Lead Data Scientist, AI

Purpose

As a foundational member of our AI Center of Excellence, you will serve as the data science lead for enterprise AI initiatives, architecting and deploying AI solutions that make a meaningful impact across our national retail footprint. The Data Scientist Lead will work with other members of the AI COE and business leadership to identify and execute the highest-impact initiatives, own the data science lifecycle, from hypothesis and feature engineering to model validation and performance monitoring; bridging the gap between cutting-edge AI capabilities and practical business applications.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate 3rd-party AI platforms and partnerships.
• Serve as the technical lead in vetting vendor methodologies, guiding the in-house vs external decisioning.
• Partner with business leadership to identify high-value AI opportunities, defining technical specifications and success metrics that align with enterprise strategy.
• Design, develop, and deploy custom machine learning models (impacting merchandising, commercial, labor, digital, etc.) within the Databricks environment.
• Lead experimentation design, including A/B testing and causal inference, to validate model performance and measure true incremental business lift (ROI).
• Collaborate with data engineers on feature development and with AI developers to wrap models into production-grade APIs and applications.
• Partner closely with the Customer Insights team to ensure model outputs are optimized for consumption within Power BI/DAX, turning complex predictions into actionable insights.
• Establish and enforce MLOps standards across the org, including model versioning, automated retraining, and drift monitoring.
• Provide active coaching to analytics leaders, empowering them to identify ML-applicable use cases and effectively incorporate predictive outputs into their own functional workstreams.
• Contribute to the enterprise AI governance framework, ensuring ethical AI practices, data privacy compliance, and model transparency.
• Present findings, recommendations, and project updates to leadership and cross-functional partners in clear, compelling formats.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field.
• Master's degree preferred.
• 5+ years in Data Science or Applied AI roles, preferably in retail or a customer-facing industry.
• Proven track record of moving models from development into production which deliver measurable impact to the business.
• Expert proficiency in Python and SQL. Comfortable with version control.
• Expertise in supervised/unsupervised learning and modern frameworks (e.g. scikit-learn, PyTorch, or TensorFlow).
• Hands-on experience building with LLMs, RAG architectures, prompt engineering, or AI agent development.
• Experience deploying and monitoring models at scale. Familiar with cloud data platforms (e.g. Databricks or Snowflake) and cloud infrastructure (Azure experience a plus).
• You understand how to apply AI to commercial problems such as demand forecasting, customer- and associate-facing applications, personalization, labor optimization, etc.
• The ability to translate "black box" model outputs into clear, actionable insights for business leadership.
• Proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and influence decision-making through data-driven storytelling.
• Strong intellectual curiosity with a bias toward action and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously while collaborating effectively within cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• Deep technical mastery and sharp business acumen.
• Passionate about retail innovation.
• Thrives in ambiguity.
• Enthusiastic about shaping AI strategy from the ground up.

Skills

• Python and SQL.
• Supervised/unsupervised learning and modern frameworks (e.g. scikit-learn, PyTorch, or TensorFlow).
• LLMs, RAG architectures, prompt engineering, or AI agent development.
• Cloud data platforms (e.g. Databricks or Snowflake) and cloud infrastructure (Azure experience a plus).
• Commercial problem-solving skills (demand forecasting, customer- and associate-facing applications, personalization, labor optimization, etc.).
• Technical communication and storytelling skills.
• Autonomy and collaboration skills.

Benefits

• 401k with company match.
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
• Referral Bonus Program.
• Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, and other Insurance Plans.
• Paid vacation and sick time for eligible associates.
• Paid holidays plus a personal holiday.
• Paid Volunteer Time Off that starts on Day 1.
• Equal Employment Opportunity.