Staff Data Scientist (Remote)

Kohl's; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Kohl’s is seeking a Staff Data Scientist to lead cross-functional data science initiatives that drive business value. You will oversee end-to-end projects from problem framing to model deployment and mentor junior data scientists, while partnering with business units to promote data-driven decisions.

You will design experiments, evaluate AI/ML solutions, and translate outputs into measurable outcomes, staying current with the latest data science trends to support Kohl’s innovation agenda.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in data science, computer science, statistics, applied mathematics or equivalent quantitative field
• 6+ years progressively complex data science experience (or 3+ with Master)
• Expertise in developing and deploying state-of-the-art algorithms using machine learning, statistics and optimization methods
• Experience with modern analytics tools and cloud platforms (Python, R, Spark, SQL, GCP)
• Strong problem-solving with product-focused mindset
• Ability to guide teams through unstructured technical problems to deliver business impact

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end data science projects from problem formulation to model deployment
• Design experiments to answer targeted questions and benchmark performance
• Translate data science outputs into measurable business value
• Maintain relationships with business partners to drive adoption of data science capabilities
• Mentor junior data scientists and foster continuous learning
• Stay current with trends in data science and identify opportunities for Kohl's

Skills

Machine learning

Data modeling

Experiment design

Team leadership

Product development

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in data science, CS, statistics or related

6+ years data science experience (3+ with Master)

Tools

Python

R

Spark

SQL

GCP

Job description

Role Specific Information

Job Description

About the Role

As Staff Data Scientist, you will work with a data science team and cross-functional partners to solve business challenges and promote data-driven decision-making with advanced data analysis and machine learning.

What You’ll Do

• Use data and insights to make decisions, set goals and identify the right levers to achieve balanced team objectives
• Lead end-to-end data science projects from problem formulation to model deployment
• Oversee the design of experiments that answer targeted questions
• Identify and drive continuous improvement of key business metrics in the balanced team
• Translate data science outputs into business outcomes and value delivered
• Maintain strong business partner relationships to gain cross-organizational alignment, spur adoption and usage of data science capabilities and drive business outcomes
• Mentor and guide junior data scientists, providing technical expertise and fostering a culture of continuous learning and development
• Stay up to date on the latest trends and developments in data science and technology and identify implementation opportunities to support innovation at Kohl’s
• Additional tasks may be assigned

Addendum

• Develop prescriptive AI/ML solutions - including foundation models and predictive systems - by converting complex business constraints into mathematical objective functions that guide optimal agent behavior.
• Build and enforce continuous, quantitative evaluation harnesses to benchmark reasoning quality, tool-calling precision, grounding, and hallucination rates across LLMs, SLMs, and multi-agent swarms.
• Implement rigorous responsible‑AI practices across the model lifecycle, establishing proactive bias detection, fairness constraints, data contracts, and model‑risk controls.
• Partner with data and software engineering to integrate enterprise knowledge graphs and semantic layers, ensuring high-fidelity retrieval for retrieval augmented generation (RAG) pipelines and vector search/databases.
• Oversee Day-2 telemetry in collaboration with domain teams to monitor production inference data, proactively detecting concept drift, data degradation, and model decay.

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience developing, evaluating, or applying modern AI/ML solutions, including LLMs, RAG, optimization, or causal methods, as relevant to the business problem
• 6+ years of demonstrated understanding of AI evaluation, responsible‑AI practices, and bias/risk mitigation
• 6+ years of proven experience evaluating production GenAI and agentic systems using golden datasets, LLM-as-a-judge methodologies, guardrail hit rate analysis, and response failure analytics.

What Skills You Have

Required

• Bachelor’s Degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics or equivalent quantitative field
• 6+ years (or 3+ years with a Master’s degree) of progressively complex data science experience
• Expertise in developing and deploying state-of-the‑art algorithms using machine learning, statistical and optimization methods to power various aspects of highly complex business models and deliver value
• Expert in using modern analytics tools, programming languages, and cloud platforms (Python, R, Spark, SQL, GCP, etc.)
• Strong problem-solving skills with an emphasis on product development
• Experience proposing rapid experiments to test the effectiveness of new strategies or initiatives and iterating quickly
• Proven ability to guide teams through unstructured technical problems to deliver business impact

Preferred

• Master's degree and/or Ph.D.
• Retail and Logistics experience
• Merchandising and/or Supply Chain Management
• Digital and/or Marketing models

Essential Functions

The requirements listed below are representative of functions you will be required to perform, however you may be required to perform additional functions. Kohl’s may revise this job description at any time. To perform this job successfully, you must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions, absent undue hardship.

• Ability to perform the accountabilities listed in the “What You’ll Do” Section
• Ability to comply with dress code requirements
• Basic math and reading skills, legible handwriting, and basic computer operation
• Ability to maintain prompt and regular attendance and meet scheduling requirements as set by the company
• Ability to learn and comply with all company policies, procedures, standards and guidelines
• Ability to receive, understand and proactively respond to direction from leadership and other company personnel
• Ability to work as part of a team and interact effectively and appropriately with others
• Ability to maintain composure and work in a fast paced environment while accomplishing multiple tasks within established timeframes
• Ability to satisfactorily complete company training programs
• Ability to use a personal computer for tasks such as communicating, preparing reports, etc.
• Ability to plan, prioritize and monitor activities across business units
• Ability to complete or oversee the completion of assigned projects in a timely manner