Senior Analyst- Data Scientist

Merkle is a leading data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. The agency’s heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive people-based marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With 9,600+ employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with 50+ additional offices throughout the US, EMEA, and APAC. In 2016, the agency joined the Dentsu Aegis Network. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com.

The Data Scientist will be an integral part of our US-based modeling capabilities, conducting advanced analytical analyses of marketing activities and estimating their impact on sales. These projects will include, but are not limited to, Media Mix Optimization, Analysis of Covariance (test & control), Cluster Analysis, and Attribution Modeling of disaggregate event-stream data. This role will be a thought-leader in analytics practices, possessing a broad knowledge of techniques and tactics plus the ability to learn new ones and judge them critically for potential use in client deliverables.

This person will coordinate with some of our most important clients on data acquisition, deconflicting and presentation of results, as well as collaboration with multiple levels of the Merkle organization on high-visibility projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate data specifications for modeling projects with clients and internal teams
• Conduct ETL operations and / or coordinate with clients, agencies and internal teams on ETL
• Establish through testing and experimentation the right statistical approach for a given client situation
• Provide thoroughly documented work products to enable smooth operations in production environments, including cloud environments
• Develop reports and processes to manage data quality control
• Interpret and visualize model estimates and diagnostics
• Support client teams to deliver insights on model results
• Drive process innovation and continuous improvement

• Minimum of 2 years as an Analyst or equivalent experience

• Advanced degree in a quantativefield : Statistics, Applied Economics, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, Computer Science, Physics, etc.
• Experience with media data and marketing measurement a strong plus
• Ability to quickly learn new technologies and/or technical skills
• Deep knowledge of regressionespecially hierarchical or mixed regression, and time series analysis; some knowledge of Bayesian modeling a plus

• Advanced programming and modeling skills with R and Python; experience with data.table, tidyverse and Shiny strong plusses
• Able to understand various data structures and common methods in data transformation
• Practical experience with processing large-scale data; knowledge of SQL required
• Data visualization experience using R, Python,Tableau, or other software
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g. Google Cloud Platform or AWS)
• Maintain positive client relationships with the ability to diffuse difficult situations and handle escalated client calls/emails with limited oversight
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to present information in spoken, written or visual form to a variety of audiences, from internal teams to external client executives
• Ability to multi-task and train others and handle “interruptions”
• Collaborate with teammates, including overseas teams, to share learnings and techniques

• Ability to bring new solutions – analytical, technical and client-mangement – to the team

At Merkle, we believe that a diverse environment improves us as a community and as a business. We want to foster an environment of growth, where all ideas and contributions are encouraged. We need this culture of courage to continue to thrive in our fast-paced industry. We embrace differences of opinion. We value diversity of experience and thought, which help us to challenge and define industry-leading solutions, and support our goal of being a great place to work