Senior Matchmaking Data Scientist

Job Title:

Requisition ID:

Job Description:

Senior Matchmaking Data Scientist (Van)

Want to be responsible for the gaming experience of millions of players? How about building the infrastructure that supports players from around the world?

Demonware is an independently-run part of Activision Blizzard. We run every part of the players' online experience, from logging in to matchmaking to climbing the leaderboards, for popular video game franchises such as Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot and Skylanders.

Our services impact almost half a billion players, we solve big company challenges with a small company feel.

If you’re excited about working with technologies for low-latency, large scale systems in a collaborative, supportive and inclusive environment then we’d love to hear from you! 

That sounds amazing, but what kind of impact can I make?

As a member of the Matchmaking team, your responsibilities will focus on improving the end user experience. You will use data analytics to identify areas of opportunity, then by developing online services, and running tests, capitalize on these opportunities.

No previous work experience in the video game industry is required, however the ability to put yourself in the shoes of our players is essential. This role will have a direct impact on the online services for AAA multiplayer games, including Call of Duty.

Sounds awesome, what will my “day-to-day” look like?

• Drive exploration and analysis of large complex data sets, representing hundreds of millions of real-world play sessions

• Analyze gamer behavior and patterns to drive improvements for players

• Develop predictive models, deploy, and performance tracking and validation

• Developing custom backend online services and features that are reliable and scale to be used by millions of players all around the world

• Working with game studio engineers to assist in making decisions about the direction of game features based on real data

• Providing technical mentorship to other team members through data analytics best practices

Sounds exciting, what would you like to see in my background?

• 6+ years of relevant work experience

• Expertise working with “big data”, and related tools (like Python Notebooks, Spark, SQL, etc) 

• Good understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle including, but not limited to, agile software development methodologies (Scrum or Kanban)

• Expertise working in Python or C++, or skills in a similar language 

• Experience with databases (ideally MySQL, Cassandra, and Redis)

• Experience with data visualization, and tools (Kibana, Grafana etc)

• Degree in Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering or equivalent program

Bonus Points:

• Experience designing systems to make high volumes of data useable (using tools like Kafka, ElasticSearch/Lucene)

• Experience working with high-volume, customer-facing applications

• Experience working with VMs, Linux containers, Docker and Kubernetes

What’s in it for me?

An excellent salary, with annual performance reviews and discretionary bonuses

• 5 weeks of vacation, standard

• Pension matching and contributions

• Top-tier medical, dental, and life insurance coverage

• Flexible working practices, based on the belief that the quality of your work is not dependent on the number of hours sitting behind a desk

• A culture that emphasizes continual learning and improvement, with opportunities for career progression, travel, and a commitment to open source

Demonware by the numbers:

• 5 million concurrent online gamers

• 100+ games

• 300,000 requests per second at peak