Senior Data Scientist, Monetary Policy

Roblox is looking for a Senior Data Scientist to help scale the virtual economy with rigorous macroeconomic models, simulation frameworks, and practical policy mechanics. In this onsite role in San Mateo, CA, you will translate complex economic signals into monitoring systems and recommendations that support sustainable growth across Roblox.

What you’ll do

• Develop, build, and continuously improve macroeconomic models to forecast and monitor Robux money supply, velocity, and inflation or deflation dynamics, with a focus on overall virtual economy health.
• Model currency exchange policies end to end, including fiat-to-Robux purchase pricing, PPP-based purchasing power adjustments, and Developer Exchange (DevEx) rates, balancing global user participation, developer incentives, and long-term platform sustainability.
• Design and run counterfactual simulations to assess proposed policy changes before execution, using approaches such as causal inference frameworks and agent-based modeling.
• Analyze sink and faucet dynamics across the platform to manage liquidity, optimize virtual economy mechanics, and reduce risk of systemic economic imbalances.
• Work with Product and Finance leadership to convert quantitative findings into actionable policy recommendations and sustainable growth strategies.
• Create economic indicators and monitoring systems to track real-time macro-health metrics, liquidity risks, and shifts in structural user behavior.
• Communicate complex strategic findings and macroeconomic trade-offs clearly to non-technical stakeholders, helping shape company-level roadmaps and policy decisions.
• Elevate technical excellence across the Data Science and Engineering team by promoting strong standards in quantitative policy analysis, econometrics, and simulation methodologies.

What you bring

• 5+ years of industry or research experience applying quantitative economic modeling, econometrics, or simulation frameworks to analyze policy, marketplace dynamics, or user behavior.
• Deep expertise in quantitative methods including time series forecasting (e.g., VAR, state-space models), causal inference (e.g., synthetic control, diff-in-diff), structural macro modeling (e.g., DSGE), and counterfactual simulation techniques (e.g., agent-based modeling).
• A proven record working with large-scale transactional or platform data to connect micro-level behavior to macro-level insights.
• Ability to lead project areas from scratch by converting ambiguous policy and business questions into rigorous quantitative frameworks and iterative research deliverables.
• Strong communication skills to explain complex economic trade-offs, risk scenarios, and simulation results to Finance and Product leadership.
• An Advanced Degree (MSc or PhD) in Economics, Econometrics, Quantitative Finance, Statistics, Operations Research, Physics, or a related quantitative field.

Tools and methods

• VAR
• State-space models
• Synthetic control
• Diff-in-diff
• DSGE
• Agent-based modeling

Team mission and where you’ll add impact

The Data Science & Engineering organization aims to increase the speed, frequency, and acumen of decision-making at scale by embedding a data-influenced approach into product building. The team covers analytical data engineering, product analytics, experimentation, causal inference, statistical modeling, and machine learning.

Within Data Science & Engineering, you’ll build the macroeconomic models, simulation frameworks, and policy mechanics that scale Roblox’s virtual economy.

Compensation and schedule

Salary: USD 263,670 - 322,820 per year.

Work location: Onsite in San Mateo, CA.

Office schedule: Onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with optional presence on Monday and Friday (unless otherwise noted).

Equal opportunity

Roblox provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants, and prohibits discrimination and harassment based on protected characteristics. Roblox also provides reasonable accommodations to candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruiting process.

For US based roles: The Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time.