Distinguished, Data Scientist
Position Summary
As a Distinguished Data Scientist focused on eCommerce Search AI, you will set the strategic and technical direction for next-generation search experiences that leverage neural search, Generative AI, and agentic AI systems to deliver highly relevant and personalized customer interactions at scale.
What You'll Do
Architect and lead the design of scalable, end-to-end Search infrastructure.
Drive adoption of advanced ML and AI techniques including deep retrieval models and LLM-powered intent understanding.
Ensure these systems meet stringent standards for performance, latency, reliability, and operational excellence in production.
Partner closely with Search, Ads, Personalization, and Catalog leaders to ensure cohesive relevance, consistent ranking signals, and shared platform capabilities across all discovery surfaces.
Influence cross-functional strategy across Search, Ads, Personalization, and Catalog domains, aligning technical investments with customer experience, monetization, and business outcomes.
Mentor senior engineers and data scientists, champion best practices in experimentation, evaluation, and AI governance.
Contribute to advancing the state of the art in search relevance and AI-driven decisioning.
Foster a culture of innovation and accountability while staying ahead of emerging trends in neural search, GenAI, and agentic systems, ensuring solutions scale responsibly across the broader eCommerce ecosystem.
What You’ll Bring
Deep expertise in search, information retrieval, and ranking systems at scale.
Strong understanding of neural search architectures, ML/AI, and generative models.
Experience applying LLMs and agentic AI techniques to production systems.
Demonstrated ability to translate technical solutions into business impact.
Excellent cross-team collaboration and communication skills.
Prominent ability to influence technical direction and mentor senior technical contributors.
Champion rigorous evaluation, experimentation, and governance for both deterministic models and non-deterministic AI components.
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Data Science, or related field.
12+ years of relevant experience in search, ML/AI engineering, or data science.
Proven experience building and operating large-scale search or AI systems.
Strong programming proficiency (e.g., Python, SQL) and experience with ML frameworks.
Preferred Qualifications
Master’s or PhD in a quantitative discipline.
Experience with neural retrieval models, embedding-based search, and learning-to-rank.
Hands-on experience with Generative AI, LLMs, RAG, or agentic AI frameworks.
Background in eCommerce, digital platforms, or consumer-facing search systems.
Familiarity with cloud-native infrastructure and real-time distributed systems.
Additional Compensation
Annual salary range: $169,000.00 - $338,000.00
Performance-based bonus awards.
Benefits
Competitive pay.
Health benefits: medical, vision, and dental coverage.
Financial benefits: 401(k), stock purchase, and company-paid life insurance.
Paid time off benefits: PTO (including sick leave), parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting.
Other benefits: short-term and long-term disability, company discounts, military leave pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, and more.
Live Better U
A Walmart-paid education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates in Walmart and Sam's Club facilities.
Programs range from high school completion to bachelor's degrees, including English Language Learning and short-form certificates.
Tuition, books, and fees are completely paid for by Walmart.
Drug-Free Workplace
The company has a no tolerance policy regarding the use of illegal drugs and alcohol on the job.