Associate Principal Data Scientist, King
$143.1-264.8k
1-4 days a week in office
Mobile games developer
Posted today
Mobile games developer
1001+ employees
Posted today
$143.1-264.8k
1-4 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
At King, we’re Making the World Playful. Heard of Candy Crush? We’re the creators behind it. But we aren’t just crushing it with candies, we’re also behind Farm Heroes, Bubble Witch, Pet Rescue and loads of other sweet games.
Role
Who you are
- We are seeking an Associate Principal Data Scientist—a highly experienced and technically deep individual contributor who leads through influence, owns high-impact initiatives, and drives scientific excellence across experimentation and modeling
- Master’s degree or PhD in a quantitative field (e.g., Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Operations Research)
- 14+ years of industry experience (or equivalent post-graduate experience) in data science, experimentation, statistical modeling, and machine learning, including work with large-scale systems
- Proficient in Python and SQL; familiarity with big data tools (e.g., Spark, Hive) and cloud computing platforms (e.g., GCP, AWS)
- Strong systems thinking—able to zoom out and define strategy while also diving deep into code and analysis
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with demonstrated experience partnering across Product, Engineering and Business teams
- Demonstrated experience mentoring, influencing, and elevating the technical bar across a data science organization
Desirable
- Experience working with advertising data products or monetization systems
- Prior work with mobile gaming studios or player behavior modeling
- Experience in developing or maintaining experimentation platforms
- Familiarity with modern data orchestration and versioning (e.g., Airflow, dbt, MLflow)
What the job involves
- Lead the design and execution of large-scale data science initiatives, shaping the roadmap for experimentation and modeling across teams
- Apply advanced statistical, optimization, and machine learning techniques (e.g., time-series, regression/classification, recommendation engines, reinforcement learning, and genAI) to drive system understanding and develop data-powered solutions across the organization
- Own design and evaluation of experimentation for optimization systems
- Provide technical direction, mentor senior data scientists, and set high standards for scientific rigor, communication, and reproducibility
- Partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Game Studios to frame ambiguous problems, scope solutions, and influence strategy
- Champion innovation by evaluating new methodologies and tools, and by raising the bar for scalable, interpretable, and actionable data science
Our take
Gaming is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries, but many still view gaming as inconvenient, inaccessible, or niche. King solves that problem by designing mobile games with broad market appeal.
Since its launch, King has released more than 200 titles in 14 languages, including Candy Crush, Farm Heroes, Bubble Witch, Pet Rescue, and more. The company pioneered in-game spending, which allows it to monetize user interactions without charging them to buy the game. Titles such as Candy Crush are designed to be highly accessible to demographics that wouldn’t usually define themselves as “gamers”, including older users. King now boasts more than 200 million monthly active users, making it a clear market leader.
In 2016, King was bought by gaming giant Activision Blizzard, which has since been purchased by Microsoft. While the company still operates with a high degree of independence, it has greatly profited from the financial and marketing support of its parent corporation. This support has been instrumental in enabling King to maintain its competitiveness in the constantly evolving mobile gaming industry.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
15% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Employee endorsements
Focus on employee wellbeing
"There is an amazing worklife balance that the company puts an emphasis on. On top of that there are amazing benefits to take part in, for example in..."
Funding (2 rounds)
Sep 2005
$43m
SERIES A
Jun 2005
$41m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $84m
Company benefits
- ❤️ Reimbursements for both physical and mental health-related activities
- 📚 Dedicated learning & development resources including LEAP and other leadership coaching
- 🌴 Generous paid holidays and vacation time, paid sick time, and compassionate, bereavement and parental leaves
- ⌚ A Team First, Hybrid Working approach allows working patterns to be based on the needs of the team
- 🏥 401(k) Plan with company match, medical, dental, and vision coverage options, and more
- 🏳️🌈 Four employee-led diversity-focused networks and other community groups that raise awareness
- 🏅 Community Day, charity donation matching, free and discounted Activision Blizzard games, and our Royal Recognition Awards rewarding commitment of long-serving Kingsters
- 📚 Voluntary benefits including tuition reimbursement, group discounts for legal services, ID protection, home and rental insurance, and others
Company values
- Fun & Friendly 🧡 We create an inclusive environment where everyone can belong. We build trust, we're supportive and demanding in everything we do, and we're not afraid to have fun along the way
- Care & Craft 🤗 We put our heart and soul into everything we do - and we do it for our players. It takes all Kingsters, contributing in different ways, to craft and operate brilliant mass-appeal games
- Humble & Open 📖 We treat each other as equals. We seek and give feedback, we listen, we learn, and we're honest with ourselves and others
- Fast & Fluid ⏩ We are responsive and embrace change. We take smart risks, are always ready to dust ourselves off, learn fast, and try again
- Creative Champions 🏅 We are curious about our players and we drive innovation in big and small ways to delight them every day. We boldly seek new ways of thinking to unleash creativity
- Passion & Performance 📈 Our passion guides us to set ambitious goals for ourselves and each other. We hold each other accountable, see things through, and contribute to our sustainable growth
Company HQ
Soho, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Tjodolf Sommestad
(President )President from February 2022. Previously served as King’s Chief Development Officer.
People progressing
Leading a data science team responsible for supporting performance marketing to make informed decisions with data
Joined as Senior Developer. Promoted to Engineering Manager after 2 years and is now leading two engineering teams in the Telemetry & Streaming domain.
Salary benchmarks
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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at King
Vikki Leach (Senior Director, DE&I)
- A great saga needs all sorts of heroes. At King, we share a passion for making the world playful. To achieve this, it takes people with different skills, experiences, and world views to work together.
- There’s no such thing as a typical gamer. That’s why we embrace and celebrate what makes us different rather than what makes us the same
- Our Employee Networks help us to stay connected as individuals and as a company; Kaleidoscope (ethnic, cultural, and national diversity), Royal Unicorns (LGBTQIA+), Women@King (crushing bias and equal opportunities) and CAN (collective abilities).
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