(USA) Staff, Data Scientist
About The Position
We are looking for a Staff Data Scientist to drive innovation across Walmart’s BuyBox, Search & Personalization ecosystem. You will develop next-generation machine learning solutions spanning ranking, recommendation systems, Generative AI, and neural networks. You will lead high-impact initiatives from problem formulation and research through experimentation, deployment, and continuous improvement, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders. You will identify appropriate data sources, ensure data quality, and develop scalable models that support customer and business decisions. Your solutions will operate at Walmart scale, influencing millions of products, offers, sellers, and customer interactions while delivering measurable customer and business impact. The BuyBox Data Science team is part of Walmart’s Search & Personalization organization and builds intelligent ranking and decisioning systems that help customers discover and purchase the most relevant and competitive products and offers. Our work sits at the intersection of Search, Personalization, Recommendation Systems, Marketplace, and eCommerce. The team develops machine learning systems that determine the best offer for a product and select the most relevant product variant from a set of eligible variants. Operating at Walmart scale, these systems influence shopping decisions across millions of products, offers, sellers, and customer interactions, creating meaningful impact for our customers, sellers, and business.
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 ML 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.
- 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)
- Creating inclusive digital experiences, demonstrating knowledge in implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards, assistive technologies, and integrating digital accessibility seamlessly.
- Knowledge of accessibility best practices and joining us as we continue to create accessible products and services following Walmart’s accessibility standards and guidelines for supporting an inclusive culture.
Responsibilities
- Lead advanced ML 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 ML techniques.
- Apply GenAI, 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 ML best practices, and mentor Data Scientists.
- Deploy and monitor models in production environments, ensuring performance and scalability.
Benefits
- Incentive awards for performance
- 401(k) match
- Stock purchase plan
- Paid maternity and parental leave
- PTO
- Multiple health plans
- Competitive pay
- Performance bonuses
- Stock
- Medical coverage
- Vision coverage
- Dental coverage
- Company-paid life insurance
- Parental leave
- Family care leave
- Bereavement leave
- Jury duty leave
- Voting leave
- Short-term disability
- Long-term disability
- Company discounts
- Military Leave Pay
- Adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement
- PTO (including sick leave)
- PPTO that can be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes
- Walmart-paid education benefit program (Live better U) for full-time and part-time associates
- 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
