(USA) Staff,Data Scientist

Walmart; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Walmart is seeking a Staff Data Scientist to drive innovation across BuyBox, Search & Personalization. You will develop ML solutions spanning ranking, recommendation systems, GenAI, and neural networks, leading projects from research to deployment at Walmart scale.

You will identify data sources, ensure data quality, and build scalable models that influence millions of products, offers, and customer interactions, delivering measurable impact.

Qualifications

• Expertise in ML, ranking, recommender systems, information retrieval and personalization.
• Proficiency in Python and data processing tools.
• Strong knowledge of Learning-to-Rank, neural networks, embeddings, and modern recommendation techniques.
• Experience applying Generative AI and LLMs to real-world ML problems.
• Experience building and deploying data pipelines and large-scale production ML systems.
• Strong experimentation, A/B testing, statistics, and model evaluation.
• Ability to lead complex, ambiguous initiatives and influence technical direction.
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead advanced ML solutions for BuyBox offer ranking, Variant Leader Selection, Search, and Personalization.
• Build and advance ranking and recommendation systems using Learning-to-Rank, deep learning, and modern ML techniques.
• Apply GenAI, LLMs to improve ranking, semantic understanding, personalization, and customer experience.
• Drive research and innovation, translating new ideas into scalable production solutions.
• Lead projects from problem definition and modeling through offline evaluation, A/B testing, production deployment, and impact measurement.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Analytics, and business stakeholders on strategy and technical roadmaps.
• Provide technical leadership, establish ML best practices, and mentor Data Scientists.
• Deploy and monitor models in production environments, ensuring performance and scalability.

Skills

Machine learning

Ranking

Recommendation systems

Information retrieval

Personalization

Python

Learning-to-Rank

Neural networks

Embeddings

Representation learning

GenAI & LLMs

Experimentation

A/B testing

Statistical methods

Model evaluation

MLOps / production ML

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Mentoring Data Scientists

Tools

BigQuery

PySpark

Hive

SQL

Job description

We are looking for a Staff Data Scientist to drive innovation across Walmart’s BuyBox, Search & Personalization ecosystem. You will develop next-generation machine learning solutions spanning ranking, recommendation systems, Generative AI, and neural networks. You will lead high-impact initiatives from problem formulation and research through experimentation, deployment, and continuous improvement, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders.

You will identify appropriate data sources, ensure data quality, and develop scalable models that support customer and business decisions. Your solutions will operate at Walmart scale, influencing millions of products, offers, sellers, and customer interactions while delivering measurable customer and business impact.

About the team:

The BuyBox Data Science team is part of Walmart’s Search & Personalization organization and builds intelligent ranking and decisioning systems that help customers discover and purchase the most relevant and competitive products and offers.

Our work sits at the intersection of Search, Personalization, Recommendation Systems, Marketplace, and eCommerce. The team develops machine learning systems that determine the best offer for a product and select the most relevant product variant from a set of eligible variants. Operating at Walmart scale, these systems influence shopping decisions across millions of products, offers, sellers, and customer interactions, creating meaningful impact for our customers, sellers, and business.

• What you'll do:Lead advanced ML solutions for BuyBox offer ranking, Variant Leader Selection, Search, and Personalization.
• Build and advance ranking and recommendation systems using Learning-to-Rank, deep learning, and modern ML techniques.
• Apply GenAI, LLMs, and neural networks to improve ranking, semantic understanding, personalization, and customer experience.
• Drive research and innovation, translating new ideas into scalable production solutions.
• Lead projects from problem definition and modeling through offline evaluation, A/B testing, production deployment, and impact measurement.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Analytics, and business stakeholders on strategy and technical roadmaps.
• Provide technical leadership, establish ML best practices, and mentor Data Scientists.
• Deploy and monitor models in production environments, ensuring performance and scalability.

What you'll bring:

• Proven expertise in machine learning, ranking, recommendation systems, information retrieval, and personalization.
• Proficiency in Python, BigQuery, PySpark, Hive, and data visualization tools.
• Deep understanding of Learning-to-Rank, neural networks, embeddings, representation learning, and modern recommendation techniques.
• Experience applying Generative AI and LLMs to real-world machine learning problems.
• Experience building and deploying data pipelines, MLOps and large-scale production ML systems.
• Strong knowledge of experimentation, A/B testing, statistical methods, and model evaluation.
• Ability to lead complex, ambiguous initiatives and influence technical direction across teams.
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Passion for innovation, applied research, and delivering measurable customer and business impact at scale.
• About Walmart Global Tech
• Imagine working in an environment where one line of code can make life easier for hundreds of millions of people. That’s what we do at Walmart Global Tech. We’re a team of software engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity expert's and service professionals within the world’s leading retailer who make an epic impact and are at the forefront of the next retail disruption. People are why we innovate, and people power our innovations. We are people-led and tech-empowered. We train our team in the skillsets of the future and bring in experts like you to help us grow. We have roles for those chasing their first opportunity as well as those looking for the opportunity that will define their career. Here, you can kickstart a great career in tech, gain new skills and experience for virtually every industry, or leverage your expertise to innovate at scale, impact millions and reimagine the future of retail.