Principal, Data Analyst

Sam's West • Bentonville, AR

7d • Onsite

About The Position

As a Principal Sensory Scientist, you will serve as a senior scientific expert helping shape how Sam’s Club evaluates and improves products across merchandise categories. You’ll lead complex sensory and consumer research, develop advanced methodologies, and translate Member feedback into clear product direction. Working closely with Product Development, Merchandising, Quality, Consumer Insights, and suppliers, you’ll apply deep scientific expertise to solve challenging product questions and influence decisions from early development through validation. This is a highly influential individual-contributor role for a scientist who can independently design rigorous research, perform advanced analysis, and turn complex findings into actionable business recommendations. The Member’s Mark Consumer & Sensory Insights team integrates member feedback into product development for Sam’s Club. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative research methods, the team conducts in-home tests, central location evaluations, and immersive studies to co-create and optimize products. By translating member experiences into actionable insights, the team supports Product Development, Merchandising, and supplier partners. Their focus is to deeply understand members, enhance product quality, reduce risk, and drive performance. Expertise in data analysis, visualization, exploratory analysis, data strategy, quality, and sensory analysis underpins their approach to delivering impactful business solutions.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Arts, Finance or related field and 4 years' experience in data analysis, data science, statistics, or related field.
• Master's degree in Business, Engineering, Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 2 years' experience in data analysis, data science, statistics, or related field.
• 6 years' experience in data analysis, data science, statistics, or related field.

Nice To Haves

• Extensive expertise in sensory science, consumer research, and product evaluation.
• Advanced knowledge of affective, discrimination, descriptive, and consumer acceptance methodologies.
• Strong expertise in experimental design and statistical analysis.
• Ability to independently analyze complex datasets and translate findings into product recommendations.
• Experience selecting and adapting methodologies to solve non-routine research questions.
• 8+ years of experience in sensory science, consumer science, product research, or related discipline.
• Advanced degree in Food Science, Sensory Science, Consumer Science, Psychology, Statistics, or a related field.
• Significant hands-on experience with experimental design and statistical analysis.
• Experience in retail, CPG, food manufacturing, consumer products, or product innovation.
• Data science, data analysis, statistics, or related field, Master’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field
• Related industry experience (for example, retail, merchandising, healthcare, eCommerce)
• Successful completion of assessments in data analysis and Business Intelligence tools and scripting languages (for example, SQL, Python, Spark, Scala, R, Power BI, or Tableau)

Responsibilities

• Design and execute complex sensory research across multiple product categories.
• Select and apply the right methodologies based on the product, business question, and development stage.
• Apply statistical techniques to independently analyze and interpret research results.
• Develop new approaches and methodologies that advance Sam’s Club sensory capabilities.
• Partner with Product Development to diagnose product performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Translate sensory data into specific, actionable product direction.
• Connect multiple sources of data to explain what Members experience, why it matters, and what should change.
• Guide teams on when products are ready to advance, require optimization, or need additional validation.

Benefits

• Health benefits include medical, vision and dental coverage
• Financial benefits include 401(k), stock purchase and company-paid life insurance
• Paid time off benefits include PTO, parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting.
• PTO and/or PPTO that can be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes.
• short-term and long-term disability, company discounts, Military Leave Pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal