Data Scientist II, Performance Marketing
Location: Chicago, Illinois, US
Recruiter: Starcom Mediavest Group Germany Gmbh
Date posted: Thursday, November 13, 2025
Job Description:
Company Description
Welcome to Our World
We've been leading the charge in the affiliate industry from day one-establishing performance marketing and paving the way for future innovations. We're known for maintaining one of the largest, most reliable partnership platforms with impeccable, personalized service.
Founded in Santa Barbara, California in 1998, CJ (formerly Commission Junction) stands as the most trusted name in performance marketing. We specialize in building partnerships between top brands and reputable publishers to drive revenue and business growth. CJ's industry-leading solutions make us the platform of choice for over 3,800 global brands across sectors like retail, travel, finance, technology, and home services. As part of Publicis Groupe, our savvy data capabilities, cutting-edge tech, and strategic expertise facilitate genuine connections, allowing brands to reach consumers wherever they are.
A Quick Peek at Affiliate Marketing
Think back to your last online purchase. Did an influencer tip you off about a great product and offer a discount? Or perhaps you relied on a trusted review site to make your decision? Whatever path you took, affiliate publishers likely played a role by influencing, informing, or helping you find the best deal. CJ connects brands with these publishers, creating valuable resources for shoppers like you.
Job Description
In this client-facing Data Scientist 2 role at CJ, you will support and lead advanced analysis projects for individual clients and internal collaborators within the Data Science organization. You will take ownership of complex projects end-to-end, ensuring data accuracy while delivering actionable insights that drive advertising program growth across e-commerce, travel, and finance verticals. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, you will interact directly with clients to translate business needs into impactful data science solutions. You'll tap into your expertise in PySpark, Scala, Tableau, advanced measurement (incrementality, MMM, lift testing), and modern AI/ML techniques-including large language models (LLMs)-to develop, visualize, and communicate analyses that enable data-driven decision-making in a dynamic digital advertising landscape.
Responsibilities
Do these things interest you? You will:
- Lead and support advanced client-facing data science and analytics projects, including forecasting, incrementality measurement, and program optimization.
- Take ownership of project scoping, data querying and modeling, quality checks, and delivery of actionable insights.
- Analyze large-scale e-commerce and advertising datasets, demonstrating statistical and ML methods to uncover opportunities and support growth strategies.
- Design and interpret incrementality tests, marketing mix models (MMM), and lift tests to assess causal impact and optimize marketing spend.
- Build machine learning models, such as forecasting and inferential analysis, and implement solutions about LLM when relevant.
- Create and deliver Tableau dashboards and reporting that distill complex analysis into clear, actionable insights for both internal and external stakeholders.
- Collaborate with account teams, engineers, and other data scientists to design and implement scalable data solutions.
- Present technical findings and recommendations to non-technical audiences, demonstrating strong client-facing and communication skills.
QualificationsWhat we look for: - 3-5 years of professional experience in Data Science and Analytics.
- 2+ years of hands-on experience with PySpark, Scala, and Tableau.
- Must have Ad Tech / MarTech industry experience, specifically in e-commerce, travel, and finance.
- Strong client-facing experience, including presentations and solution delivery.
- Proven ability to deliver scalable data solutions and actionable insights in digital advertising or affiliate marketing.
- Proficiency with GitLab or GitHub for version control and collaborative development.
- Experience developing alongside LLM code assistants (e.g., Copilot, Claude, Codex).
- Preferred: Experience implementing LLMs into business workflows, including training, fine-tuning, and manipulation for applied use cases.
- Experience with incrementality testing, MMM, and lift test design and analysis.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to simplify and explain complex technical results to non-technical collaborators.
Additional Information This is a hybrid role requiring 3 days a week in office.
CJ is the leader in Performance Marketing. We take pride in our innovative technology, comprehensive data solutions and our people. We equip our teams with advanced tools, training and career development opportunities all to provide modern solutions, strategies and support to deliver high quality results for our clients. We work in an enthusiastic, collaborative team setting that values outstanding performance.
We're a community of creative and passionate problem solvers who go the distance to tackle the tough questions, think creatively, and drive resourceful growth, for our clients-and ourselves. We foster and embody an inclusive and collaborative culture where diverse perspectives are sought, relationships are valued, and people feel accepted with a sense of belonging in expressing themselves authentically. We pride ourselves in having a workplace environment that values both work and play.
Why Our Workplace Stands Out Apart from offering competitive salaries, 401K matching, wellness programs, and comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, we provide:
- Flexible time off without the hassle of accrual
- A generous number of paid holidays
- Company-sponsored team-building events
- An Employee Referral Program
- Annual recognition awards
- Hybrid work arrangements for optimal work-life balance
- Parental bonding leave
- Backup care options for children and elders
- An employee discount program
- International SOS program for global support
- Business Resource Groups, where employees connect over shared interests to cultivate an engaging, inclusive environment
...and those are just a few of our great perks! Come join us and see what makes our company a great place to work.
If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact USMSTACompliance@publicis.com.
Compensation Range: $87,210 - $115,000 annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. Temporary roles may also qualify for participation in our 401(k) plan after eligibility criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 11/7/25.
All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
Apply for this job on Starcom Mediavest Group Germany Gmbh