Senior, Data Scientist

Walmart•Sunnyvale, CA

1d•$117,000 - $234,000

About The Position

Join Walmart and your work could help over 275 million global customers live better every week. Yes, we are the Fortune #1 company. But you’ll quickly find we’re a company who wants you to feel comfortable bringing your whole self to work. A career at Walmart is where the world’s most complex challenges meet a kinder way of life. Our mission spreads far beyond the walls of our stores. Join us and you'll discover why we are a world leader in diversity and inclusion, sustainability, and community involvement. From day one, you’ll be empowered and equipped to do the best work of your life. careers.walmart.com About Walmart Global Tech Org Imagine working in an environment where one line of code can make life easier for hundreds of millions of people and put a smile on their face. That is what we do at Walmart Global Tech. We are a team of 15,000+ software engineers, data scientists and service professionals within Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, delivering innovations that improve how our customers shop and empower our 2.2 million associates. To others, innovation looks like an app, service, or some code, but Walmart has always been about people. People are why we innovate, and people power our innovations. Being human led is our true disruption. About Emerging Tech Team The Emerging Tech team is passionate about solving customer and associate problems with the newest technologies. The team is responsible for creating breakthrough capabilities, delivering frictionless experiences, and making these technologies easily available to thousands of Walmart developers and 2.2 million associates. The applications and services built on these capabilities are used by hundreds of millions of customers daily. We are building new platforms to bring physical and digital world together. What you will be part of At Walmart’s Emerging Tech Extended Reality team, we own some of the most challenging, fascinating, and impactful work in the fields of Computer vision, Machine learning and Deep Learning for next generation Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality experiences. We are looking for Applied Scientists/researchers/Computer vision engineers with algorithms, programming and/or systems background.

Requirements

Master's degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Computer Vision, Machine Learning, or equivalent practical experience.
3+ years of experience with machine learning algorithms and tools.
Strong foundation in statistical analysis, experimental design (A/B testing), and causal inference.
Hands-on experience with Generative AI evaluation (e.g., using LLMs/VLMs for evaluation, computing FID/IS/CLIP scores, or designing perceptual studies).
Proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow) for analyzing model outputs and building evaluation pipelines.
Experience processing unstructured data (image, video, 3D meshes) for analytical purposes.

Nice To Haves

PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
Experience designing Reward Models for RLHF pipelines.
Deep understanding of 3D geometry processing (meshes, point clouds) and how to mathematically quantify "3D quality" (e.g., mesh manifoldness, texture resolution).
Experience with Crowdsourcing platforms and designing instructions for subjective human evaluation.
Publication record or practical experience in Computational Photography, Computer Vision Quality Assessment, or Psychophysics.
Experience with Big Data tools (Spark, SQL, BigQuery) for analyzing large-scale experiment results.
Data science, machine learning, optimization models
Master’s degree in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Information Technology, Operations Research, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Econometrics,
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

Design Multi-Modal Evaluation Frameworks: Develop and validate novel evaluation metrics for non-deterministic outputs, specifically video, image, for 3D assets, and audio.
Build "AI-as-a-Judge" Systems: Fine-tune Vision-Language Models (VLMs) and Reward Models to serve as automated evaluators, creating scalable proxies for human judgment.
Lead Experimentation & Causal Inference: Design and analyze A/B tests to measure the downstream business impact of GenAI content; apply causal inference techniques to understand how specific asset attributes drive user engagement.
Orchestrate Human-in-the-Loop (RLHF) Strategy: Define protocols for human evaluation, managing the relationship with annotation partners to create high-quality "Golden Sets" for benchmarking and Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).
Strategic Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate with ML Engineers and Product Managers to establish "Go/No-Go" model launch criteria based on latency, safety, and perceptual quality standards.
Research & Innovation: Stay current with state-of-the-art research in perceptual quality (e.g., FID, CLIP scores, VQA) and implement advanced techniques to detect hallucinations, artifacts, or bias in generated content.

Benefits

Beyond our great compensation package, you can receive incentive awards for your performance.
Other great perks include 401(k) match, stock purchase plan, paid maternity and parental leave, PTO, multiple health plans, and much more.
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.