Data Scientist, Recommendations and Personalization

3 Months ago • 5 Years + • Data Analysis • $150,000 PA - $225,000 PA

Job Summary

Job Description

Cantina, a social platform founded by Sean Parker, is seeking a founding Data Scientist to lead personalization and recommendation efforts within the app. This role involves shaping how data drives recommendations, user-bot interactions, and social experiences at scale. You will work directly with key product and executive stakeholders to translate data into actionable insights and models. The responsibilities include owning the full lifecycle from data pipelining to modeling and dashboard creation, guiding strategy, and building ML systems to improve key metrics.
Must have:
  • 5+ years experience in data science
  • Exceptional SQL skills
  • Skilled in Python and ML tools
  • Experience in personalization/recommendation models
  • Strong understanding of A/B testing
  • Experience building dashboards
Good to have:
  • Experience in consumer tech/social platforms
  • Experience with user behavior modeling
  • Experience with fraud/risk analytics
  • Experience with social content systems
Perks:
  • 99% of health, vision, dental premiums paid
  • $500 monthly wellness stipend
  • 15 PTO days, 10 sick days, 10 holidays, 2 floating holidays
  • 401(K) eligibility on day one
  • Parental leave & fertility support
  • Competitive salary & equity
  • Lunch and snacks provided (in-office)
  • WFH equipment provided

Job Details

A bit about Cantina

Cantina, founded by Sean Parker, is a new social platform with the most advanced AI character creator. We enable users to build, share, and interact with AI bots and friends directly in Cantina or across the internet.

Our bots are lifelike, social creatures capable of interacting wherever humans go online. Users can recreate themselves using powerful AI, imagine someone new, or choose from thousands of existing characters. Bots represent a new media type that offers creators a way to share infinitely scalable and personalized content experiences combined with seamless group chat across voice, video, and text.

A bit about the role:

We're looking for a founding Data Scientist to lead personalization and recommendation on Feed and other parts of the Cantina app. You will shape how we use data to power recommendations, user-bot interaction, and social experiences at scale. You’ll be working directly with key product and executive stakeholders, including Sean Parker, to turn data into product-shaping insights and models.

You’ll own the full lifecycle—from data pipelining to modeling to dashboards—to deliver insights that guide strategy and build ML systems that move metrics.

A bit about the work:

  • Experience building personalization for feed ranking systems

  • Design, train, and deploy lightweight ML models (e.g. regression, recommendation, neural nets) for real-time applications

  • Partner with product and engineering to define and run user experiments and A/B tests

  • Build the foundation of user growth from feed, delivering insights to drive engagement and retention

  • Build pipelines and foundational metrics for user engagement, retention, and content performance

  • Build/integrate tools to explain and debug ML models

A bit about you:

  • 5+ years experience in data science, preferably in consumer tech or social platforms

  • Exceptional SQL skills with demonstrated ability to work with complex data structures

  • Skilled in Python and standard data science/ML tools (e.g. Pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch)

  • Experience building and productionizing models for personalization, recommendation, or ranking

  • Strong understanding of experimentation and A/B testing

  • Confident building dashboards for executives and visualizing impact clearly

  • Comfortable owning end-to-end analytics: from data modeling to insight to delivery

  • Self-directed, with a bias for action—you can go from zero to insight/model

  • Bonus: experience with user behavior modeling, fraud/risk analytics, or social content systems

A Bit About the Stack & Tools

  • Python, SQL

  • PyTorch for ML Model Prototyping

  • AWS or GCP for infrastructure

  • Experimentation framework

  • Real-time pipelines and feature engineering

Location:

This is a hybrid role, preferably based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Pay Equity: 

In compliance with Pay Transparency Laws, the base salary range for this role is between $150,000- 225,000 for those located in San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA. When determining compensation, a number of factors will be considered, including skills, experience, job scope, location, and competitive compensation market data.

Benefits Summary:

  • Health Care —  99% of premiums for medical, vision, dental are fully paid for by Cantina, plus One Medical membership.

  • Monthly Wellness Stipend — $500/month to use on whatever you’d like! 

  • Rest and Recharge — 15 PTO days per year, 10 sick days, all Federal holidays, and 2 floating holidays.

  • 401(K) — Eligible to participate on day one of employment.

  • Parental Leave & Fertility Support 

  • Competitive Salary & Equity 

  • Lunch and snacks provided for in-office employees. 

  • WFH equipment provided for full-time hybrid/remote employees.

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About The Company

Cantina, founded by Sean Parker, is a new social platform with the most advanced AI character creator. Build, share, and interact with AI bots and your friends directly in the Cantina or across the internet. Cantina bots are lifelike, social creatures, capable of interacting wherever humans go on the internet. Recreate yourself using powerful AI, imagine someone new, or choose from thousands of existing characters. Bots are a new media type that offer a way for creators to share infinitely scalable and personalized content experiences combined with seamless group chat across voice, video, and text.

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