Research Scientist – Economist

Unlock your inner voice. The one that knows you can do it. The one to listen to more. Unlock that desire you’ve always had to achieve something bigger. Take the leap. Join a team of diverse individuals who thrive by conquering new frontiers and working in different ways. Learn, grow, and then learn some more in a hyper-growth environment. Develop your voice, your ideas, your ability to help others. People at Rokt aren’t inspired by job titles, they are inspired by other people. Unleash all the possibilities. At Rokt, you’ll unlock your full potential.

About Rokt

Rokt is the global leader in ecommerce technology. We unlock revenue for companies by using AI and machine learning to present highly relevant offers to each shopper, personalizing the online shopping experience and maximizing the value of each transaction moment. Uber, Live Nation, AMC Theatres, PayPal, Hulu, Staples, Lands’ End, GoPuff, HelloFresh are among the more than 2,500 leading global businesses and advertisers relying on Rokt’s technology to increase engagement, revenue and customer acquisition. 

With our December 2022 secondary transaction, Rokt’s valuation increased to $2.4 billion. We are expanding rapidly and operating in 15 countries across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific with the largest office in NYC and a major R&D hub in Sydney. With consistent hyper growth ahead of the market and a vibrant company culture, Rokt has been listed in ‘Great Places to Work’ in the US and Australia. 

About Rokt’stars

As a mission-driven, hyper-growth community of curious explorers, our ambition is to unlock the full potential in ecommerce and beyond. Our bias for action means we are not afraid to quickly venture into uncharted territories, take risks or challenge the status quo; in doing so we either win or learn. We work together as one aligned team never letting egos get in the way of brilliant ideas. We value diversity, transparency and smart humble people who enjoy building a disruptive business together. We pride ourselves on being a force for good as we make the world better. 

The Rokt engineering team builds best-in-class ecommerce technology that provides personalized and relevant experiences for customers globally and empowers marketers with sophisticated, AI-driven tooling to better understand consumers. Our bespoke platform handles millions of transactions per day and considers billions of data points which give engineers the opportunity to build technology at scale, collaborate across teams and gain exposure to a wide range of technology. We are expanding rapidly in our major R&D centers in NYC and Sydney. We are passionate about using intelligent systems to improve the transaction moment for retailers everywhere. Come join us and build the future!

Requirements

About the role

As the first Research Scientist – Economist at Rokt, you will play a pivotal role in shaping our economic strategies, impacting marketplace policies, auction logic, and machine learning (ML) model development. In this high-visibility position, you’ll lead the creation of a network model that significantly influences the optimization of our internal economy, benefiting advertisers, eCommerce partners, and customers alike. Working alongside a dynamic team of over 200 engineers, your role involves analyzing network dynamics and advertising performance, offering insights to enhance both, and refining our auction models. Your analytical skills, strategic thinking, and pragmatic decision-making will drive key improvements in our fast-paced, evolving marketplace

Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize economic models and auction logic to simulate and enhance Rokt network dynamics
• Advertising Success: Analyze key factors affecting advertising effectiveness, and provide clear, practical advice to help more advertisers achieve success within the Rokt network.
• Collaborate with ML teams and provide strategic input to optimize long-term network value for partners and customers

Skills and Education:

• Skills: PhD in Economics or related field, with expertise in economic modeling and proficiency in SQL, R, or Python
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills, with the ability to work with imperfect data

Experience:

• Demonstrated experience in the Advertising industry, with a deep understanding of economic principles applicable to open networks and walled garden networks. In absence of experience in the Advertising industry, experience in ECommerce is a minimum.Proven track record of influencing the development of ML models
• Direct experience in environments leveraging automated auction logic

Behavioral Traits:

• Seeking a highly motivated individual with excellent technical communication skills, able to effectively collaborate with software and ML engineers and present strategies to executive stakeholders.
• A pragmatic approach, able to blend rigorous analysis with the realities of a fast-evolving company and environment

Benefits

• Work with the greatest talent in tech. Our recruitment process is tough but diligent. We’re constantly aiming to implement our value of “raise the bar” and set high standards for our Rokt’stars. This is essential in our high-performing, high-grow culture where we strive to bring in the brightest and best talent. Our teams thrive by challenging the status quo and we encourage all of our teams to unlock their desire to achieve something bigger.
• Join a community. At Rokt we’re a community of curious explorers. We’re not afraid of venturing into uncharted territories. We work together as one single, aligned team. We value diversity and transparency which is why we support a number of internal employee resource groups including an EDI steering committee, Rainbow Rokts that empowers our LGBTQIA+ Rokt’stars, and Womxn who Rokt that promotes gender equality in tech. 
• Accelerate your career. We want you to unlock your full potential. This is why we have an annual ‘Level Up’ allowance of $5,000 that gives Rokt’stars the ability to take courses, attend events, go to training, and more to help our great employees become even better. 
• Take a break. When you work hard, we know you also need to rest. We offer generous time off and parental leave policies, as well as mental health and wellness days for all employees. We even incentivize individuals to utilize their PTO with “High 5” days, an additional 5 days of PTO when you’ve used 75% of your allotted annual paid leave. We also offer a paid Rokt’star Sabbatical for employees who have been with us for 5 years or more.
• Become a shareholder. All Rokt’stars have stock options. If we succeed, everyone is rewarded. 
• See the world! We want our Rokt’stars to enjoy the ride. As we aim to bring meaning and fun to our everyday work, we host global all-staff events in amazing locations (Phuket, Thailand in January 2020, Hawaii in May 2022, and Whistler in 2023). As we strive to build a community of curious explorers, we also offer generous relocation packages for those interested in moving to another Rokt office. We have bustling offices in great cities including: New York,Seattle, Sydney, London, and Tokyo. 
• We believe we’re better together. We love spending time together and are in the office most days (all teams are in the office 4 days per week). We also get that you need to balance your life and your commitments so you have flexibility to manage your own hours and can spend up to a week of every quarter working from anywhere.
• Stay happy and healthy. In order to unleash our potential, we want to ensure you’re able to keep your wellbeing a priority. This means you can enjoy a well-balanced, catered lunch 5x a week in the office along with healthy snacks. We also want you to feel at home when coming into work which is why we’re a dog-friendly office so you can bring your furry friend to work with you. As part of your wellbeing benefits, we offer a wellness stipend so you can enjoy the gym on us. In the US, access generous retirement plans like a 4% dollar-for-dollar 401K matching plan and get fully funded premium health insurance for your entire family! [ NY OFFICE ONLY]
• We believe in equality. Rokt is an Equal Opportunity Employer and we know our collective strength comes from how different we all are. We encourage you to apply for one of our open roles—irrespective of socio-economic status or background, age, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, color, pregnancy, carer/family responsibilities, national and social origin, political opinion, marital, veteran, or disability status.