• Job Description

  Req#: R-2354718

  Position Summary...

  Sam’s Club is transforming AI from a curiosity into a task-reduction engine that saves millions of dollars, unlocks new efficiencies, and reimagines member experiences. As a Data Scientist III, you will architect and operationalize end-to-end Generative AI systems—from intelligent headless agents to real-time conversational experiences—impacting every corner of our business.
  Your mission is simple but ambitious: turn cutting-edge AI frameworks into scalable products used by thousands across the enterprise. You will experiment rapidly, evaluate emerging technologies, and deliver production-ready AI systems that reduce manual work, improve decision-making, and streamline operations at scale.
  You’ll join a high-impact, deeply technical team operating in a startup-within-Sam’s-Club environment—where you have autonomy, the opportunity to work on enterprise-wide initiatives, and the chance to directly shape the future of AI at one of the world’s largest retailers.

  What you'll do...

  What You’ll Do 1. Build and Launch Enterprise-Scale Generative AI Products

  • Design, develop, and deploy end-to-end Generative AI systems—including chat agents, headless agents, and decision-automation orchestrators—that drive measurable business impact.
  • Deliver real-time inferencing pipelines using GenAI, NLP, speech, vision, forecasting, classification, and optimization models to power agent behavior.
  • Own models “from prototype to production,” ensuring reliability, low latency, and high-volume performance.

  2. Experiment, Evaluate, and Operationalize Emerging AI Frameworks

  • Continuously test evolving AI frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, custom orchestration loops) and build POCs that influence enterprise adoption.
  • Assess model architectures, prompt-optimization strategies, memory handling, and action-selection loops.
  • Identify and mitigate real-world failure modes such as hallucination, improper tool invocation, context drift, or scaling constraints.

  3. Engineer and Scale Cloud-Native AI Infrastructure

  • Build distributed, production-grade AI systems using GCP, AWS, or Azure, and deploy agents using Kubernetes, Kafka, Airflow, vector databases, and scalable microservices.
  • Solve operational challenges including container cold starts, vector-store scaling, memory fragmentation, GPU-CPU balancing, index rebuilds, and multi-shard latency.

  4. Translate Business Problems Into AI Solutions

  • Work independently with product, engineering, and business partners to translate ambiguous business problems into precise analytical and technical requirements.
  • Evaluate processes, identify automation opportunities, and deliver AI solutions that improve revenue, reduce cost, or eliminate manual tasks.
  • Example impact: systematizing importer-escalation workflows, enabling full visibility from “birth to death” of an order, and reallocating labor to higher-value work.

  5. Educate and Influence the Enterprise on AI Best Practices

  • Teach cross-functional partners how AI systems work, how to evaluate them, and how to integrate them into their operations.
  • Communicate complex AI concepts in clear, business-friendly language—tailoring messages for non-technical audiences.
  • Create documentation, logs, and presentations that elevate AI literacy across Sam’s Club.

  6. Raise the Bar for Technical Excellence

  • Uphold high standards of code quality, experiment tracking, reproducibility, and documentation.
  • Contribute to AI Center of Excellence toolkits, guidelines, and platform enhancements.

  What You’ll Bring Technical Mastery Required to Succeed

  • Advanced academic foundation: Master’s required; PhD preferred (ideal: MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, Harvard, UC system).
  • Deep expertise in machine learning:
    • GenAI, LLMs, NLP, Speech, Vision
    • Classification, Regression, Forecasting, Unsupervised Learning
    • Optimization, Graph ML, Causal ML, Bayesian methods
    • Experimentation and statistical learning
  • Extensive experience designing and deploying production GenAI or deep-learning systems for real-time or streaming use cases.
  • Strong programming skills in Python, SQL, and familiarity with distributed systems and MLOps tooling.
  • Cloud engineering proficiency: GCP preferred, plus experience with AWS/Azure, Kubernetes, Kafka, and Airflow.
  • Proven ability to manage multiple AI initiatives simultaneously—from ideation through deployment and maintenance.

  Critical Soft Skills That Make You Effective

  • Exceptional communication skills—able to package complex technical concepts for business leaders and non-technical audiences.
  • Strong presentation skills, including documentation, storytelling, and visual explanations.
  • Independent execution: able to operate with low oversight and high accountability.
  • Excellent decision-making skills in fast-paced, high-ambiguity environments.

  Nice to Have

  • Experience in agent-architectures, tool-based reasoning, memory design, or real-time decision-loops.
  • Familiarity with vector databases, embedding models, and scalable RAG applications.
  • Experience in organizations like Google, Meta, IBM, Adobe, Palantir, or similar high-bar tech environments.

  At Sam's Club, 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, parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting. 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 https://one.walmart.com/notices.
  
  - 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 company 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 $90,000.00 - $180,000.00 Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses. Additional compensation for certain positions may also include Regional Pay Zone (RPZ) (based on location).

  ㅤ

  ㅤ

  ㅤ

  ㅤ

  ‎

  Minimum Qualifications...

  Outlined below are the required minimum qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no minimum qualifications.

  Option 1: Bachelors degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 2 years' experience in an analytics or related field. Option 2: Masters degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field. Option 3: 4 years' experience in an analytics or related field.

  Preferred Qualifications...

  Outlined below are the optional preferred qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no preferred qualifications.

  Data science, machine learning, optimization models, Master’s degree in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Information Technology, Operations Research, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Econometrics, 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.

  Primary Location...

  2101 Se Simple Savings Dr, Bentonville, AR 72712-4304, United States of America

  Walmart and its subsidiaries are committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace and has a no tolerance policy regarding the use of illegal drugs and alcohol on the job. This policy applies to all employees and aims to create a safe and productive work environment.

• About the company

Notice