(USA) Staff, Data Scientist | Conversational AI

Position Summary...

What you'll do...
Cortex Team is Walmart's core A.I. conversational platform, powering the vision of delivering the worlds best personal assistants to Walmart's customers, accessible via natural voice commands, text messages, rich UI interactions, and a mix of all of the above via multi-modal experiences. We believe conversations are a natural and powerful user interface for interacting with technology and enable a richer customer experiences both online and in-store. We are building and designing the next generation of Natural Language Understanding (NLU) services that other teams can easily integrate and leverage, and build rich experiences: from pure voice and text shopping assistants (Siri, Sparky), to customer care channels, to mobile apps with rich, intertwined, multi-modal interaction modes (Me@Walmart). Interested in diving in? We need passionate and seasoned NLP data-scientists to help us improve and evolve our capabilities, taking into account the full conversational context, multi-modal interactions, and an ever increasing list of use cases. Come at the right time, and you will have an enormous opportunity to make a massive impact on the design, architecture, and implementation of an innovative, mission critical product, driven by data-science, used every day, by people you know, and which customers love. As part of the emerging tech group, you will also have the additional opportunity of building demos, proof of concepts, creating white papers, writing blogs, etc.

Minimum Qualifications
Master's degree or certification in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or any other related field, with 3+ years work experience.
Experience with prompt tuning, in-context learning, and conducting both offline and online evaluations to identify and optimize the best-performing models.
Extensive experience with NLU/NLP, more recent deep ML models (e.g., Transformers, BERT, Llama, GPTs, Gemini) and safe fine-tuning of these.
Extensive experience in designing, developing and deploying end-to-end Generative AI systems using transformer-based LLM architectures (both open source and close source)
Experience with Python; solid knowledge SQL.
Hands on experience with classical ML models, test/train/evaluation metrics, key parameters/techniques that affect model performance
Understanding of relevant statistical measures such as confidence intervals, significance of error measurements, development and evaluation data sets.
Ability to take a project from scoping requirements through actual launch.
A continuous drive to explore, improve, enhance, automate, and optimize models and products.
Experience analyzing conversational data to identify patterns and conducting error/deviation analysis; passion for fixing issues in the data and finding the optimal representation.
Excellent oral and written communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications
PhD in a relevant field (Machine Learning, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics or a related field)
Experience developing multimodal solutions for Generative AI and related applications at scale
Exposure to real-world, production grade agentic systems.
Familiarity with LLMs serving optimizations and multi-LoRa
Ability to develop experimental and analytic plans for data modeling processes, use of strong baselines, ability to accurately determine cause and effect relations
Strong attention to detail and exceptional level of organization
Proven ability to achieve results in a fast paced, highly collaborative, dynamic work environment
Hands-on expertise in many disparate technologies and the full model lifecycle, typically ranging from data pipelines, data extraction, model training, model serving, labeling tools, ML-ops, ad-hoc tooling and all points in between

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

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 4 years' experience in an analytics related field. Option 2: Masters 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

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, 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...

1375 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.