Principal Data Scientist – AI-Driven Search & Vector

Target; Sunnyvale (CA); Hybrid; USD 168,000 - 356,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k)

Paid time off

Employee discount

Job summary

Target is seeking a Principal Data Scientist – Search and Browse to lead ML systems at scale, shaping AI-driven discovery across Search, Browse and conversational experiences. This role is based in Sunnyvale, CA with a Hybrid/Flex schedule.

You will define the long-term technical vision, drive architecture for large-scale retrieval and ranking, and mentor senior scientists while balancing latency, scalability, and cost.

Qualifications

• PhD or MS in CS, statistics, applied math, physics or related quantitative field.
• 8+ years of industry experience building and scaling ML systems.
• Strong experience with semantic retrieval, vector search, RAG, or conversational search.
• Deep expertise in retrieval/ranking architectures, NLP/LLMs, and ML infrastructure (VertexAI).
• Proven Python programming and ML problem-solving skills.
• Experience defining architecture and long-term strategy for large-scale production AI systems.
• Experience operating large-scale online systems with latency, scalability, reliability requirements.
• Ability to influence executive stakeholders and drive organizational technical direction.

Responsibilities

• Define long-term technical vision and roadmap for Search, Browse, and AI discovery systems
• Lead architecture strategy for large-scale retrieval, ranking, semantic search, and GenAI systems
• Drive innovation across transformers, LLMs, RAG architectures, multi-stage ranking systems, personalization, conversational commerce, and agentic AI
• Architect search and retrieval systems for external LLM and agentic search ecosystem integration
• Define the future evolution of semantic retrieval, conversational search, and zero-shot discovery systems
• Influence organization-wide strategy across relevance, experimentation, evaluation, ML infrastructure, and AI product investments
• Lead highly ambiguous, multi-quarter initiatives involving Product, Engineering, Applied Science, Infrastructure, and executive stakeholders
• Establish scalable ML architecture patterns, experimentation standards, and operational best practices across multiple teams
• Drive foundational investments and technical direction across Search, Retrieval Infrastructure, and AI-powered discovery platforms
• Balance customer experience, business impact, system reliability, latency, scalability, and infrastructure cost at enterprise scale
• Mentor Lead scientists and technical leaders across the organization
• Represent the organization in executive reviews and drive alignment on major technical and product decisions
• Influence technical direction and investment priorities across multiple teams and organizations

Skills

Python

ML systems

NLP/LLMs

Retrieval/ranking

Experimentation

Leadership

Education

PhD or MS in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Physics or related quantitative discipline

Tools

VertexAI

LLM platforms

Job description

Target is seeking a Principal Data Scientist – Search and Browse to lead ML systems at scale, shaping AI-driven discovery across Search, Browse and conversational experiences. This role is based in Sunnyvale, CA with a Hybrid/Flex schedule.

You will define the long-term technical vision, drive architecture for large-scale retrieval and ranking, and mentor senior scientists while balancing latency, scalability, and cost.