Full-Time

Senior Data Scientist

Growth

Posted on 10/31/2025

Prolific

Prolific

1,001-5,000 employees

Platform matching researchers with study participants

No salary listed

London, UK

Remote

Category
Data & Analytics (1)
Required Skills
Scikit-learn
Amplitude
Python
Tensorflow
R
Product Management
Pytorch
SQL
Machine Learning
Pandas
NumPy
Looker
Requirements
  • Experience in modeling and analyzing user growth funnels, such as acquisition loops, user lifecycle marketing, or product-led growth dynamics.
  • A strong background in building measurement systems and analytical frameworks, particularly using experimental design and advanced causal inference methods.
  • Experience with or interest in working with human behavioral data, annotation/labeling systems, or projects involving human feedback for AI development and evaluation.
  • Solid software engineering fundamentals with expertise in Python/R, SQL, AI/ML frameworks, and the modern data science stack.
  • A toolkit spanning from classical statistical methods to state-of-the-art ML techniques (especially in predictive LTV, churn modeling, and marketing mix modeling), with knowledge of how to choose and apply the right tool for each unique problem.
  • Proven ability to effectively communicate with and influence stakeholders across the organization, from engineers to executives.
  • Ability to thrive in fast-paced environments and balance speed with quality.
  • Strong prioritization skills, consistently focusing on high-impact work.
Responsibilities
  • Develop and own the quantitative framework that measures and optimizes the entire participant growth funnel (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral), creating the core metrics and models that guide our growth strategy.
  • Develop sophisticated models to understand user acquisition channels, predict participant lifetime value (LTV), and identify the key drivers of engagement and churn.
  • Analyze and optimize the levers of growth, including referral programs, onboarding flows, and communication strategies to build a healthy, engaged participant base.
  • Collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and marketing partners to identify opportunities where data science can drive the strategy for participant acquisition and long-term retention.
  • Synthesize complex analyses of our growth funnels and user journeys into actionable insights, presenting compelling data-driven narratives to influence strategic decisions.
  • Design and analyze experiments to test hypotheses about user acquisition channels, onboarding experiences, and retention tactics.
  • Partner with data engineers to enhance data pipelines and logging systems, creating a robust foundation for advanced growth modeling and user behavior analysis.

Prolific operates an online research platform that connects researchers with a global pool of vetted participants. Researchers post studies and set demographic criteria to recruit eligible participants, who complete surveys and other research tasks to earn compensation. The platform uses a reputation-based system to ensure data quality from both researchers and participants. Clients include academic institutions, businesses, and individual researchers, making Prolific a centralized marketplace for human data in online research. The business model charges researchers a commission for each study conducted on the platform, covering participant recruitment, study management, and platform upkeep. Overall, Prolific aims to provide a reliable, efficient way to collect high-quality data for research and market insights.

Company Size

1,001-5,000

Company Stage

Series A

Total Funding

$33.3M

Headquarters

London, United Kingdom

Founded

2014

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • AI training demand surge drives growth as companies require reliable human data for model development and testing.
  • Custom screening automation and participant allowlists reduce researcher friction and increase platform stickiness.
  • Series A funding enables geographic expansion and product development to capture emerging markets beyond academia.

What critics are saying

  • Scale AI and MTurk's cost advantage erodes market share in price-sensitive AI training and annotation segments.
  • EU AI Act enforcement starting August 2026 imposes strict compliance costs and participant data audit requirements.
  • Fraud rings exploiting screener systems damage researcher trust and inflate participant rejection rates significantly.

What makes Prolific unique

  • Prolific's reputation-based system and 120,000 vetted participants ensure higher data quality than competitors like MTurk.
  • Advanced screener logic with AND/OR conditions enables precise participant targeting for complex research requirements.
  • Established relationships with Google, Stanford, Oxford, and European Commission provide credibility and recurring revenue.

Help us improve and share your feedback! Did you find this helpful?

Benefits

Remote Work Options

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

-10%

1 year growth

-11%

2 year growth

-13%
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AI, when it works well, can feel like magic, but all too often AI-based systems don’t work as they should: If the data used to train models is not deep, wide and reliable enough, any kind of curveball can send that AI in the wrong direction. A London startup called Prolific has built a system it believes can help head off that issue, by tapping a network of 120,000 human participants to inform and stress test AI models. And in a sign of demand for its services, Prolific has now raised some funding — £25 million ($32 million) — to expand its operations.The round was co-led by Partech and Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE).Prolific was founded in 2014 and already counts organizations like Google, Stanford University, the University of Oxford, King’s College London and the European Commission among its customers, using its network of participants to test new products, train AI systems in areas like eye tracking and determine whether their human-facing AI applications are working as their creators want them to. Up to now, it’s been revenue from users like these that have helped Prolific grow. In fact, the only money Prolific had raised prior to this round was a seed round of $1.4 million it got after going through YC. (Yes, it was profitable; no longer now that it’s taking VC money and investing in growth.)“We’ve seen incredible traction recently, and have a huge opportunity in front of us so are taking on this new funding to supercharge our efforts and expand our product, and range of participants, much faster than we could have without it,” Phelim Bradley, the founder and CEO, said over email to TechCrunch.The company was conceived initially not out of a specific need in the world of AI, but out of a general problem that researchers often face with panels for anything, something Bradley identified in his own academic work (his background, before Prolific, was in computational biology and physics).In short, it’s a challenge to find comprehensive cross sections of people to respond to questions, and nearly impossible to do so in a timely manner

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