Staff, Data Scientist
About The Position
The Staff Data Scientist will drive innovation across Walmart’s BuyBox, Search, and Personalization ecosystem by developing machine learning solutions for ranking, recommendation systems, Generative AI, and neural networks. The role leads initiatives from problem formulation and research through experimentation, deployment, and ongoing improvement, working closely with Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders. The position identifies appropriate data sources, ensures data quality, and develops scalable models to support customer and business decisions. Solutions operate at Walmart scale across millions of products, offers, sellers, and customer interactions. The BuyBox Data Science team builds intelligent ranking and decisioning systems that help customers discover and purchase relevant, competitive products and offers. Its work spans Search, Personalization, Recommendation Systems, Marketplace, and eCommerce.
Requirements
- Proven expertise in machine learning, ranking, recommendation systems, information retrieval, and personalization.
- Proficiency in Python, BigQuery, PySpark, Hive, and data visualization tools.
- Deep understanding of Learning-to-Rank, neural networks, embeddings, representation learning, and modern recommendation techniques.
- Experience applying Generative AI and LLMs to real-world machine learning problems.
- Experience building and deploying data pipelines, MLOps, and large-scale production machine learning systems.
- Strong knowledge of experimentation, A/B testing, statistical methods, and model evaluation.
- Ability to lead complex, ambiguous initiatives and influence technical direction across teams.
- Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Passion for innovation, applied research, and delivering measurable customer and business impact at scale.
- Bachelor's degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field and 4 years of experience in an analytics-related field; or a master's degree in one of these fields and 2 years of such experience; or 6 years of experience in an analytics or related field.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in data science, machine learning, or optimization models.
- Ph.D. in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Information Technology, Operations Research, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or Econometrics.
- Successful completion of one or more assessments in Python, Spark, Scala, or R.
- Experience using open-source frameworks such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow, or Torch.
- Background creating inclusive digital experiences, including knowledge of WCAG 2.2 AA standards, assistive technologies, and digital accessibility best practices.
Responsibilities
- Lead advanced machine learning solutions for BuyBox offer ranking, Variant Leader Selection, Search, and Personalization.
- Build and advance ranking and recommendation systems using Learning-to-Rank, deep learning, and modern machine learning techniques.
- Apply Generative AI, LLMs, and neural networks to improve ranking, semantic understanding, personalization, and customer experience.
- Drive research and innovation, translating new ideas into scalable production solutions.
- Lead projects from problem definition and modeling through offline evaluation, A/B testing, production deployment, and impact measurement.
- Partner with Product, Engineering, Analytics, and business stakeholders on strategy and technical roadmaps.
- Provide technical leadership, establish machine learning best practices, and mentor Data Scientists.
- Deploy and monitor models in production environments, ensuring performance and scalability.
- Identify appropriate data sources, ensure data quality, and develop scalable models supporting customer and business decisions.
Benefits
- Performance incentive awards and bonuses.
- 401(k) match.
- Stock purchase plan and stock compensation for certain positions.
- Paid maternity and parental leave.
- Paid time off, including sick leave, parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting leave.
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
- Company-paid life insurance.
- Short-term and long-term disability benefits.
- Company discounts.
- Military Leave Pay.
- Adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement.
- Live Better U paid education benefit program, subject to eligibility.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
