The Opportunity

We are looking for a Data Scientist to help us understand how audiences engage with our journalism across platforms (including audio, web, apps, and newsletters) and build models and tools that help grow loyalty and membership.

In this role, you will take ownership of core audience data modeling work, including improving existing propensity models, developing engagement-based audience scoring systems, and connecting newsroom engagement to membership outcomes.

General Responsibilities

Newsroom

Identifying patterns that drive meaningful engagement, and building data models that tie those patterns to conversion outcomes
Build models that estimate how stories may perform based on topic and format, and use those signals to support editorial planning and story budgeting

Loyalty and membership

Identify and quantify meaningful relationships between user behaviors and outcomes such as return visits and membership
Build and improve models to improve the member experience and grow revenue.
Improve campaign targeting and email/newsletter performance through segmentation and modeling

Product, experimentation, and personalization

Provide guidance on experiment design and evaluate results, ensuring tests are statistically sound and insights are accurately interpreted and applied
Quantify how product changes impact user experience
Build user-level datasets and tools that support content recommendations, audience segmentation, and targeted product experiences on owned channels

Modeling & Impact

Work with analytics and engineering to support modeling and segmentation
Drive adoption of models and outputs across teams
Identify where data science can meaningfully improve decisions and lead the development of solutions to address those gaps.

Qualifications

Required

Strong SQL skills and experience working with messy and large datasets
Proficiency in Python or R for data analysis and modeling
Experience building and applying predictive models in real-world settings
Strong foundation in statistics, including experimentation (A/B testing) and interpreting results
Experience working with user-level behavioral data (pageviews, sessions, event data)
Ability to communicate results clearly and influence decisions
Interest in exploring how AI can support analysis and improve internal workflows

Preferred

Experience in media, publishing, nonprofit, or subscription-based organizations

Reporting and Collaboration

This role reports to the Audience Analytics Manager and works collaboratively across Chicago Public Media, including editorial leadership, product, membership, marketing, and circulation teams.

Compensation

The expected pay range for this position is $120,000 - $150,000 per ANNUM.

Chicago Public Media provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the organization reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographical location, and external market pay for comparable jobs.

Data Scientist