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Principal, Data Scientist -- Agentic AI

Principal, Data Scientist -- Agentic AI

Posted 1 day ago

Job Description

Position Summary...

About Walmart Data Ventures

Walmart Scintilla is a commercial data and AI platform powering the suppliers of the world’s largest retailer. With access to one of the most diverse and scaled data ecosystems anywhere, we transform the data of Fortune 1 company into insight, recommendation, and innovation that drives impact for customers, merchants, and suppliers.

Our teams are pioneering the use of Generative AI, agentic intelligence, and advanced machine learning to reimagine customer experiences, optimize operations, and unlock new business models. For external candidates, it’s a chance to join a team that is shaping the future of retail AI and setting industry benchmarks.

About the Role

We are seeking a Principal Data Scientist to shape the future of Generative AI and Agentic AI at Walmart. This role is a highly specialized Applied Science position, requiring a deep fusion of cutting-edge applied science and scalable production system delivery. Building on our public vision of “Four Super Agents”, you will architect and scale next-generation ML and LLM systems that power both customer-facing experiences and enterprise operations.

You will drive innovation at the intersection of applied science, engineering, and platform strategy—pushing the boundaries of what large-scale AI can do in production.

What you'll do...

What You’ll Do
Our team is driving high-impact enterprise initiatives, including recommendation platforms, customer voice, market research, product innovation, customer attitudinal segmentation, agent based simulations, and many more. These initiatives require advanced expertise in the following capabilities: GenAI & Agentic AI Innovation
Architect and build agentic AI systems with capabilities such as planning, memory, tool-use, and multi-agent collaboration, ensuring seamless integration with Walmart’s digital ecosystem.

Define best practices for LLMOps, including prompt versioning, embedding store management, synthetic data generation, fine-tuning strategies, and continuous evaluation for safety, accuracy, and bias.
Drive applied research in large language models (LLMs) and multi-modal AI, leveraging methods such as LoRA/PEFT fine-tuning, reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF/DPO), quantization, and speculative decoding.
Explore and operationalize RAG pipelines, deep research, multimodal fusion, and specialized architectures for language, vision, time series, and beyond.

ML & Applied Science Foundations

Translate ambiguous, high-impact business problems into scalable AI/ML solutions with measurable outcomes.

Build and guide end-to-end ML systems covering data sourcing, feature engineering, model training, deployment, monitoring, and iteration.

Champion advanced MLOps practices: automated pipelines, CI/CD for ML, model versioning, drift detection, and telemetry-based monitoring.

Ensure models meet standards of fairness, explainability, and responsible AI compliance.

Leadership & Influence
Serve as a technical leader and mentor, guiding senior engineers and applied scientists to build depth and expertise.

Influence cross-functional platform strategy, ensuring AI systems align with Walmart’s broader product and engineering vision.

Contribute to Walmart’s AI reputation through thought leadership—publishing, presenting, and showcasing innovations internally and externally.

What We’re Looking For Above all, we're looking for a leader defined by curiosity and the resilience to thrive in complex, innovative, and high-uncertainty environments. The ideal Principal has a deep technical science and engineering background—mastery of algorithmic thinking and strong coding skills—even if they haven't mastered every agentic technology on day one. We value the efficient use of AI coding assistants but expect strong, independent coding prowess. Your willingness to work hard and quickly get up to speed on new domains is the most critical asset. If you have the foundational strength and the drive to lead our next-era AI journey in retail, we encourage you to apply.
Core Qualifications
Deep expertise in Generative AI, LLMs, and/or Agentic AI systems (e.g., LLMOps, fine-tuning, RAG, multi-agent orchestration).
Strong applied science background with the ability to design, experiment, and deploy cutting-edge ML models in production.
Proven experience architecting large-scale ML/AI platforms with attention to performance, scalability, and maintainability.
Strong programming and ML tooling skills (Python; PyTorch/TensorFlow).
Familiarity with Agentic development platforms (Google ADK, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen).
Track record of technical leadership, mentoring, and influencing architectural decisions across teams.
Nice-to-Haves
Experience with broader ML ecosystems: Scikit-learn, Spark ML, XGBoost, or programming languages such as Java, C++, SQL, R.

Familiarity with advanced optimization methods (e.g., distributed training, model compression, ONNX interoperability).

Exposure to multimodal systems (vision, speech, time series).

Strong presence in the AI/ML community (publications, open-source contributions, conference talks).

Our Culture & Values At Walmart, we believe AI should be ethical, inclusive, and human-centered. We are committed to:
Respecting the Individual – fostering a workplace where everyone can bring their best selves.
Acting with Integrity – ensuring fairness, transparency, and compliance in everything we do.
Serving Customers & Members – driving impact through AI solutions at global scale.
Striving for Excellence – continuously innovating, learning, and raising the bar.
Why Join Us?
This is an opportunity to define the next era of applied AI at Walmart, building agentic, generative, and multimodal systems that will directly impact hundreds of millions of customers and associates. Our journey builds on Walmart’s “Four Super Agents” vision, where we are scaling agentic, generative, and multimodal AI to power the future of commerce. You will work alongside some of the best engineers and scientists in the world to push the boundaries of AI at scale.

At Walmart, we offer competitive pay as well as performance-based bonus awards and other great benefits for a happier mind, body, and wallet. Health benefits include medical, vision and dental coverage. Financial benefits include 401(k), stock purchase and company-paid life insurance. Paid time off benefits include PTO (including sick leave), parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting. Other benefits include short-term and long-term disability, company discounts, Military Leave Pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, and more. You will also receive PTO and/or PPTO that can be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes. The amount you receive depends on your job classification and length of employment. It will meet or exceed the requirements of paid sick leave laws, where applicable. For information about PTO, see https://one.walmart.com/notices. Live Better U is a Walmart-paid education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates in Walmart and Sam's Club facilities. Programs range from high school completion to bachelor's degrees, including English Language Learning and short-form certificates. Tuition, books, and fees are completely paid for by Walmart.
Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to a specific plan or program terms.
For information about benefits and eligibility, see One.Walmart.
The annual salary range for this position is $143,000.00 - $286,000.00 Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses. Additional compensation for certain positions may also include :
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Minimum Qualifications...

Outlined below are the required minimum qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no 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...

Outlined below are the optional preferred qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no 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...

1395 Crossman Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1114, 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.

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