Expert Data Scientists, Conversational AI

About the role

The role is part of the Emerging Tech team, focusing on how AI evolves from reactive to proactive, moving beyond simple question answering to anticipate customer needs. As a Distinguished or Principal Data Scientist, you will shape the long-term vision for AI systems and platforms, lead architectural decisions, and influence strategy at the highest levels.

Responsibilities

• Shape the long-term vision for AI systems and platforms, setting the direction for what’s next.
• Lead architectural decisions across key areas like agent-led decision systems, generative media foundations, and conversational AI evaluation.
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to directors and senior leaders, influencing strategy at the highest level.
• Establish standards, frameworks, and best practices that guide teams toward excellence.
• Showcase technical leadership externally through publications, patents, open-source contributions, and thought leadership.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience building and deploying advanced ML and AI systems at scale.
• Proven track record of owning architecture-level decisions for LLMs, agentic systems, evaluation frameworks, or generative platforms.
• Deep expertise in one domain with the ability to influence adjacent areas.
• Experience turning ambiguous product or business goals into clear, long-term technical strategies.
• A strong record of production impact and technical leadership.

Qualifications

• Option 1: Bachelors degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 5 years' experience in an analytics related field.
• Option 2: Masters degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 3 years' experience in an analytics related field.
• Option 3: 7 years' experience in an analytics or related field.

Skills

• Data science, machine learning, optimization models.
• PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Information Technology, Operations Research, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Econometrics.
• Publishations or active peer reviewer in related journals or conference.
• Successful completion of one or more assessments in Python, Spark, Scala, or R.
• Using open source frameworks (for example, scikit learn, tensorflow, torch).

Benefits

• Beyond our great compensation package, you can receive incentive awards for your performance.
• Other great perks include 401(k) match, stock purchase plan, paid maternity and parental leave, PTO, multiple health plans, and much more.
• Equal Opportunity Employer: Walmart, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer – By Choice.

Pay

The annual salary range for this position is $143,000.00 - $286,000.00 in Sunnyvale, CA and $132,000.00 - $264,000.00 in Bellevue, WA. Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses.

Schedule

Full-time position.