Principal Data Scientist - Causal Inference for Ads

Walmart Connect; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 143,000 - 286,000; Full time

Job summary

Walmart Connect is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to design and build next-generation ads incrementality measurement, grounded in rigorous causal methods. You will own end-to-end methodology, collaborate with engineering and product, and serve as the go-to expert for the team on challenging measurement problems.

You will lead the development of scale-ready causal inference approaches, publish technical designs, and mentor senior scientists while advancing production-ready analytics across

Qualifications

• PhD or Master's in Statistics, Economics, Econometrics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field — PhD strongly preferred
• 5+ years in data science or quantitative research, ads industry experience preferred
• Deep, specialized expertise in causal inference and/or incrementality-based optimization — Randomized control trials, PIE model, instrumental variables, uplift DNN, regression discontinuity and related methods
• Strong command of experiment design at scale — power analysis, variance reduction, interference and spillover handling, and bias correction
• Proficiency in Python and SQL for large-scale data analysis and experience with distributed data platforms (Spark, BigQuery, or equivalent)
• Strong statistical foundations and machine learning knowledge

Responsibilities

• Design and implement large-scale causal inference methodologies to measure the true incremental lift of advertising across campaigns, channels, and segments
• Establish evaluation frameworks, exit criteria, and solution readiness standards causal inference methodologies, grounding approach in hypotheses and data validations
• Author high-quality technical design documents and whitepapers; present to senior leadership
• Define the science roadmap for incrementality and causal measurement; prioritize the highest-leverage problems and make principled trade-offs
• Develop event-grain incrementality models (Uplift DNN) to power ads bidding optimization decisions
• Partner with engineers to design data pipelines and schema that meet the precision requirements of causal measurement at scale
• Mentor senior and mid-level scientists

Skills

Causal inference

Incrementality

Experiment design

Python

SQL

Spark

BigQuery

Statistics

Machine learning

Education

PhD in quantitative field

Master's in quantitative field

Tools

Spark

BigQuery

Python

Job description

Walmart Connect is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to design and build next-generation ads incrementality measurement, grounded in rigorous causal methods. You will own end-to-end methodology, collaborate with engineering and product, and serve as the go-to expert for the team on challenging measurement problems.

You will lead the development of scale-ready causal inference approaches, publish technical designs, and mentor senior scientists while advancing production-ready analytics across