Machine Learning Specialist (Data Scientist)

A leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy.

If you are an enthusiastic individual who likes to work on a range of cutting edge problems, in a unique field that brings together human cognition, consumer behavior, statistical modeling, optimization algorithms, and software development, Nielsen Innovation is looking for a Machine Learning Specialist to join our Data Science team in Waltham MA.

POSITION DESCRIPTION You will be responsible for the research, design and development of advanced mathematical, machine learning and statistical algorithms expanding our current analytical tools and capabilities. Specific responsibilities include: * Recommending or developing new learning algorithms suitable for choice modeling and marketing data * Designing stochastic simulations for testing and validation of regression models, learning or optimization algorithms * Improving the computational efficiency and scalability of various statistical models * Development, implementation and maintenance of standard programming practices across analytics codebase. * Keeping up with the state-of-the art in relevant areas – Machine Learning, Operations Research, Statistics, and Artificial Intelligence

**REQUIREMENTS** * Masters or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Mathematics, Operations Research, or other relevant scientific field. * High academic achievement (GPA > 3.6/4.0) from a leading school. * Solid understanding of mathematical modeling, probability and statistics, and of design and simulation of stochastic systems. * Deep understanding of the mathematics behind the important components of mathematical learning algorithms like Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE), Hierarchical Bayes (HB) Estimation, Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) and Markov Chain Monte-Carlo (MCMC). * Firm knowledge of classical machine learning techniques such as random forests, SVMs, centroid-based and well as hierarchical clustering algorithms. * 2+ years of experience with scripting languages like R and Python. * 2+ years of object oriented programming experience (Java and C# are preferred). * Excellent communication skills with the ability to present complex ideas in a clear and concise manner to a variety of audiences * In addition to the above requirements, the following would be desirable Academic or industry experience with Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Experience with SPSS * Familiarity with Discrete/Combinatorial Optimization techniques * Familiarity with cutting edge techniques in text mining, sentiment analysis and feature extraction. * Experience with Relational Databases and SQL programming. * Experience with Web Services (Familiarity with XML, WSDL and SOAP)