Benjamin Skrainka

Applying experimentation, causal inference, and AI-powered economics to solve problems that matter.

Seattle, Washington, United States

About

I am an experienced applied scientist who builds teams and data solutions that produce excellent decisions. I focus on establishing a strong scientific culture with good habits -- CRISP-DM workflow, model correctness, and engineering process -- to ensure that the science team solves the right business questions with the appropriate investment and sophistication. I invest in the next generation, providing mentorship, guidance, and thought-leadership organization- and industry-wide. Areas of expertise include: * AI native science * Experimentation (A/B Testing) * Causal Inference * Forecasting (especially for capacity planning) * Predictive modeling

Experience

  • Amazon (Full-time · 2 yrs)
    • Principal Economist
      Feb 2025 - Present · 1 yr 6 mos

      Building self-driving science at scale

    • Lead Economist
      Aug 2024 - Feb 2025 · 7 mos

      Doing magical things with Economics, deep learning, and causal inference to answer questions about marketing.

  • Founder at Alchemy Data Science, LLC
    Feb 2018 - Jul 2024 · 6 yrs 6 mos

    I help clients build platforms to make great decisions using experimentation, causal inference, Economics, and Generative AI. Recent projects include driving massive improvements in experimentation culture, infrastructure and methodology; measuring the efficacy of advertising/marketing; capacity planning; forecasting; and several deep learning applications.

  • Data Science Manager, Experimentation at eBay
    Oct 2021 - Feb 2024 · 2 yrs 5 mos

    Built next level experimentation at scale to improve decision-making across eBay. Catalyzed and lead a cross-silo team that improved eBay’s scientific culture and maturity greater than 25%. Prototyped an LLM system to standup an experiment from a business question, enabling stakeholders to run experiments without any statistics knowledge. Provided scientific thought-leadership to increase ROI for a gamut of experiment types, from offsite advertising to onsite product features. Mentored and coached numerous junior scientists which increased their impact through improved soft and technical skills.

  • Principal Data Scientist, Marketplace at Convoy Inc
    Nov 2016 - Feb 2018 · 1 yr 4 mos

    Helped build Convoy's digital freight marketplace, including pricing, forecasting, Bayesian multilevel modeling, experimental design, and retention. Mentored data science team, transformed several analysts into high impact data scientists in less than a year, and set Convoy's research agenda and best practices. Recruited talent, built Convoy's tech brand through public speaking on podcast and creating Seattle Data Science Journal Club, which had 4x the engagement of a typical meetup, so scientists can discuss the latest research with peers.

  • Principal Data Scientist Enterprise at Galvanize Inc
    May 2015 - Oct 2016 · 1 yr 6 mos

    Built and lead data science program on Seattle campus. Responsibilities include supervising team of data scientists, building educational program, mentoring students & data scientists, developing relationships with hiring and technology partners, and promoting Galvanize and data science via conferences, blogging, and webinars. Spearheaded projects to automate marking and create professional, standards-driven curriculum throughout Galvanize.