Samantha Zhang

Senior Data Scientist

Advertising Research Foundation

Samantha Zhang is a Senior Data Scientist at the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), a nonprofit dedicated to advancing the fields of marketing and advertising research. Her work spans topics including attention measurement, digital privacy, and the practical applications of artificial intelligence across the industry. She also contributes to data production and survey design for DASH, ARF’s MRC-accredited study of the consumer television and media landscape.

Samantha is passionate about bridging quantitative and qualitative methodologies, applying rigorous technical approaches to drive real-world impact. Previously, she was a Data Scientist on the Personalization team at Spotify and on the News Product team at The New York Times, where she partnered with engineering and design teams to better understand and enhance user experiences for high-visibility digital products such as Spotify Wrapped.

She attended the University of Southern California as a Trustee Scholar, where she earned undergraduate degrees in Applied Mathematics and International Relations. She is based in Brooklyn.