(USA) Principal, Data Scientist

Walmart • San Francisco, CA

3d • Onsite

About The Position

As a Principal Data Scientist, you will lead the design and delivery of machine learning solutions that power personalization and ad targeting across VIZIO. You'll own complex, ambiguous problems end to end—translating product and customer needs into scalable ML models and iterating them through rigorous evaluation and experimentation. You will work closely with Product and Engineering partners to influence direction, navigate technical tradeoffs, and advance long‑term ML strategy. You will set the technical standard for modeling and experimentation, contribute hands‑on advanced deep learning models at scale, and mentor other data scientists with a focus on quality and impact. We are a machine learning team focused on personalization across VIZIO’s platform. Leveraging expertise in deep learning and statistical data analysis, the group focuses on creating scalable and powerful deep learning models using frameworks like PyTorch and MLflow. Collaborating closely with cross-functional partners, the team continuously enhances model performance and deployment to deliver impactful user experiences. This environment encourages innovation, rigorous testing, and application of best practices to solve complex challenges in recommender systems and ad targeting, contributing to the platform’s growth and customer engagement.

Requirements

• Extensive experience designing, training, and deploying machine learning models for real-world systems, particularly in personalization, recommendation, ranking, or targeting.
• Deep technical foundations in machine learning and statistics, including experience with representation learning, deep learning architectures, optimization, and model evaluation.
• Production Python experience, comfortable with distributed data tools such as PySpark and expertise in modern ML frameworks (e.g. PyTorch, JAX, etc.).
• You are opinionated about model design, training workflows, and evaluation/experimentation strategies.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, technically complex problem spaces, taking ownership from initial formulation through deployment and iteration.
• Enjoy raising the technical bar through mentorship, design reviews, and hands-on collaboration with other data scientists.
• Bachelors degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 5 years' experience in an analytics related field.
• Masters degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 3 years' experience in an analytics related field.
• 7 years' experience in an analytics or related field

Nice To Haves

• Data science, machine learning, optimization models
• PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Information Technology, Operations Research, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Econometrics
• Publications or active peer reviewer in related journals or conference
• Successful completion of one or more assessments in Python, Spark, Scala, or R
• Using open source frameworks (for example, scikit learn, tensorflow, torch)
• We value candidates with a background in creating inclusive digital experiences, demonstrating knowledge in implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards, assistive technologies, and integrating digital accessibility seamlessly.
• The ideal candidate would have knowledge of accessibility best practices and join us as we continue to create accessible products and services following Walmart’s accessibility standards and guidelines for supporting an inclusive culture.

Responsibilities

• Tackle ambiguous, high‑impact problems by translating product and business questions into well‑scoped ML and data science work.
• Build, evaluate, and iterate on advanced deep learning models for personalization and recommendation.
• Design and apply rigorous offline metrics and online experimentation frameworks to measure model and system performance.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to align on scope, tradeoffs, and execution across multiple teams.
• Help define best practices for modeling, experimentation, and ML development, with a focus on robustness and maintainability.
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to other data scientists through reviews, collaboration, and hands‑on problem solving.

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 (including sick leave), parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting.
• Other benefits include short-term and long-term disability, company discounts, Military Leave Pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, and more.
• You will also receive PTO and/or PPTO that can be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes.
• Live Better U is a Walmart-paid education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates in Walmart and Sam's Club facilities. Programs range from high school completion to bachelor's degrees, including English Language Learning and short-form certificates. Tuition, books, and fees are completely paid for by Walmart.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees