Staff Data Scientist

Walmart

Staff Data Scientist leading Walmart’s search and personalization AI systems. Designing scalable retrieval, ranking, recommendation, and Generative AI solutions for millions of shoppers.

Posted 8/14/2026full-timeSunnyvale • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $143,000 - $286,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in leading architecture and technical direction for machine learning systems, with a strong focus on Search, Personalization, and Generative AI. Proven ability to mentor teams, influence AI strategy, and drive measurable improvements in customer engagement and business metrics.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Machine Learning System ArchitectureSearch and Information RetrievalGenerative AI and LLMsTechnical LeadershipExperimentation and Performance Evaluation

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Machine LearningAI/ML Systems DevelopmentRecommendation SystemsPersonalization AlgorithmsCausal InferencePerformance EvaluationDistributed Model DeploymentMLOpsVector SearchTransformers

Soft Skills

Stakeholder ManagementMentoringCross-Functional CollaborationInfluencing

Industry Keywords

AnalyticsStatisticsEconomicsMathematicsInformation Technology

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Lead architecture and technical direction for Search and Personalization machine learning systems
Design scalable retrieval, ranking, recommendation, and personalization algorithms
Drive adoption of Generative AI, Large Language Models, embeddings, and semantic search capabilities
Lead cross-functional initiatives involving Product, Engineering, Platform, and Data Science teams
Establish experimentation frameworks and best practices for model development and evaluation
Mentor senior scientists and review technical designs across multiple initiatives
Influence long-term AI strategy and technology investments
Drive measurable improvements in customer engagement, search relevance, and business metrics

Requirements

What you’ll need

Option 1: Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 4 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 2 years’ experience in an analytics-related field
Option 3: 6 years’ experience in an analytics or related field
Extensive experience building production AI/ML systems at scale
Deep expertise in Search, Information Retrieval, Recommendation Systems, Personalization, or Ranking
Experience with transformer models, embeddings, vector search, LLMs, or Generative AI applications
Strong understanding of ML system architecture, MLOps, and distributed model deployment
Expertise in experimentation, causal inference, and performance evaluation
Excellent technical leadership and stakeholder management skills
Proven ability to influence architecture and mentor technical teams across organizations

Benefits

Comp & perks

Performance-based bonus awards
Medical, vision, and dental coverage
401(k)
Stock purchase
Company-paid life insurance
Paid time off (PTO), including sick leave
Parental leave
Family care leave
Bereavement leave
Jury duty leave
Voting leave
Short-term disability
Long-term disability
Company discounts
Military Leave Pay
Adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement
PTO and/or PPTO for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes
Live Better U Walmart-paid education benefit program
Tuition, books, and fees completely paid for eligible Live Better U programs