Staff Data Scientist- MLE – Recommendations & Personalization
Walmart•Sunnyvale, CA
•Onsite
About The Position
We are seeking a Staff engineer to architect and lead the feature engineering ecosystem for large-scale recommendation and personalization systems. This role owns feature strategy, platform design, and cross-team alignment, while remaining hands-on for high-impact systems.
Requirements
- 4+ years in data engineering, ML engineering, or recsys platform roles
- Deep expertise in distributed systems and large-scale data processing
- Proven experience architecting feature platforms for recommendation systems
- Strong understanding of ranking architectures, candidate generation, and personalization patterns
- Exceptional technical communication and leadership skills
- Bachelors degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 4 years' experience in an analytics related field.
- Masters degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 2 years' experience in an analytics related field.
- 6 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
- 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 the end-to-end feature architecture supporting candidate generation, ranking, and re-ranking
- Lead the design and evolution of feature stores (offline + online) optimized for recsys workloads
- Define standards for feature versioning, lineage, freshness SLAs, and point-in-time correctness
- Architect systems supporting real-time, near-real-time, and batch features
- Drive feature engineering best practices across multiple recommendation teams
- Partner with Product and ML leadership to align feature strategy with personalization goals
- Mentor Senior engineers on recsys feature design and scalable data systems
- Review and approve designs for complex, high-risk feature pipelines
- Enable cross-surface feature reuse (home feed, search, cart, last call, etc.)
- Lead efforts around feature observability, drift detection, and model health
- Anticipate future needs such as contextual personalization, cold-start handling, and diversity controls
- Own critical feature pipelines that directly impact revenue and engagement
- Lead incident response for feature or data failures affecting ranking quality
- Balance long-term platform investments with short-term business priorities
- Explainability
Benefits
- incentive awards for your performance
- 401(k) match
- stock purchase plan
- paid maternity and parental leave
- PTO
- multiple health plans
- competitive pay
- performance-based bonus awards
- medical, vision and dental coverage
- stock purchase
- company-paid life insurance
- PTO (including sick leave), parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting
- short-term and long-term disability
- company discounts
- Military Leave Pay
- adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement
- 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.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
