Lead Data Scientist - GenAI, Personalization & Optimization

Nike Inc; Beaverton (OR); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Nike Inc. in Beaverton, OR is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to advance state-of-the-art recommendation systems. You will lead ML, optimization, generative AI, and decision intelligence to connect customers with the most relevant products and improve assortments at scale.

You will collaborate with product managers, engineers, designers, and business stakeholders, mentor data scientists, and establish rigorous experimentation, evaluation, and deployment practices to deliver measurable impact.

Qualifications

• Master's degree or equivalent in a related field
• 5+ years leading design, development, and deployment of data science/ML models at scale
• Strong proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow)
• Deep knowledge of recommender systems, personalization, and predictive analytics
• Experience designing large-scale experimentation platforms and A/B testing
• Background in optimization techniques (LP, MILP, RL, multi-objective)
• Experience with Agentic AI, LLMs, tool orchestration, and human-in-the-loop evaluation
• Expertise in modern recommender systems, embeddings, semantic retrieval, and generative approaches
• Experience with cloud-native ML platforms (Databricks, AWS SageMaker)
• Ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and communicate effectively

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy advanced recommendation models
• Design optimization frameworks balancing customer prefs, inventory, profitability
• Lead generative AI capabilities for enhanced recommendations
• Establish experimentation and measurement frameworks for AI efficacy
• Partner with product managers, engineers, designers, and stakeholders to define strategy and roadmap
• Mentor data scientists and ML engineers; promote technical excellence
• Communicate complex analyses to technical and non-technical audiences

Skills

Python

ML frameworks

Recommendation systems

Experimentation

Optimization

LLMs

Cloud platforms

Cross-functional leadership

Communication

Education

Master's degree in CS/OR/Stats/Applied Math/Engineering

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Databricks

AWS SageMaker

Job description

Nike Inc. in Beaverton, OR is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to advance state-of-the-art recommendation systems. You will lead ML, optimization, generative AI, and decision intelligence to connect customers with the most relevant products and improve assortments at scale.

You will collaborate with product managers, engineers, designers, and business stakeholders, mentor data scientists, and establish rigorous experimentation, evaluation, and deployment practices to deliver measurable impact.