Senior Director, Data Science
Reddit is hiring a Senior Director, Data Science for a remote role open to applicants in United States. It pays $317k-$444k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Reddit.
Level's read on this job
- Builds AI ●●●● is how Level rates this role: the job is building AI systems.
- The posting lists this role as remote.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include AI safety, data science and machine learning.
- Level classifies it as an executive role.
- Level lists 162 other open roles at Reddit.
AI in this role
Lead consumer data science strategy, machine learning systems, relevance, recommendations, and search for Reddit.
Reddit is seeking a Senior Director of Consumer Data Science to lead a multi-team organization that partners across Consumer, Product, Engineering, and the broader business. You will set the strategy and operating model for consumer data science, strengthen the systems and standards that make scientific outputs reliable, actionable, and scalable, and guide high-impact decisions through measurement, experimentation, causal inference, and ML.
This leader will help define how Reddit measures and improves relevance across the consumer journey—from retrieval and ranking to feed, search, recommendations, and community discovery—and will shape the organizational capabilities required to advance these systems over the long term. Accordingly, the role requires the technical depth to evaluate architecture and analytical investments, guide state-of-the-art ML system improvements, and the leadership presence to align senior leaders around difficult tradeoffs.
What you’ll do- Partner with senior leaders across Consumer, Product, Engineering, and business functions to define company-level bets, priorities, and tradeoffs.
- Set the data science strategy for Reddit’s feed, recommendation, search, retrieval, and ranking systems, including objective design, candidate generation, ranking quality, relevance evaluation, experimentation, and long-term optimization.
- Establish the measurement and experimentation framework for relevance optimization, including offline evaluation, online experimentation, counterfactual analysis, guardrail metrics, metric integrity, and the connection between model improvements and consumer and community outcomes.
- Translate complex user and community behavior into clear, impartial insights that improve product strategy and consumer outcomes.
- Establish durable standards for measurement, experimentation, causal inference, reproducibility, privacy, responsible AI use, and self-serve measurement, at scale.
- Build multi-team roadmaps, operating cadences, and clear accountability that turn company direction into durable delivery.
- Exercise strong technical judgment across architecture choices, analytical systems, hiring, and sponsorship of high-leverage programs.
- Build or rebuild systems and practices that make analytical work reliable, adoptable, and scalable rather than dependent on individual heroics.
- Recruit, retain, and develop exceptional Directors, managers, and IC5+ leaders across multiple teams or pillars.
- Set a high talent bar through succession planning, calibration, and clear expectations for coaching, performance, accountability, and growth.
- Create durable cross-org forums and operating mechanisms that improve coordination, culture, and decision quality.
- Align senior product, engineering, and business leaders on measurement strategy, difficult tradeoffs, and decisions with material multi-year impact.
- Represent Reddit externally and internally as an acknowledged thought leader and visible culture shaper for rigor.
- Partner with teams advancing ML and analytical systems that deepen understanding of Reddit’s UGC and community ecosystem.
- Deep data science expertise in measurement, experimentation, causal inference, ML, data platforms, and analytical systems, with the technical judgment to set company-scale standards.
- Experience in UGC or community ecosystems and a strong point of view on how data science can improve consumer experiences while protecting analytical quality, privacy, and responsible AI practices.
- Proven ability to connect model and system improvements to consumer value, content quality, trust, diversity, healthy participation, and long-term business outcomes—not only short-term engagement metrics.
- Senior leadership experience leading multi-team or multi-pillar organizations and delivering attributable business impact through durable roadmaps, operating mechanisms, and long-range bets.
- Proven organization builder with a track record of recruiting and retaining exceptional senior leaders, developing Directors and managers, and creating a healthy, high-trust leadership bench.
- Exceptional communication and influence with experience aligning senior product, engineering, and business leaders; resolving conflict; and communicating uncertainty, risks, and tradeoffs with intellectual honesty.
Pay Transparency:
This job posting may span more than one career level.
In addition to base salary, this job is eligible to receive equity in the form of restricted stock units, and depending on the position offered, it may also be eligible to receive a commission. Additionally, Reddit offers a wide range of benefits to U.S.-based employees, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) program with employer match, generous time off for vacation, and parental leave. To learn more, please visit https://www.redditinc.com/careers/.
To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base salary ranges for all US-based job postings regardless of state. We set standard base pay ranges for all roles based on function, level, and country location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including, skills, depth of work experience and relevant licenses/credentials, and may vary from the amounts listed below.
The base salary range for this position is:$317,000—$443,800 USDIn select roles and locations, the interviews will be recorded, transcribed and summarized by artificial intelligence (AI). You will have the opportunity to opt out of recording, transcription and summarization prior to any scheduled interviews.
During the interview, we will collect the following categories of personal information: Identifiers, Professional and Employment-Related Information, Sensory Information (audio/video recording), and any other categories of personal information you choose to share with us. We will use this information to evaluate your application for employment or an independent contractor role, as applicable. We will not sell your personal information or disclose it to any third party for their marketing purposes. We will delete any recording of your interview promptly after making a hiring decision. For more information about how we will handle your personal information, including our retention of it, please refer to our Candidate Privacy Policy for Potential Employees and Contractors.
Reddit is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and is committed to building a workforce representative of the diverse communities we serve. Reddit is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If, due to a disability, you need an accommodation during the interview process, please let your recruiter know.
How we rate this
Senior Director, Data Science at Reddit rates 85 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- How do you think about the risk of an AI system in this kind of role failing silently?
- Tell me about a project where data science was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where experimentation was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where causal inference was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI Safety, Data Science, Machine learning, Experimentation, and Causal Inference. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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