Principal, Insights & Innovation

Job Description

Job Description

Samba is a media intelligence company. We know what the world is watching, reading, and thinking about — in real time, at scale, across every screen. Our data exists with the consent of over a billion people, organized into the most complete picture of consumer attention ever built. The biggest brands in the world use that picture to make smarter decisions. We think it’s the most interesting data asset on the planet, because it’s the most culturally relevant. 

The Principal, Insights & Innovation pairs deep data and statistical expertise with strong business acumen and industry knowledge to develop new, cutting-edge solutions and thought leadership in media intelligence, spanning behavioral and contextual targeting, media planning and insights, measurement, activation and optimization. Built on Samba's data and informed by customer discovery, industry trends, and competitive analysis, these solutions take the form of personalized, interactive applications that move counter to monolithic, one-size-fits-all interfaces, while incorporating AI and agentic workflows. Operating within the Insights & Innovation team, the role serves both internal teams (Sales, Product, Engineering, and Marketing) and external customers, always building toward where the market is headed rather than where it stands today.

What You'll Do

• Design and build new media intelligence solutions using internal Samba data assets and external data sourced through licensing and partnerships. Solutions include behavioral and contextual targeting, media planning and insights, measurement, and optimization. 
• Partner with Samba’s sales team to conduct customer discovery, ideation, and solutions development, translating business needs into well-scoped analytic and product concepts that are designed through select accounts, but built for all customers. 
• Monitor industry trends and the competitive landscape to identify where the market is heading and where Samba can lead.
• Select and apply the appropriate statistical methods for each problem, including descriptive, inferential, and predictive techniques, with rigor in model selection, tuning, and performance. 
• Develop personalized, interactive client deliverables (for example, browser-based dashboards using JavaScript and React) that move beyond monolithic, one-size-fits-all platforms.
• Incorporate AI and agentic workflows into internal and external solutions, including approaches such as data embeddings, vector databases, and multimodal models.
• Supporting thought leadership and conducting partnership-based research that strengthens Samba's industry position.
• Partner with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Marketing, pitching solutions for adoption into the product roadmap when demand warrants.
• Prototype quickly, validate with customers, and prepare proven solutions to be templated and scaled by the broader team.
• Applying Samba methodology to billions of raw data signals, helping customers make data driven media decisions

What You Bring

• Education: Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field (analytics, statistics, data science, computer science, or mathematics) or equivalent practical experience; an advanced degree is a plus.
• Work Experience: 4 to 6 years in data science, analytics, computer science or applied research, ideally including experience building and shipping data-driven applications and presenting results to stakeholders or customers.
• Industry Knowledge: Media, advertising, or measurement experience (e.g. cross-channel but with a focus on CTV, addressable audiences, contextual targeting, attribution, and causal inference).

What We're Looking For

• Behaviors and values:   Curiosity paired with a strong bias to build; ownership and independence within a self-directed function; customer obsession; a forward-looking mindset that prioritizes where the industry is going over where it is today; cross-functional collaboration; and comfort operating amid ambiguity and rapid iteration.
• Personality and communication (soft skills): An exceptional storyteller and presenter who distills complex statistical work into simple, compelling narratives for non-technical audiences; consultative and skilled at customer discovery; credible and poised with customers and sellers; and able to influence without authority while evangelizing new ideas internally.
• Hard skills (required): Python; SQL; descriptive, inferential, and predictive statistics with sound model selection, tuning, and best practices; BI and data-visualization tools (Tableau, Looker, Power BI, or similar); and building interactive applications with JavaScript and React.
• Hard skills (preferred): Developing agents and agentic workflows; data embeddings and vector databases; applications built on multimodal models.

Samba expects to offer a base salary between $120,000 - $150,000 per year for roles to be performed in New York or California; actual base salary offered will depend on various factors, including but not limited to, location, experience, and performance. Base salary is just one component of Samba’s total compensation package for employees. Other rewards may include bonuses, short-term incentives, and long-term incentives. In addition, Samba provides health insurance, wellness offerings, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO), and other employee benefits.

Samba is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.  We strive to empower connection with one another, reflect the communities we serve, and tackle meaningful projects that make a real impact.

Samba may collect personal information directly from you, as a job applicant, Samba may also receive personal information from third parties, for example, in connection with a background, employment or reference check, in accordance with the applicable law. For further details, please see Samba's Applicant Privacy Policy . For residents of the EU , Samba Inc. is the data controller.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.