Sr. Data Scientist - Pricing Algorithms

About the role

CarMax relies on algorithms to make important decisions about which cars to buy, how to price them, and how to allocate them across our 200+ stores. Doing so ensures that we have the right cars at the right prices to meet our customers' needs. As we continue to innovate our business and shift more of our buying and selling online, we increasingly need to make these decisions quickly with less human intervention. Our team of data scientists and business analysts plays a critical role in unlocking the business value from these innovations.

Essential Responsibilities

• Develop new models and improve our existing models
• Interpret, validate, and apply feature engineering to large and complex pricing-related data sets
• Find creative ways to incorporate new insights and data sources
• Leverage statistical / machine learning techniques and sound reasoning to develop, validate, and improve predictive models
• Design controlled experiments to assess the business value of new models
• Present insights and recommendations to senior leaders to drive change
• Help CarMax continue to develop its data expertise
• Research innovations and best practices related to data sources, modeling methodologies, and data science tools
• Influence the team in the development of our modeling capability strategic roadmap
• Effectively communicate how our models work to team members, both at a general level and a detailed level

Qualifications and Requirements

• Target mindset: Curious, skeptical, creative, committed to learning and staying informed on the latest techniques in data science, with a strong attention to detail and commitment to sound reasoning
• At least 2 years relevant work experience (Advanced study in a quantitative field may substitute for work experience), including experience applying strong foundational math and/or modeling skills to solve complex problems
• Ideal candidates would have experience with these behaviors:
• Extracting and sharing clear insights from modelling
• Project management, ideally including end-to-end experience with the machine learning deployment pipeline
• Relationship building and collaboration

Preferred skills, certifications, or knowledge areas

• Expertise in selecting and applying various modeling techniques (supervised & unsupervised, classification & regression, etc.)
• Python/SQL programming
• Data cleaning and pre-processing
• Statistical and probabilistic analysis

Work Location and Arrangement

This role will be based out of Richmond, Virginia and associates will work onsite 4 days per week.

About CarMax

CarMax disrupted the auto industry by delivering the honest, transparent and high-integrity experience customers want and deserve. This innovative thinking around the way cars are bought and sold has helped us become the nation's largest retailer of used cars, with over 200 locations nationwide.

Benefits

• Associates that are considered full-time hourly or commission/incentive eligible: To earn up to 48 hours of sick time per year accrued on a per pay period basis and between 80 hours and 200 hours per year of vacation time after a 90 day waiting period depending on years of continuous service with the Company.
• For 8 hours of pay for each of a total of 6 paid scheduled holidays per year plus 1 floating holiday. If such an Associate does work on a scheduled holiday due to business need, they are eligible for Holiday Premium Pay.
• Associates considered full-time salaried are entitled to paid time away with no specified limit as needed for sick, vacation, bereavement, jury duty, holidays, floating holiday, etc. subject to manager approval.