Principal, Data Scientist
701 Respect Dr Bentonville, AR 72716, United States of America
$110,000 - $220,000/yr
Regular/ Permanent, Salaried
Position Summary
As a Principal Data Scientist, you will serve as a senior technical leader within Walmart International's Data Science organization, driving the design and deployment of large-scale AI, ML, and Generative AI solutions across critical retail domains including Inventory Management, Pricing, Supply Chain, Last-Mile Delivery, and Space & Assortment. This role is a high-impact individual contributor position that operates at enterprise scale. You will lead complex, ambiguous problem spaces end-to-end, shaping technical strategy, building production-grade systems, mentoring senior scientists, and partnering closely with product and engineering leaders. You will be instrumental in advancing agentic AI systems, decision intelligence platforms, and LLM-powered applications that power Walmart's global operations.
About Team: Focusing on customer, associate and business needs, this team works with Walmart International, which includes more than 5,200 retail units, operating in 23 countries such as Canada, Central America, Chile, China, India, Mexico and South Africa to name a few.
What You'll Do

• Lead End-to-End AI Systems Development: Design, build, and productionize large-scale AI/ML and Gen AI systems that deliver measurable business impact across pricing, inventory, supply chain, space, assortment and store operations.
• Architect Agentic AI & Decision Systems: Build intelligent, agent-based AI systems that translate business objectives into autonomous, goal-directed workflows for optimization, forecasting, and operational decision-making.
• Apply Optimization, Forecasting & Decision Science: Design and deploy optimization, simulation, forecasting, reinforcement learning, and prescriptive analytics models to drive revenue growth, cost reduction, and operational efficiency.
• Own the Full ML Lifecycle: Lead model development, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, drift detection, and continuous improvement using modern MLOps and CI/CD practices.
• Drive Experimentation & Causal Learning: Establish rigorous experimentation frameworks (A/B testing, causal inference, multi-armed bandits) to validate impact and guide product and model evolution.
• Advance Applied Research & Innovation: Contribute to applied research in ML, GenAI, optimization, and decision intelligence through internal research programs, patents, and external publications.
• Partner Across Functions: Work closely with product, engineering, design, and operations teams to translate complex business challenges into scalable AI solutions with clear outcomes.

What You'll Bring

• 10+ years of applied data science and machine learning experience (or 8+ years with a PhD), with a strong foundation in statistics, optimization, and deep learning.
• 5+ years of experience leading end-to-end ML products from concept to large-scale production.
• Proven experience building and deploying mission-critical AI systems at enterprise scale.
• Deep hands-on expertise in Python and SQL, with strong experience in PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Demonstrated expertise in experimentation design, causal inference, and real-world model evaluation.
• Strong experience with MLOps, including CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, and drift detection.
• Solid understanding of retail and operational domains, including pricing, inventory, and supply chain.

Minimum Qualifications
Option 1: Bachelors degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 5 years' experience in an analytics related field. Option 2: Masters degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 3 years' experience in an analytics related field. Option 3: 7 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), We value candidates with a 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. The ideal candidate would have knowledge of accessibility best practices and join us as we continue to create accessible products and services following Walmart's accessibility standards and guidelines for supporting an inclusive culture.
Primary Location
701 Respect Dr, Bentonville, AR 72716, United States of America
Walmart and its subsidiaries are committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace and has a no tolerance policy regarding the use of illegal drugs and alcohol on the job. This policy applies to all employees and aims to create a safe and productive work environment.