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Walmart Canada · 5 months ago

Distinguished, Data Scientist - Agent-Led Engagement in Conversational Commerce

Bentonville, AR

Full-time

Onsite

Senior Level

$169K/yr - $338K/yr

7+ years exp

Walmart Canada is building intelligent, proactive shopping agents through its Next Gen Commerce team. As a Distinguished Data Scientist for Agent-Led Engagement, you will lead the technical vision and model development for enhancing customer interactions using conversational AI.

DeliveryRetailShopping

Responsibilities

Design and implement models that drive agent-led engagement—including topic suggestion, conversation continuation, and goal-driven nudges—based on short-term context and long-term user understanding

Develop LLM-based and hybrid (LLM + traditional ML) systems that detect high-value moments to engage and select relevant actions or content

Build real-time ranking and decision systems that incorporate customer history, behavioral signals, and conversational state

Define and prototype memory architectures that support persistent customer profiles and dynamic, evolving preferences

Collaborate with platform and infra teams to integrate memory and decision modules into the end-to-end conversational stack

Partner with product, UX, and engineering to surface proactive suggestions naturally and meaningfully within conversations

Contribute to experimentation and evaluation frameworks to measure engagement, relevance, conversion, and long-term impact

Review system-level decisions for safety, user experience, and brand alignment

Act as a technical thought partner and advisor to the Director of Agent-Led Engagement and other senior leaders in agentic AI

Qualification

Data ScienceMachine LearningConversational AILarge Language ModelsHybrid ModelingUser ModelingDecision SystemsMemory SystemsCollaboration SkillsCommunication Skills

Required

7+ years of experience in data science, applied AI, or machine learning, with deep focus on personalization, conversational AI, or decision systems

Demonstrated technical leadership in LLM-driven experiences, customer engagement modeling, or agentic applications

Strong expertise in hybrid modeling (LLM + structured ML), dialogue state modeling, or sequential decision-making

Experience designing or contributing to persistent memory systems for user modeling

Proven ability to turn ideas into deployed, production-scale systems with measurable impact

Strong communication and collaboration skills, with experience driving alignment across science, product, and engineering teams

Option 1: Bachelor's degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 6 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 4 years' experience in an analytics related field

Option 3: 8 years' experience in an analytics or related field

Preferred

Ph.D. or Master's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field

Experience in conversational commerce, recommendation systems, or task-oriented dialog agents

Familiarity with contextual bandits, reinforcement learning, or user modeling at scale

Experience working with memory-augmented LLMs or long-context transformer systems

Track record of open-source contributions, publications, patents, or public speaking in applied AI or NLP

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

Benefits

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.

Live Better U is a Walmart-paid education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates in Walmart and Sam's Club facilities.