Data Scientist II

About Us:

At Quickplay, we believe in transparency, fairness, and collaboration while we passionately work on some of the toughest use cases in OTT video, focused on massive scale and resilience. If you aspire to be part of a high-performing, learning-oriented, and caring culture—you've landed on the right company. Our Data Science & Data Engineering team is expanding, and we're seeking a highly skilled Data Scientist II to drive critical analytical insights and shape our product strategy.

About the Role:

As a Data Scientist II at Quickplay, you will be a lead individual contributor primarily focused on designing, developing, and deploying advanced analytical and machine learning solutions to address complex business problems. You will play a crucial part in translating high-level business questions into rigorous data science initiatives, guiding the team on methodology, and influencing key product and strategic decisions with your expertise in data analysis, model building, and compelling communication.

Work Model:

Ability to work onsite in our Toronto office three days per week — Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the end-to-end execution of complex data science projects, with a strong emphasis on Generative AI, from identifying strategic business opportunities to delivering actionable insights and deployed models.
• Design, develop, and implement LLM-based and Generative AI solutions (e.g., content generation, summarization, RAG pipelines) alongside traditional AI/ML models and statistical analyses. Focus on understanding customer behaviour, predicting churn, optimizing engagement, and driving business growth across large, complex datasets.
• Collaborate closely with Product Management, Engineering, and Analytics teams to define key customer KPIs, integrate data science solutions into products, and ensure data-driven decision-making.
• Provide thought leadership and technical guidance on the entire AI/ML pipeline, with expertise in LLMOps, prompt engineering, fine-tuning large models, feature engineering, model selection, training, evaluation, and deployment strategies for both Generative AI and traditional models.
• Communicate complex analytical findings, insights, and recommendations clearly and persuasively to diverse audiences, including senior leadership and non-technical stakeholders, pitching Quickplay's data science capabilities and educating on data and AI systems.
• Proactively identify business trends, opportunities, and problems through in-depth data analysis, especially where Generative AI can create new product value, ensuring continuous improvement of our data products and insights.
• Contribute to setting and executing the technical roadmap for the Data Science function, pushing for innovation and best practices in Generative AI and MLOps.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to junior data scientists, fostering their growth in advanced AI topics and ensuring analytical rigor in team projects.

Key Qualifications:

Cultural Fit:

At Quickplay, we thrive on a culture defined by four core principles. As a successful candidate, you'll demonstrate:

• Focusing on Impact: You are entrepreneurial, results-oriented, and proactive in addressing challenges. You prioritize solving needs and driving business impact through effective solutions.
• Being Curious: You actively seek to understand priorities, industry trends, and how Quickplay's solutions create value.
• Being Supportive: You foster collaboration across teams, build strong relationships, and ensure internal followership.
• Speaking Up: You offer constructive feedback when improvements are needed, driving continuous progress and accountability.

Technical Expertise and Background:

• 4+ years of progressive, applied experience in areas such as Generative AI, machine learning, or advanced data science roles, preferably within a software platform or OTT/media company.
• Experience with developing and deploying large-scale AI/ML models on complex datasets, with a specific focus on Generative AI architectures (e.g., Text-based or multi-modal or agentic), including model fine-tuning, validation, and deployment in production environments.
• Advanced proficiency in Python for data manipulation, statistical modelling, and machine learning, along with expert-level SQL skills for data extraction and analysis.
• Proven experience with cloud-based data warehousing technologies such as BigQuery, Snowflake, or similar, and familiarity with distributed computing frameworks (e.g., Spark) are essential for training large models.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a demonstrated ability to tackle highly complex and ambiguous business problems using scientific methods and data, particularly in leveraging Generative AI for novel applications.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, capable of translating intricate technical concepts (including Gen AI capabilities and limitations) into clear, concise, and strategic business recommendations for executive audiences.
• Self-starter with a strong sense of ownership, comfortable working autonomously and leading initiatives in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.
• High emotional intelligence and low ego, enabling effective collaboration and mentorship.
• Quick learner with a deep understanding of technology opportunities and challenges at a business level, particularly the impact and potential of Generative AI.
• Experience interacting directly with customers and partners to gather requirements and present solutions, including Generative AI-powered features.
• A graduate degree (Master's or Ph.D. preferred) in a quantitative field such as Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, Machine Learning, Applied Mathematics, Economics, or a related discipline.
• Contribute to a fair, positive, and equitable environment that supports a diverse workforce.

Highly Favorable Skills:

• Proficiency in prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and deployment of large language models (LLMs) for specific tasks.
• Expertise in LLM evaluation frameworks and designing tests for agentic and multi-step AI behaviors.
• Experience in statistical analysis, causal inference, experimental design (A/B testing), and a wide range of machine learning techniques.
• Familiarity with the OTT video domain and technologies

Why Join Quickplay?

You continually desire to stay curious, speak up, focus on impact, and be supportive. These four specific core principles are critical to your success here at Quickplay, and we understand that when you succeed—Quickplay succeeds.

Quickplay also offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support our employees' well-being and financial future, including:

• Retirement savings program.
• Comprehensive health benefits.
• Commuter allowance.
• Employee wellbeing assistance.
• Flexible vacation policy.

Please note that only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview. Thank you for your understanding