Senior Data Scientist - Operations Research & Optimization

General Mills, Inc; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 111,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Retirement plan

Time off programs

Wellbeing support

Job summary

General Mills, Inc. is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to drive optimization and ML-driven analytics across large-scale projects with measurable business impact.

You will translate business needs into analytical solutions, collaborate with AI engineers and product teams, and build scalable models that deliver real-time insights and value. Join a company committed to data-driven decision making and people development.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience working in data science, decision sciences, operations research, or a closely related quantitative field; 3+ years may be considered for candidates with a PhD.
• Master's or PhD degree in operations research, industrial engineering, computer science, or a closely related quantitative field.
• Strong proficiency in SQL and Python, with a solid understanding of complex databases.
• Experience with large-scale optimization, machine learning, and data visualization.
• Strong quantitative and analytical judgment, including the ability to identify questionable data, investigate root causes, and develop practical solutions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to understand customer needs and deliver solutions aligned with business priorities.

Responsibilities

• Partner with data science leadership, AI engineering, business partners, and product owners to develop optimization models using leading tools and technologies.
• Provide data science leadership within a product team through strong partnership, actionable insights, and strategic and tactical technical roadmap recommendations.
• Design and develop modeling frameworks and architectures for deterministic and combinatorial optimization, advanced machine learning, and other complex business problems.
• Build production-ready, reusable, large-scale or scalable operations research models that deliver real-time insights and align with General Mills technology standards.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend solutions that balance effort, quality, scalability, and business value.
• Monitor and improve model performance, optimality, and recommendation quality, incorporating feedback from business partners.
• Apply critical thinking to frame business needs as statistical or analytical problems and develop solutions that balance technical completeness, complexity, and timely value delivery.
• Clearly communicate the why and how behind recommendations to build trust and understanding in analytical solutions.
• Advocate for and educate others on the value of data-driven decision-making and analytical methods.
• Identify and develop long-term data science processes, frameworks, tools, and standards.
• Collaborate with other Data Scientists by asking questions, engaging in shared problem-solving, and actively soliciting and providing feedback.

Skills

SQL

Python

Data visualization

Machine learning

Optimization

Communication

Education

Master's or PhD in quantitative field

Job description

General Mills, Inc. is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to drive optimization and ML-driven analytics across large-scale projects with measurable business impact.

You will translate business needs into analytical solutions, collaborate with AI engineers and product teams, and build scalable models that deliver real-time insights and value. Join a company committed to data-driven decision making and people development.