Lead Data Scientist - Gen Ai Enablement

The pay range is $128,000.00 - $231,000.00

Pay is based on several factors which vary based on position. These include labor markets and in some instances may include education, work experience and certifications. In addition to your pay, Target cares about and invests in you as a team member, so that you can take care of yourself and your family. 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. Find competitive benefits from financial and education to well-being and beyond at https://corporate.target.com/careers/benefits.

JOIN TARGET AS A LEAD DATA SCIENTIST – GEN AI

About Us: 

Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here.

A role with Target Data Sciences means the chance to help develop and manage state of the art predictive algorithms that use data at scale to automate and optimize decisions at scale. In this role you’ll be challenged to harness Target’s impressive data breadth to build the algorithms that power solutions our partners in Digital/Ecommerce, Marketing, Supply Chain Optimization, Search and Personalization. Every Scientist on Target’s Data Sciences team can expect modeling and software/product development of highly performant code for model performance to elevate Target’s culture and apply retail domain knowledge.

As a Lead Data Scientist – Gen AI, you’ll join a Data Sciences team responsible for initializing and helping launch GenAI features, developing centralized GenAI tools/services, and building organizational capabilities around GenAI. Working closely with a team of product engineers, you’ll facilitate optimal scaling and adoption of GenAI features, which includes designing and developing at-scale GenAI system architectures, prompt engine development, creating optimal model selection strategy, continuous monitoring & evaluation mechanisms, etc. Based on your understanding of GenAI tools and business requirements, you’ll help develop centralized tools and services to evaluate and control GenAI model output quality across the enterprise.

Given this is a rapidly evolving space, you will be required to stay up to date with emerging trends in the industry and leverage your experience as well as expertise in building applied machine learning / deep learning solutions to fine-tune pre-trained GenAI models when needed. We will utilize Agile principles, follow best-practice software design, participate in code reviews, and create a maintainable and well-tested codebase with relevant documentation. At an organizational level, you’ll conduct training sessions, present work to technical and non-technical peers/leaders, build knowledge on business priorities/strategic goals and leverage this knowledge while building requirements and solutions for each business need.

Core responsibilities of this job are articulated within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs. 

About you:

• 4-year degree in Quantitative disciplines (Science, Tech, Engineering, Mathematics) and 6+ years of professional experience or equivalent industry experience
• PhD or MS in Computer Science, Information Technology, Applied Mathematics, Physics or related quantitative field
• Experience solving relevant real-world data sciences problems and developing Gen AI based systems
• 5 plus years of demonstrated experience in applied ML modeling and Deep Learning frameworks (PyTorch, Tensorflow, Keras)
• Demonstrated hands-on programming skills in Python, Hadoop, Hive, PySpark and SQL. Additional knowledge of Java, Scala or R desired
• Exceptional knowledge of mathematical and statistical concepts, algorithms, and computational complexity
• Experience in implementing advanced statistical techniques like regression, clustering, PCA, forecasting (time series), etc.
• Able to create reasonable documents/narrative suggesting actionable insights
• Excellent communication skills. Ability to clearly tell data driven stories through appropriate visualizations, graphs and narratives
• Self-driven and results oriented; able to meet tight timelines
• Motivated, team player with ability to collaborate effectively across geographies

This position will operate as a Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement based on Target’s needs. A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team member’s core role will need to be performed both onsite at the Target HQ MN location the role is assigned to and virtually, depending upon what your role, team and tasks require for that day. Work duties cannot be performed outside of the country of the primary work location, unless otherwise prescribed by Target. Click here if you are curious to learn more about Minnesota.

Benefits Eligibility

Please paste this url into your preferred browser to learn about benefits eligibility for this role: https://tgt.biz/BenefitsForYou_E

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

In compliance with state and federal laws, Target will make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please reach out to [email protected].

Application deadline is : 08/07/2025