Ipsos in US is hiring: Data Scientist, Creative Excellence in Chicago

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Job Description

Within Ipsos, the Creative Excellence helps clients understand what makes advertising effective across TV, digital, social and other media channels. A core strategic solution is Creative Spark AI, an AI-enabled capability to predict and explain ad performance, at scale and globally. Your primary focus will be to support the development and evolution of this solution. This evolution will also include creation of new products utilizing the framework to take advantage of current blue ocean space in the market.

What We Offer

• The opportunity to work with cutting‑edge AI and data technologies in a production environment, in partnership with other experienced data scientists and engineers within the Generative AI & Data Science department.
• A culture that values curiosity, scientific rigor, collaboration, and continuous learning.
• The chance to grow towards more senior or specialized roles (e.g. lead data scientist, AI product specialist, or domain expert in creative analytics).

Role Summary

In this role, you will contribute to the design and experimentation of the AI models and features that power Creative Spark AI and related solutions. When client and industry need demand it, you will experiment to find alternative measurement and modelling best practices which may become independent products or solutions. You will ensure that experimentation and custom analyses remain consistent with our Creative Spark AI global methodology, where applicable. You will translate research and client briefs into modelling problems and ensure actionable insights and recommendations. You are expected to work autonomously on well‑defined problems, collaborate closely with lead data scientists and engineers, and progressively take ownership of more complex modelling workstreams.

Key Responsibilities

• Feature and Model Development: Design, engineer, and test new model variants from survey, coded, or digital data sources to improve prediction accuracy and explainability of ad performance across distinct ad environments and verticals. Integrate new features into experimental models and quantify their impact on prediction accuracy, robustness, and interpretability, summarizing the uplift for senior management decision‑making; document feature definitions, derivation logic, and performance impact for replicability.
• Experimentation, Evaluation & Documentation: Design and execute experiments and benchmarks comparing different feature sets, algorithms, or model configurations (e.g. classical ML, deep learning, NLP/ CV approaches). Use appropriate evaluation metrics (accuracy, AUC, RMSE, etc.) and validation schemes to ensure robust conclusions. Maintain clear experiment logs and documentation (notebooks, reports, dashboards). Contribute to continuous improvement of modelling best practices.
• Advocate for, and own new products and solutions that grow incremental revenue on top of CRE’s core business. Develop an understanding of Ipsos’ Creative Excellence business and translate this into new solutions with global and US product teams. Drive the transformation of Ipsos’ business model through the use of synthetic data, enhance insight generation, enable advanced market simulations, support innovative product development, and create greater value from data assets.
• Communication & Stakeholder Engagement: Translate stakeholder questions into robust analytical workflows, aligned with Ipsos’ methodologies and AI governance. Present modelling results, feature impacts, and recommendations in clear, non‑technical language. Collaborate with business‑facing teams to frame and refine client questions, ensure feasibility and methodological rigor. Contribute to internal training, playbooks, and knowledge sharing on our core AI solution. When relevant, support client‑facing presentations or proposals.

Skills & Qualifications

Education

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Data Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Econometrics, or a related quantitative field.
• PhD is a plus but not required.

Experience

• 7‑10 years of professional experience as a Data Scientist in applied machine learning.
• Hands‑on experience building and evaluating supervised learning models in real‑world use cases.
• Experience in product management or technical lead roles is a plus.
• Experience in at least one of the following: marketing, advertising, media, or market research; or predictive modelling on survey, panel, or customer behaviour data.
• Prior exposure to production or near‑production environments (e.g. working on models that are deployed, monitored, and iterated).

Technical Skills

• Computer Vision, GenAI and NLP expertise.
• Strong proficiency in Python and the main data & ML libraries (pandas, NumPy, scikit‑learn, optionally TensorFlow/PyTorch/CatBoost/XGBoost).
• Good working knowledge of SQL and experience querying large analytical datasets (e.g. BigQuery).
• Demonstrated understanding of core ML concepts: feature engineering, regularization, model selection, cross‑validation, evaluation metrics, bias, overfitting, drift, and robustness issues.
• Experience with NLP or computer vision applied to creatives (scripts, storyboards, video/image/audio), cloud platforms (ideally GCP), experiment tracking and MLOps tools (MLflow, model registries, CI/CD for ML).
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills with attention to detail and methodological rigor.
• Ability to translate business and research problems into concrete analytical approaches.
• Comfortable working in cross‑functional teams; curious, pragmatic, eager to learn.
• Able to work autonomously on clearly defined workstreams, while actively seeking feedback when needed.
• Excellent communication skills.

What’s In It For You

At Ipsos you’ll experience opportunities for career development, an exceptional benefits package (generous PTO, healthcare plans, wellness benefits), a flexible workplace policy, and a strong collaborative culture.

Benefits

To find out more about all the great reasons to work at Ipsos… see the website: Why Work at Ipsos | US

Commitment to Diversity

Ipsos recognizes the necessity of building an inclusive culture that values each employee’s individuality and diverse perspectives. We are committed to providing equal opportunity to all employees and to an environment that promotes inclusion.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Ipsos is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or any other protected class and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

About Us

Ipsos is one of the world’s largest research companies, ranking as a #1 full‑service research organization for four consecutive years. It offers over 75 data‑driven solutions across 90 markets.

About The Team

The Creative Excellence Service Line helps our clients attain best‑in‑class advertising that drives business results, covering creative development, assessment, and in‑market tracking.