Lead Applied Data Scientist - Digital Item RecSys (applied ML, deep learning)(Remote Or Hybrid)

About the role

Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for the machine learning systems that power Target's digital recommendations and personalization experiences.
• Work closely with data scientists, engineers, product managers, and business stakeholders to identify opportunities to improve guest experiences through recommendation, retrieval, ranking, and personalization solutions at massive scale.
• Lead the design, development, evaluation, and deployment of machine learning models that influence how millions of guests discover products across Target's digital experiences.
• Leverage expertise in machine learning, deep learning, experimentation, and optimization to translate ambiguous business challenges into scalable algorithmic solutions that drive measurable guest and business impact.
• Drive projects from initial problem definition through production deployment and measurement, balancing innovation with operational excellence and long-term maintainability.
• Shape the technical direction of Target's recommendation capabilities, establishing best practices for model development, evaluation, and measurement while influencing decisions across product, engineering, and data science teams.
• Mentor and develop other scientists, help raise the technical bar across the organization, and contribute to the growth of Target's data science community through collaboration, thought leadership, and the adoption of emerging machine learning techniques and technologies.

Requirements

• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research or relevant industry experience
• 5+ years of experience leading the development, evaluation and deployment of machine learning (ML) solutions while partnering with engineering teams to deliver scalable production systems
• Demonstrated experience building and scaling recommendation, personalization, ranking, retrieval, or search machine learning systems
• Strong programming skills in Python and SQL; experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX
• Experience leveraging modern AI and Generative AI tools to accelerate development, experimentation and model delivery
• Experience with large-scale data processing and analytics platforms such as Spark or equivalent
• Deep understanding of machine learning, deep learning, optimization, statistics, probability and experimental design
• Experience designing, analyzing, and interpreting online experiments and using results to inform product and business decisions
• Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous business challenges into scalable machine learning solutions
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to mentor applied data scientists and help establish best practices for AI/ML and cloud-native development
• Self-driven, results-oriented and able to meet tight deadlines
• Motivated team player who thrives in a collaborative and global environment

Qualifications

• Remote or Hybrid (Flex for Your Day) work arrangement may be considered based on Target's needs.
• Work duties cannot be performed outside of the country of the primary work location, unless otherwise prescribed by Target.

Benefits

Find competitive benefits from financial and education to well-being and beyond at https://corporate.target.com/careers/benefits.