own and advance the technical direction across key marketing modeling areas including purchase propensity, digital ad bidding optimization, customer routing, incrementality, personalization and more. The ideal candidate has a proven track record of delivering impact in marketing science, influencing senior stakeholders, and elevating technical standards across teams. This role requires deep technical expertise, exceptional business intuition, and the ability to translate ambiguous marketing problems into scalable data science solutions. You will work closely with cross-functional partners in marketing, product, engineering, design, and research - providing leadership through domain expertise, strategic insight, and technical excellence

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the marketing data science strategy across lifecycle optimization, customer engagement, retention, and marketing spend efficiency.
• Independently lead large-scale and complex data science initiatives end-to-end, from problem definition through deployment and measurement.
• Take full ownership of project execution by proactively driving progress, resolving blockers, and ensuring delivery of measurable business outcomes.
• Develop advanced statistical models and ML systems to improve targeting, bidding, segmentation, fan engagement, personalization and customer experience.
• Act as a thought partner to senior marketing and product leaders, shaping priorities, guiding strategy, and influencing business decisions with data.
• Advance analytical and ML capabilities by exploring new methodologies and contributing reusable tools, frameworks, and documentation that improve consistency and productivity.
• Establish best practices for modeling, experimentation, causal inference, and architecture to ensure scientific rigor and scalability across marketing use cases.
• Provide technical mentorship and uplevel data scientists through design discussions, model reviews, and best-practice sharing.
• Drive cross-organizational alignment through clear, compelling storytelling that influences decisions at the executive level.
• Collaborate closely with engineering partners to guide data structures, pipelines, feature design, and deployment patterns for high-quality ML systems.
• Partner with CRM, Digital Marketing, Data Engineering, and ML Engineering to translate analytical findings into strategies that improve marketing performance and customer engagement.
• Communicate complex insights clearly to technical and non-technical audiences to enable data-driven decision-making across teams and leadership levels.
• Bring structure and clarity to loosely defined business problems while balancing strategic and operational priorities to maximize business impact.
• Serve as a respected voice of Marketing Science, reinforcing Fanatics’ BOLD leadership principles and contributing to organizational excellence.

Requirements

• BS or higher in a technical or quantitative field (Computer Science, Operations Research, Statistics, Economics, etc.)
• 7+ years of hands-on experience in marketing data science or related disciplines
• Demonstrated expertise in marketing science use cases (propensity modeling, segmentation, LTV, incrementality, bidding, attribution, personalization, etc.)
• Strong proficiency in applied statistics and ML, with experience deploying models into production environments
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence technical and non-technical audiences, including executives
• Proven ability to lead complex analytical initiatives independently

Nice-to-haves

• 10+ years of overall experience in advanced analytics, machine learning, or data science
• Proven ability to set technical direction, raise modeling quality, and elevate scientific rigor without formal authority
• Strong ownership mindset, intellectual curiosity, and comfort navigating ambiguity
• Proven track record of driving measurable business outcomes through data science
• Expertise in at least one statistical software environment (Python, R, etc.)
• Experience partnering with cross-functional teams across Marketing, Product, Engineering, CRM, and Design
• Strategic thinker with a customer-first mindset and the ability to frame trade-offs and recommendations clearly

Benefits

• We provide a wide range of health, financial, legal, and development assistance, including wellness programs with fitness and weight management partners, paid maternity paternity leave, and infertility treatment.
• Additionally, we offer flexible time off to help you recharge, along with a competitive 401k plan to support your financial future.
• At Fanatics, we’re dedicated to supporting you in all aspects of work and life.

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