Distinguished, Data Scientist

Reference: R-2630449Posted: 2026-09-21Location: SUNNYVALE, CA, United StatesSalary: $169000 - $338000/yearType: Full time / Regular/PermanentCompany: WalmartBusiness Segment: Home OfficeWalmart Ads is investing heavily in creative intelligence — the AI systems that generate, evaluate, understand, and continuously improve the ad creative advertisers use to reach customers, spanning static image and copy formats as well as video ads. As a Distinguished Data Scientist, you will set technical direction for this space: building / leveraging generative models that produce high-quality ad assets at scale, the automated evaluation systems that judge and improve them, and the structured understanding of creative content that powers downstream targeting, measurement, and personalization. About Team: At Walmart Global Tech, the Walmart Ads Data Science team drives innovation in digital advertising by powering a fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar ads business across Sponsored Products, Display, and agentic buying experiences. The team builds the intelligence behind recommendations, bidding, and generative ad creative that help advertisers reach the right customers and grow their business on Walmart. Leveraging real-time signals, generative AI, and deep integration across Walmart’s advertiser and customer platforms, the team turns advertiser intent into measurable performance at scale. What you'll do:Set the technical vision and roadmap for generative ad creative systems — producing images, copy, video and other ad assets that are high-quality, on-brand, compliant and performant at Walmart's advertiser scale.Design and own automated systems that evaluate generated creative quality — using models to judge model output — including calibration against human/advertiser preference and defenses against common failure modes (distortion, hallucination, policy violations).Build structured representations of creative content (attributes, categories, quality signals) that other teams can consume as reusable signals for targeting, recommendations, and performance measurement.Drive advances in automated content composition and adaptation — combining computer vision and generative techniques to produce creative assets across many formats and placements without manual production effort.Architect shared infrastructure — evaluation harnesses, generation pipelines, quality signals — so creative-AI capabilities compound across use cases instead of being rebuilt per project.Partner closely with Product and Engineering leadership to translate ambiguous, evolving creative-product goals into a concrete, sequenced technical roadmap.What you'll bring:10+ years of applied ML/DS experience, with deep, hands-on expertise in generative AI (image generation, text generation, video generation or multi-modal generation) and computer visionProven experience designing automated model-evaluation systems (e.g., model-as-judge approaches) for generative output — including calibration, drift detection, and reliability at production scale.Strong computer vision background — image understanding, composition, matching/cropping, or artifact/distortion detection.A track record of taking generative ML systems from prototype to production at scale, with safety, moderation, and policy constraints designed in from the start.Demonstrated technical leadership at Distinguished scope — setting direction across multiple workstreams, influencing without direct authority, and operating effectively amid ambiguous and evolving requirements.Excellent communication skills; able to translate deep technical tradeoffs for senior product and business audiences. 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 $169,000.00 - $338,000.00 Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses. Additional compensation for certain positions may also include : - Stock Minimum qualifications["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 qualifications["Using open source frameworks (for example, scikit learn, tensorflow, torch)", "Publications or active peer reviewer in related journals or conference", "Data science, machine learning, optimization models", "Successful completion of one or more assessments in Python, Spark, Scala, or R", "PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Information Technology, Operations Research, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Econometrics", "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."]