Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Target is a leading retail company focused on helping families discover the joy of everyday life. As a Lead Data Scientist - Recommendations, you will provide technical leadership for machine learning systems, improving guest experiences through personalized recommendations and driving the development of scalable algorithms.
Responsibilities
- Provide technical leadership for the machine learning systems that power Target's digital recommendations and personalization experiences
- Identify opportunities to improve guest experiences through recommendation, retrieval, ranking, and personalization solutions at massive scale
- Lead the design, development, evaluation, and deployment of machine learning models that influence how millions of guests discover products across Target's digital experiences
- Leverage expertise in machine learning, deep learning, experimentation, and optimization to translate ambiguous business challenges into scalable algorithmic solutions that drive measurable guest and business impact
- Drive projects from initial problem definition through production deployment and measurement, balancing innovation with operational excellence and long-term maintainability
- Shape the technical direction of Target's recommendation capabilities, establishing best practices for model development, evaluation, and measurement while influencing decisions across product, engineering, and data science teams
- Mentor and develop other scientists, help raise the technical bar across the organization, and contribute to the growth of Target's data science community through collaboration, thought leadership, and the adoption of emerging machine learning techniques and technologies
Skills
- MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research or relevant industry experience
- 5 plus years of experience leading the development, evaluation and deployment of machine learning (ML) solutions while partnering with engineering teams to deliver scalable production systems
- Demonstrated experience building and scaling recommendation, personalization, ranking, retrieval, or search machine learning systems
- Strong programming skills in Python and SQL; experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX
- Experience leveraging modern AI and Generative AI tools to accelerate development, experimentation and model delivery
- Experience working with large-scale data processing and analytics platforms such as Spark or equivalent
- Deep understanding of machine learning, deep learning, optimization, statistics, probability and experimental design
- Experience designing, analyzing, and interpreting online experiments and using results to inform product and business decisions
- Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous business challenges into scalable machine learning solutions
- Ability to influence technical direction and drive alignment across product, engineering and business stakeholders
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
- Ability to mentor applied data scientist and help establish best practices for AI/ML and cloud-native development
- Self-driven, results-oriented and able to meet tight deadlines
- Motivated team player who thrives in a collaborative and global environment
Benefits
- Target offers eligible team members and their dependents comprehensive health benefits and programs, which may include medical, vision, dental, life insurance and more, to help you and your family take care of your whole selves.
- Other benefits for eligible team members include 401(k), employee discount, short term disability, long term disability, paid sick leave, paid national holidays, and paid vacation.
- This position may be considered for a Remote or Hybrid (known internally at Target as "Flex for Your Day") work arrangement based on Target's needs.
- A Remote work arrangement means the team member worksfull-time from home oran alternatelocation that's not a Target location, does not have a desk at a Target location and may travel to HQ up to 4 times a year.
- A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team member's core role may be performed either remote or onsite at a Target location depending upon what your role, team and tasks require for that day.
- In compliance with state and federal laws, Target will make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities.
Company Overview
Company H1B Sponsorship