Director, Data Science

Chewy•Bellevue, WA

1d•$198,500 - $300,000

About The Position

At Chewy, we believe great work starts with great people. Our mission is to be the most trusted and convenient destination for pet parents and partners everywhere. Advertising is a core growth engine for Chewy—and science is how we make it smarter for shoppers, brands, and the business. We are hiring a Director, Data Science to own and lead all Ads Data Science for Chewy—fully accountable for the science strategy and production implementation behind Chewy’s onsite and offsite Chewy Ads. You will lead a team of data scientists building the intelligence layer across the full advertising marketplace. This is a rare seat: you will define how modern AI—LLMs, generative AI, foundation models, and multimodal systems—shows up in a real advertising marketplace, not as demos, but as durable production systems that move customer and advertiser outcomes at scale. As a core member of Ads leadership, you’ll partner closely with Product, Engineering, and business partners, and represent Ads science to Chewy senior leadership.

Requirements

Advanced degree (M.S., PhD, or equivalent experience) in a quantitative field (e.g., CS, ML, Statistics, OR, Applied Math, Data Science), or 10+ years building and leading large-scale ML/optimization systems.
Proven experience leading data scientists / applied scientists and owning end-to-end science delivery in production—ideally in ads, search, recommendations, personalization, or marketplace systems.
Deep hands-on fluency with modern ML for ranking and prediction at scale: deep learning, embeddings, retrieval, multi-objective optimization, and online experimentation.
Experience with advertising optimization systems spanning supply and demand—auctions, real-time bidding, pacing, budget allocation, keyword/bid recommendations, auto-campaign optimization, and ROAS optimization under real-time, constrained-spend settings.
Demonstrated experience productizing LLMs / generative AI in real systems (e.g., RAG, agentic workflows, evaluation harnesses, quality/safety controls)—ideally in ads, search, or ecommerce.
Strong foundation in mathematics, statistics, and scientific method; a high bar for model quality, causal measurement, and production reliability.
Experience operating distributed training/serving pipelines and partnering with Engineering on scalable deployment.
Exceptional communication: able to influence senior executives and cross-functional partners with clarity and technical credibility.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience in digital advertising / retail media / sponsored products.
Ecommerce or retail marketplace experience.
Experience with cloud ML platforms (e.g., AWS SageMaker or equivalent) and modern GenAI tooling.
Track record of hiring and developing senior scientific talent.

Responsibilities

Full ownership of Chewy Ads Data Science across onsite and offsite channels—strategy, roadmap, model portfolio, delivery, and scientific quality bar.
Lead, grow, and mentor a high-performing team of data scientists; set standards for modeling, experimentation, MLOps, and research-to-production excellence.
Advance state-of-the-art applied science across the three pillars above: embeddings and representation learning, CTR/CVR prediction, multi-objective ranking, auction and bidding dynamics, budget optimization, ROAS optimization, causal measurement, and marketplace balance.
Define and execute Chewy Ads’ AI / GenAI strategy, including LLM-powered workstreams such as: Generative creative and offer assistance, Intelligent keyword and query recommendation, Bid recommendation and automated bidding guidance, Auto-campaign setup and optimization copilots for advertisers, Retrieval-augmented systems for relevance, discovery, and ranking quality.
Partner with Product and Engineering to ship production systems that improve shopper relevance, advertiser ROI/ROAS, and Ads business performance.
Establish rigorous experimentation and decision frameworks so science investments map clearly to customer and revenue impact.
Represent Ads science to senior leadership—translating complex work into clear strategy, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
Raise Chewy’s external scientific presence through publications, talks, and recruiting at leading ML/AI/advertising venues (encouraged, not required).