Data Scientist - Machine Learning

About Babbel

Babbel is driven by a mission: Everyone. Learning. Languages. This means building products that help people connect and communicate across cultures. Babbel, Babbel Travel and Babbel for Business focus on using a new language in the real world, in real situations, with real people. And it works: Studies with Yale University, City University of New York and Michigan State University prove that it gets users talking with confidence. 

The key is a blend of humanity and technology. A team of linguistic experts hand-craft each of our courses, to provide content that is constantly adapted to our learners’ needs. Interactive content with videos and podcasts makes understanding a new language easy, because Babbel is for everyone. That’s why our team is as diverse as our content. From headquarters in Berlin and New York, 750 people from more than 60 nationalities represent the backgrounds, characteristics and perspectives that make all humans unique. Making a true connection with millions of paid subscribers across the globe is what makes Babbel the most profitable language learning app worldwide.

Babbel in Numbers: 

• The #1 top-grossing language learning app globally
• Millions of active paying subscribers
• More than 60,000 lessons 14 languages hand-crafted by 150+ linguists
• More than 10,000 hours of learning content
• Over 70 learning podcast episodes and over 50 hours of video learning content 

Data Scientist - Machine Learning 

You will join Babbel’s Data Solutions team, a machine learning focused group of data scientists, ML-, data- and backend engineers. Together, you research, prototype, implement and deploy smart and personalised product features driven by data, algorithms and, of course, machine learning. Your models and algorithms make Babbel a smarter product that adapts to the needs and interests of the individual user and guides him through the learning experience. The team works across all customer touch-points, from the earliest marketing funnel, to the core Babbel apps on web and mobile, down to CRM.

As Data Scientist – Machine Learning, your focus is on algorithms and machine learning models – starting with data exploration and preparation, continuing with feature engineering, model selection and parameter tuning, down to impact evaluation and monitoring of live models. Babbel is a learning company inside out, and you are expected to stay on top of relevant developments in the field and acquire algorithms and techniques from research literature. 

We are a team of broad specialists dedicated to contribute to the Babbel experience rather than just producing research. Hence you should feel comfortable implementing production grade components with support from our dedicated data and backend engineers. We are looking for someone with a strong theoretical and technical background, loads of curiosity and a drive to get things done.

Requirements

• Master's degree in computer science, math, physics, engineering or related math heavy field and 2+ years industry experience applying machine learning, or PhD in such a field with 3+ years of applied machine learning experience.
• Strong mathematical foundation. Skills and curiosity to learn and assess new algorithms and methods based on research literature and graduate level textbooks.
• Strong hands-on programming and data mangling experience with modern Python (data classes, type annotations, generators, etc). Familiarity with the Python data, machine learning and scientific computing stack. 
• Significant experience in applied data science and ML across all lifecycle stages from model prototyping to deployment, paired with a pragmatic hands-on problem solving attitude. We care about your understanding of general principles more than your familiarity with specific APIs. 

Nice-to-have

• Familiarity with modern SQL and data technologies, such as Snowflake.
• Familiarity with software engineering practices and technologies, such as containers, testing, git, Airflow. Some exposure to AWS, e.g. AWS Batch, lambdas, Kinesis.
• History of contributing production grade components to complex software systems.
• Experience with data analysis and optimisation in a Bayesian framework. Solid understanding of statistics. Experience with gradient boosting models and / or neural networks.

What we offer

• A vibrant, international team of experts from over 16 different nationalities
• A high quality, industry leading, useful product that you enjoy advertising
• Competitive salary plus attractive benefits including a yearly self development budget, in-house trainings, regular lectures & talks, company bike or BVG ticket, company and team events
• Remote working and friendly working hours
• A beautiful office space in the heart of Berlin

Sounds good? We are already looking forward to hearing from you! Check out our jobs page, our blog, and our techblog!