Senior Data Scientist: Inventory Optimization & Real-Time

DICK'S Sporting Goods; United States; On-site; USD 83,000 - 138,000; Full time

Job summary

DICK’S Sporting Goods seeks a senior data scientist to influence enterprise decisioning by developing ML and OR-based models across merchandising, inventory planning, and pricing optimization. You will translate operational challenges into solvable data science problems and collaborate with product, engineering, and business leaders to deploy models into production.

The role emphasizes real-time decisioning, streaming data pipelines, and scalable, auditable models with rigorous experimentation.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Operations Research, Computer Science, Statistics, or related field.
• 4+ years of experience in building optimization and ML models in assortment planning, optimization, fulfillment or supply chain domains.
• OR Techniques: linear/mixed-integer programming, simulation, queuing theory.
• ML Tools: Python, PyTorch/TensorFlow, scikit-learn.
• Data & Infra: SQL, Spark, Airflow, cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP).
• Solid understanding of distributed systems, APIs, and cloud infrastructure (Azure, AWS, or GCP).
• Familiarity with reinforcement learning or contextual bandits for adaptive decisioning in dynamic environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop ML and OR-based models for demand forecasting, assortment planning, purchase order optimization, inventory allocation and price optimization.
• Apply techniques such as mixed-integer programming, dynamic programming, graph theory, spatial optimization and simulation to solve real-time decisioning problems.
• Integrate predictive ML models with optimization logic to enable adaptive, data-driven decisions.
• Build and operationalize decision engines that automate fulfillment decisions across the enterprise.
• Collaborate with engineering to deploy models into production systems with real-time data pipelines and monitoring.
• Ensure models are interpretable, auditable, and aligned with business constraints.
• Combine ML outputs with OR solvers via hybrid decision frameworks, enabling scenario-aware optimization and policy simulation.
• Ensure robustness and scalability of models by leveraging containerized environments and observability tools
• Enable real time decisioning by building & incorporating streaming pipelines and supporting low latency inference and optimization.
• Partner with product and operations to define decision boundaries, constraints, and success metrics.
• Communicate insights and model performance to technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Understand latest research in the field of OR and AI to give inputs to enterprise roadmaps to ensure we are on the path to build Best in Class merchandising planning and optimization solution

Skills

Machine Learning

Operations Research

Data Science

Python

SQL

Cloud Platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP)

A/B Testing

Optimization (MIP/DP)

Communication

Education

MS/PhD in OR/CS/Statistics

Bachelor's Degree or equivalent

Tools

Python

PyTorch/TensorFlow

scikit-learn

SQL

Spark

Airflow

Azure/AWS/GCP

Job description

DICK’S Sporting Goods seeks a senior data scientist to influence enterprise decisioning by developing ML and OR-based models across merchandising, inventory planning, and pricing optimization. You will translate operational challenges into solvable data science problems and collaborate with product, engineering, and business leaders to deploy models into production.

The role emphasizes real-time decisioning, streaming data pipelines, and scalable, auditable models with rigorous experimentation.