Freelance Data Science Manager Jobs in California

Los Angeles, California, United States

Tatari is on a mission to revolutionize TV advertising. Founded in 2016 to help transform the antiquated world of TV advertising through the intelligent application of AI and machine learning, Tatari helps some of the world's fastest growing brands including Chime, Calm, Tecovas, Manscaped, Saatva, and Liquid I.V., reach their customers using linear and streaming TV ads. Our platform combines sophisticated media buying with proprietary analytics to turn TV advertising into an automated, digital-like experience, enabling businesses of any size to advertise on TV.

That approach has earned Tatari broad industry recognition, including being named Best CTV AdTech Platform in the 8th annual MarTech Breakthrough Awards, as well as honors from Digiday (Best Connected TV Platform), AdExchanger (Most Innovative TV Advertising Technology), and Business Insider (Hottest AdTech Companies). Tatari has also been recognized as the Best Place to Work by Inc. Magazine. Backed by an executive team of former founders and senior leaders from companies including Shazam, TrueCar, AdapTV, LiveRail, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Yahoo, Tatari continues to scale rapidly as TV advertising enters its next major era.

We're looking for a Data Science Manager to lead our growing AI product data science function. This is a foundational role focused on building and managing a small team of data scientists working on customer-facing features powered by machine learning and LLMs. You'll partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Platform teams to deliver fast-moving experiments, shape the roadmap for AI innovation, and lay the foundation for scalable, production-ready AI systems. While this is not an individual contributor (IC) role, we're looking for someone with the technical depth to meaningfully collaborate on modeling and system design, and the management experience to lead a team through execution. You'll play a central role in shaping how AI shows up in our product and how the team behind it grows.

Responsibilities:

• Manage and grow a team of data scientists focused on AI/ML product development
• Facilitate the team's design of algorithms and models to innovate, research, and deliver on product features that drive and expand our business opportunities
• Empower the team to innovate and explore new methodologies and improve upon existing algorithms
• Actively develop strong working relationships across Product, Engineering, and Infrastructure teams to foster alignment, drive shared decision-making, and accelerate delivery of AI-powered features
• Collaborate with partner teams to define scope, translate product requirements into technical approaches, and ensure successful delivery
• Own Data Science prioritization for AI/ML outcomes, allocate resources and manage workload
• Drive execution of AI/ML projects by tracking progress, aligning timelines with stakeholders, and ensuring timely, high-quality delivery
• Assess and mitigate risks to delivery, owning accountability for downstream business impacts
• Promote high-quality experimentation, modeling, and evaluation standards, with an emphasis on reliability and product value
• Develop lightweight but effective team processes to support fast iteration and scalable AI delivery
• Conduct performance reviews, coach team members, and support career growth planning for direct reports
• Contribute to hiring and onboarding efforts for the team

Qualifications:

• Master's degree or equivalent experience in a technical field (e.g., Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Data Science, etc.)
• Minimum 2 years of management experience, plus minimum of 6 years of experience in a Data Science role, or a related role in a technology environment
• Strong strategic thinking and project management skills, including priority and dependency management across several large projects with multiple stakeholders
• Strong organizational and leadership skills, able to exercise judgment to make tradeoffs through cost-benefit analysis
• Ability to translate complex concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders and drive alignment across Product, Engineering, and Data Science
• Proven ability to lead through ambiguity and move from 0?1 with new features or systems
• Advanced knowledge of statistics and probability, particularly their application in model development
• Intermediate to advanced experience in Data Manipulation Software (e.g. SQL, Python), cloud computing environments (e.g., AWS), and ML workflows or toolkits
• Nice to have:
• PhD in a technical field
• Demonstrated experience in leading AI work, ideally including work with LLMs, embeddings, or ranking/recommender systems with a successful track record of end-to-end implementation.
• TV Media Industry or Ad Tech experience a plus

Benefits:

• Competitive salary ($160,000 - $220,000/annually)
• Equity compensation
• Health insurance coverage for you and your dependents
• 401K, FSA, and commuter benefits
• $150 monthly spending account
• $1,000 annual continued education benefit
• $500 WFH reimbursement
• Unlimited PTO and sick days
• Monthly Company Wellness Day Off
• Snacks, drinks, and catered lunches at the office
• Team building events
• Hybrid RTO of 2 days per week. THIS IS AN IN-OFFICE POSITION

At Tatari, we believe in the importance of cultivating teams with diverse backgrounds and offering equal opportunities to all. We strive to create a welcoming, inclusive environment where every team member feels valued and diversity is celebrated.