Distinguished, Data Scientist - Agent-Led Engagement in Conversational Commerce - Walmart

OpenTalent; Fremont (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Walmart is seeking a Distinguished Data Scientist for Agent-Led Engagement in Fremont, CA. You will lead technical vision and model development for proactive, personalized conversations across the conversational AI stack.

This IC role emphasizes hands-on development, collaboration with product and engineering, and delivering high-impact engagement strategies for millions of customers daily.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in data science, applied AI, or machine learning with focus on personalization or conversational AI.
• Demonstrated technical leadership in LLM-driven experiences or agentic applications.
• Strong expertise in hybrid modeling (LLM + structured ML) and dialogue state modeling.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement models for agent-led engagement, including topic suggestion and conversation continuation.
• Develop LLM-based and hybrid systems to detect high-value moments and select actions.
• Build real-time ranking and decision systems using history, signals, and conversational state.
• Define memory architectures for persistent customer profiles and evolving preferences.
• Collaborate with platform teams to integrate memory and decision modules into the stack.
• Partner with product, UX, and engineering to surface proactive suggestions in conversations.
• Contribute to experimentation and evaluation frameworks for engagement and conversion.
• Review system-level decisions for safety and brand alignment.
• Advise the Director of Agent-Led Engagement and senior leaders on technical strategy.

Skills

Experience

Leadership

Hybrid modeling

LLM

Personalization

Job description

Position Summary... What you'll do... About the Role Walmart's Next Gen Commerce team is building intelligent, proactive shopping agents that go beyond answering customer questions-they drive conversations that are timely, personalized, and value-generating. As a Distinguished Data Scientist for Agent-Led Engagement , you will serve as the key IC partner to the Director of Data Science for this space. You will lead the technical vision, model development, and execution strategy behind proactive engagement in Walmart's conversational AI experiences. Your focus will be to design and implement systems that empower agents to initiate, sustain, and deepen customer conversations. You'll build models that combine large language models (LLMs), structured behavior signals, and long-term customer memory to make real-time decisions about when, how, and why to engage. This work sits at the intersection of language understanding, user modeling, decision science, and personalization. This is a hands‑on, high-impact IC role requiring deep technical expertise and cross‑functional influence. You will work closely with the data science team, as well as engineering, product, design and other internal dependent teams to move fast, experiment boldly, and build systems that shape how millions of customers interact with Walmart every day. Responsibilities

• Design and implement models that drive agent‑led engagement-including topic suggestion, conversation continuation, and goal‑driven nudges-based on short‑term context and long‑term user understanding
• Develop LLM‑based and hybrid (LLM + traditional ML) systems that detect high‑value moments to engage and select relevant actions or content
• Build real‑time ranking and decision systems that incorporate customer history, behavioral signals, and conversational state
• Define and prototype memory architectures that support persistent customer profiles and dynamic, evolving preferences
• Collaborate with platform and infra teams to integrate memory and decision modules into the end‑to‑end conversational stack
• Partner with product, UX, and engineering to surface proactive suggestions naturally and meaningfully within conversations
• Contribute to experimentation and evaluation frameworks to measure engagement, relevance, conversion, and long‑term impact
• Review system‑level decisions for safety, user experience, and brand alignment
• Act as a technical thought partner and advisor to the Director of Agent‑Led Engagement and other senior leaders in agentic AI
• 7+ years of experience in data science, applied AI, or machine learning, with deep focus on personalization, conversational AI, or decision systems
• Demonstrated technical leadership in LLM‑driven experiences, customer engagement modeling, or agentic applications
• Strong expertise in hybrid modeling (LLM + structured ML), dialogue state modeling, or sequential decision‑making