Principal, Data Scientist, Agentic AI Systems Engineering & Model Post-Training

Reference: R-2612602Posted: 2026-08-19Location: BENTONVILLE, AR, United StatesSalary: $110000 - $220000/yearType: Full time / Regular/PermanentCompany: WalmartBusiness Segment: Home OfficeRole summary: Walmart’s Supply Chain AI Lab & Innovation Factory builds production-grade agentic AI systems for enterprise problems. This is not an analytics-focused data science role; it is a deeply hands-on AI systems engineering position. You will build systems that reason over enterprise information, coordinate specialized agents, use tools safely, execute long-horizon work, and continuously improve through evaluation and model post-training. As a Principal Data Scientist, you will turn ambiguous problems into full-stack prototypes, then harden them into secure, reliable production systems spanning agent orchestration, backend services, data, web experiences, and CLI/TUI interfaces, delivering measurable impact through real-world workflows at Walmart scale. About the team: The Supply Chain AI Lab & Innovation Factory builds production-grade AI capabilities for Walmart’s most complex operational and supply-chain challenges. Our work includes the Autonomous Supply Chain Engine and its Discovery Loop, which continuously identifies opportunities and risks, reasons through changing signals, and generates strategic recommendations. We partner directly with engineering, operations, data, and strategy teams to discover real workflows, prototype rapidly, measure value, and productionize successful solutions. Prior supply chain experience is not required; we will teach the domain. What matters most is deep agentic AI, software engineering, machine learning, curiosity, ownership, hands-on execution, and measurable outcomes. What you'll do:Design, build, test, launch, and operate production agentic applications with long-horizon planning, tool use, retrieval, durable workflows, multi-agent orchestration, human approval, and safe recovery.Build policy-controlled agent runtimes and explicit graph-based execution with state, typed handoffs, branching, subagent delegation, retries, and termination controls.Build governed knowledge/context graphs, schemas and ontologies, entity resolution, multi-hop retrieval, MCP-based tools, integrations, and AgentOps/evaluation practices.Own key Discovery Loop capabilities across execution, knowledge, context, evaluation, and learning.Improve model reasoning through RLHF/RLAIF, preference optimization, fine-tuning, distillation, and grader design, turning production feedback and enterprise data into continuously improving domain-specialized models with safety and production reliability.What you'll bring:8+ years of hands-on software, machine learning, or applied AI engineering experience with Staff/Principal-level impact across teams.Co-equal depth in agentic AI, software engineering, and machine learning engineering.Strong experience with model post-training, stateful policy-controlled agent runtimes, multi-agent systems, retrieval/RAG, MCP, and production evaluation.Hands-on graph engineering across graph-based agent execution and knowledge/context graphs, including ontology/schema design, entity resolution, multi-hop retrieval, and graph databases.Python, backend, and full-stack capability across APIs, data, and React/TypeScript.Production depth in distributed systems, cloud platforms, Kubernetes/Docker, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and secure integrations.A proactive, ethical, approachable builder who delivers dependable systems at enterprise 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 . 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 $110,000.00 - $220,000.00 Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses. Additional compensation for certain positions may also include : - Stock