Director, Data Science

About the role

We are hiring a Director, Data Science to own and lead all Ads Data Science for Chewy—fully accountable for the science strategy and production implementation behind Chewy’s onsite and offsite Chewy Ads. This role is a core member of Ads leadership, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, and business partners, and representing Ads science to Chewy senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Full ownership of Chewy Ads Data Science across onsite and offsite channels—strategy, roadmap, model portfolio, delivery, and scientific quality bar.
• Lead, grow, and mentor a high-performing team of data scientists; set standards for modeling, experimentation, MLOps, and research-to-production excellence.
• Advance state-of-the-art applied science across:
  • Supply-side algorithms: search, relevance, ranking, real-time bidding, bid-boosting, premium positioning, and dynamic auctions.
  • Demand-side algorithms: budgeting, pacing, budget allocation/reallocation, keyword recommendations, bid recommendations, campaign setup and auto-optimization, and advertiser ROAS optimization.
  • Portfolio management: orchestrating Chewy’s onsite and offsite Ads portfolio for optimal, balanced performance across shopper experience, advertiser outcomes, and Chewy revenue.
• Define and execute Chewy Ads’ AI / GenAI strategy, including LLM-powered workstreams such as:
  • Generative creative and offer assistance
  • Intelligent keyword and query recommendation
  • Bid recommendation and automated bidding guidance
  • Auto-campaign setup and optimization copilots for advertisers
  • Retrieval-augmented systems for relevance, discovery, and ranking quality
• Partner with Product and Engineering to ship production systems that improve shopper relevance, advertiser ROI/ROAS, and Ads business performance.
• Establish rigorous experimentation and decision frameworks so science investments map clearly to customer and revenue impact.
• Represent Ads science to senior leadership—translating complex work into clear strategy, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
• Raise Chewy’s external scientific presence through publications, talks, and recruiting at leading ML/AI/advertising venues (encouraged, not required).

Requirements

• Advanced degree (M.S., PhD, or equivalent experience) in a quantitative field (e.g., CS, ML, Statistics, OR, Applied Math, Data Science), or 10+ years building and leading large-scale ML/optimization systems.
• Proven experience leading data scientists / applied scientists and owning end-to-end science delivery in production—ideally in ads, search, recommendations, personalization, or marketplace systems.
• Deep hands-on fluency with modern ML for ranking and prediction at scale: deep learning, embeddings, retrieval, multi-objective optimization, and online experimentation.
• Experience with advertising optimization systems spanning supply and demand—auctions, real-time bidding, pacing, budget allocation, keyword/bid recommendations, auto-campaign optimization, and ROAS optimization under real-time, constrained-spend settings.
• Demonstrated experience productizing LLMs / generative AI in real systems (e.g., RAG, agentic workflows, evaluation harnesses, quality/safety controls)—ideally in ads, search, or ecommerce.
• Strong foundation in mathematics, statistics, and scientific method; a high bar for model quality, causal measurement, and production reliability.
• Experience operating distributed training/serving pipelines and partnering with Engineering on scalable deployment.
• Exceptional communication: able to influence senior executives and cross-functional partners with clarity and technical credibility.

Nice to Have

• Direct experience in digital advertising / retail media / sponsored products.
• Ecommerce or retail marketplace experience.
• Experience with cloud ML platforms (e.g., AWS SageMaker or equivalent) and modern GenAI tooling.
• Track record of hiring and developing senior scientific talent.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance.
• 401(k) with company matching and new hire/annual equity grants.
• Eligibility for annual bonus (C08+ positions).
• Parental leave, family services benefits, backup dependent care, flexible spending accounts, and telemedicine.
• Pet adoption reimbursement, employee assistance program, and discounts (10% off pet insurance, 20% off at Chewy.com).

Pay

The base salary range for this role is $198,500 - $300,000. The specific salary offered may be influenced by factors such as relevant experience, education, and work location.

Schedule

• Exempt salary team members have unlimited PTO, subject to manager approval.
• Six paid holidays per year.
• Eligibility for paid sick and family leave in compliance with applicable state and local regulations.