Director Operations Research - Last Mile Demand Forecasting and Capacity Management

Target•Minneapolis, MN

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. As the Director of Operations Research you’ll develop optimization models and algorithms that change the game in our last mile delivery operations. Our team oversees the development of state-of-the-art mathematical techniques to help solve strategic initiatives for Target’s Supply Chain! For example, we’re identifying opportunities to reduce variable costs by improving the routing optimization, network configuration and scheduling. This contributes to the development, implementation and maintenance of the machine learning components as it relates to forecasting, scheduling and other initiatives that drive service, community experience and costs. This also helps create the metrics to quantify improvements to the network costs resulting from the application of these optimization models.

Requirements

PhD or MS in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics or relevant industry experience
7 plus years of experience leading, developing and mentoring teams of applied data scientists and operations research scientists
5 plus years of experience in building optimization models and algorithms at scale
Highly proficient in Python, Scala or Java programming
Deep understanding of data structures, design principals and algorithms
Ability to test and measure algorithms and models
Significant demonstrated expertise in optimization theory (deterministic/stochastic), dynamic programming, linear algebra, probability and statistics
Experience in statistical inference, machine learning and deploying machine learning models with large-scale business impact in commercial setting
Experience working with large event-driven distributed systems and multi-threaded applications
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to clearly tell data driven stories through appropriate visualizations, graphs and narratives
Constant learner mentality that stays on the leading edge of supply chain optimization, network planning, operations research, AI, ML, etc.

Responsibilities

Oversee the creation and development of the demand forecasting and capacity management by building the key components which allow us to evaluate the demand and manage the last mile capacity for speed and cost.
Design, develop, deploy and maintain machine learning algorithms for our last mile business.
Collaborate with Product and business partners to define product roadmaps that fit in our ecosystem and solve last mile challenges at scale
Build consensus and communicate with senior level leadership
Drive best practices with a focus on emerging technologies and author various project related documents, vision statements and roadmap
Develop a world-class team providing development, coaching, motivation and feedback to team members
Create an atmosphere of teamwork and collaboration communicating day-to-day decisions, priorities and relevant project information
Manage resource allocation as well as define and communicate overall vision and goals for the team
Enhance the way demand forecasting and capacity is conducted at Target
Impact our business by improving our ability to serve our Guests and by directly reducing compute cost through more efficient algorithms
Coordinate the analysis, troubleshooting and resolution of issues in our software