Distinguished, Data Scientist

Walmart; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 169,000 - 338,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits including medical, vision, and dental

401(k) and stock purchase plan

Paid time off and various leave options

Walmart-paid education program

Job summary

A leading retail corporation is seeking a Distinguished Data Scientist in Sunnyvale, CA to lead and innovate eCommerce Search AI solutions. The role involves architecting advanced search infrastructures, mentoring a technical team, and leveraging technologies like neural search and AI for enhanced customer interactions. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience in ML and search systems, paired with a Bachelor's degree or higher in relevant fields. Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits are offered, including medical coverage and generous PTO.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of relevant experience in search, ML/AI engineering, or data science.
• Proven experience building and operating large-scale search or AI systems.
• Strong programming proficiency and experience with ML frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategic and technical direction for search experiences.
• Lead the design of scalable search infrastructure.
• Mentor senior engineers and data scientists.

Skills

Deep expertise in search

Strong understanding of neural search architectures

Excellent cross-team collaboration and communication skills

Proven ability to influence technical direction

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Master’s or PhD in a quantitative discipline

Tools

Python

SQL

Job description

Overview

Position Summary — As a Distinguished Data Scientist focused on eCommerce Search AI, you will set the strategic and technical direction for next-generation search experiences that leverage neural search, Generative AI, and agentic AI systems to deliver highly relevant and personalized customer interactions at scale. You will architect and lead the design of scalable, end-to-end Search infrastructure, drive adoption of advanced ML and AI techniques including deep retrieval models and LLM-powered intent understanding, and ensure these systems meet stringent standards for performance, latency, reliability, and operational excellence in production. You will partner closely with Search, Ads, Personalization, and Catalog leaders to ensure cohesive relevance, consistent ranking signals, and shared platform capabilities across all discovery surfaces. As a senior technical leader, you will influence cross-functional strategy across Search, Ads, Personalization, and Catalog domains, aligning technical investments with customer experience, monetization, and business outcomes. You will mentor senior engineers and data scientists, champion best practices in experimentation, evaluation, and AI governance, and contribute to advancing the state of the art in search relevance and AI-driven decisioning. You will foster a culture of innovation and accountability while staying ahead of emerging trends in neural search, GenAI, and agentic systems, ensuring solutions scale responsibly across the broader eCommerce ecosystem. As a senior technical leader, you will mentor and guide senior engineers and data scientists, promote engineering and AI best practices, and contribute to extending the state of the art in search relevance and AI-driven decisioning. You will champion rigorous evaluation, experimentation, and governance for both deterministic models and non-deterministic AI components, fostering a culture of innovation and responsibility while staying ahead of emerging trends in search and AI research.

What You’ll Do

As a Distinguished Data Scientist focused on eCommerce Search AI, you will set the strategic and technical direction for next-generation search experiences that leverage neural search, Generative AI, and agentic AI systems to deliver highly relevant and personalized customer interactions at scale. You will architect and lead the design of scalable, end-to-end Search infrastructure, drive adoption of advanced ML and AI techniques including deep retrieval models and LLM-powered intent understanding, and ensure these systems meet stringent standards for performance, latency, reliability, and operational excellence in production. You will partner closely with Search, Ads, Personalization, and Catalog leaders to ensure cohesive relevance, consistent ranking signals, and shared platform capabilities across all discovery surfaces. You will influence cross-functional strategy across Search, Ads, Personalization, and Catalog domains, aligning technical investments with customer experience, monetization, and business outcomes. You will mentor senior engineers and data scientists, champion best practices in experimentation, evaluation, and AI governance, and contribute to advancing the state of the art in search relevance and AI-driven decisioning. You will foster a culture of innovation and accountability while staying ahead of emerging trends in neural search, GenAI, and agentic systems, ensuring solutions scale responsibly across the broader eCommerce ecosystem. You will mentor and guide senior engineers and data scientists, promote engineering and AI best practices, and contribute to extending the state of the art in search relevance and AI-driven decisioning. You will champion rigorous evaluation, experimentation, and governance for both deterministic models and non-deterministic AI components, fostering a culture of innovation and responsibility while staying ahead of emerging trends in search and AI research.

What You’ll Bring

• Deep expertise in search, information retrieval, and ranking systems at scale
• Strong understanding of neural search architectures, ML/AI, and generative models
• Experience applying LLMs and agentic AI techniques to production systems
• Demonstrated ability to translate technical solutions into business impact
• Excellent cross-team collaboration and communication skills
• Proven ability to influence technical direction and mentor senior technical contributors

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Data Science, or related field
• 12+ years of relevant experience in search, ML/AI engineering, or data science
• Proven experience building and operating large-scale search or AI systems
• Strong programming proficiency (e.g., Python, SQL) and experience with ML frameworks

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in a quantitative discipline
• Experience with neural retrieval models, embedding-based search, and learning-to-rank
• Hands-on experience with Generative AI, LLMs, RAG, or agentic AI frameworks
• Background in eCommerce, digital platforms, or consumer-facing search systems
• Familiarity with cloud-native infrastructure and real-time distributed systems

Benefits and Additional Information

At Walmart, we offer competitive pay as well as performance-based bonus awards and other great benefits for a happier mind, body, and wallet. 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. The amount you receive depends on your job classification and length of employment. It will meet or exceed the requirements of paid sick leave laws, where applicable. For information about PTO, see https://one.walmart.com/notices. 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.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to a specific plan or program terms.

For information about benefits and eligibility, see One.Walmart (https://one.walmart.com/).

The annual salary range for this position is $169,000.00 - $338,000.00 Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses. Additional compensation for certain positions may also include :

• Stock

Minimum Qualifications...

Outlined below are the required minimum qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no minimum qualifications.

Option 1: Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 6 years' experience in an analytics related field. Option 2: Master’s degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 4 years' experience in an analytics related field. Option 3: 8 years' experience in an analytics or related field.

Preferred Qualifications...

Outlined below are the optional preferred qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no preferred qualifications.

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.

Primary Location...

809 11th Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-4731, United States of America

Walmart and its subsidiaries are committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace and has a no tolerance policy regarding the use of illegal drugs and alcohol on the job. This policy applies to all employees and aims to create a safe and productive work environment.

Walmart, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer- By Choice. We believe we are best equipped to help our associates, customers, and the communities we serve live better when we really know them. That means understanding, respecting, and valuing diversity- unique styles, experiences, identities, abilities, ideas and opinions- while being inclusive of all people.