(USA) Distinguished, Data Scientist
About the role
Role summary: The Distinguished Data Scientist is a senior science role at Walmart within Search and Personalization, reserved for scientists who shape the direction of the discipline, not just within the team but across the company and the broader AI research community. You will define the multi-year AI research agenda for Search and Personalization, pioneer new technical frontiers, and be the architect of approaches that set the industry standard. This role carries deep influence over product vision, engineering architecture, and executive strategy, and represents Walmart's science externally through publications, patents, and community leadership.
About the team: Walmart's Search & Personalization team shapes how hundreds of millions of customers discover products every day. We sit at the intersection of AI research and global-scale systems, owning query understanding, retrieval, ranking, recommendations, and real-time personalization end to end. We work closely with Ads and Sparky, Walmart's AI shopping assistant, building the science that powers discovery across the full customer journey.
Responsibilities
- Set the multi-year AI research and technical strategy for Search and Personalization, identifying transformational problem spaces before they become obvious.
- Pioneer novel approaches to retrieval, ranking, personalization, and generative discovery that shape how the industry solves these problems.
- Define Walmart's position on emerging AI capabilities and translate that into concrete product and platform investments.
- Influence roadmap and architecture at the VP/SVP level, aligning AI strategy with business outcomes.
- Influence product roadmap and engineering architecture at the VP and SVP level, partnering directly with senior leadership to align AI investments with company strategy.
Requirements
What you'll bring:
- Recognized expertise in Search, Recommendations, or Personalization at scale, with a publication or patent record reflecting original contributions.
- Deep command of deep learning, Transformer architectures, and Generative AI applied to production Search and discovery systems.
- Proven ability to define technical strategy and drive company-level impact across multi-year horizons.
- Strong command of experimentation: causal inference, A/B testing, and the science of reliable online/offline evaluation.
- Exceptional communication skills with senior leadership; fluent in translating research vision to business outcomes.
- History of growing senior scientific talent and shaping team culture.
- PhD in CS, ML, or Statistics preferred; equivalent demonstrated impact accepted.
Minimum Qualifications
- Option 1: Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 6 years' experience in an analytics related field.
- Option 2: Master’s degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 4 years' experience in an analytics related field.
- Option 3: 8 years' experience in an analytics or related field.
Preferred Qualifications
- Data science, machine learning, optimization models
- PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Information Technology, Operations Research, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Econometrics
- Publications 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)
- Background in creating inclusive digital experiences, demonstrating knowledge in implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards, assistive technologies, and integrating digital accessibility seamlessly
Benefits
- Competitive pay as well as performance-based bonus awards
- Health benefits: medical, vision and dental coverage
- Financial benefits: 401(k), stock purchase and company-paid life insurance
- Paid time off: 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
- PTO and/or PPTO that can be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes; amount depends on job classification and length of employment, meets or exceeds paid sick leave laws where applicable
- Live Better U: Walmart-paid education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates; programs range from high school completion to bachelor's degrees, including English Language Learning and short