Sr Applied Data Scientist - Supply Chain Optimization

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 and prescriptive algorithms that use data to automate and optimize decisions at scale.  The Target Data Science – Global Supply Chain and Logistics team leverages operations research, simulation and machine learning to help Target makes intelligent, end-to-end supply chain business decisions. This involves writing high-performant, scalable Python code as well as designing analytical solutions to extract insights and to prescribe best courses of action.

You’ll work in an environment that provides the freedom and agility of a startup - with the security and vast resources of a large established company with continuous learning opportunities provided.

In this role at Target as a Sr Data Scientist – Supply Chain you will:

• Work closely with fellow data scientists to review and iterate on optimization and machine learning algorithms and develop state of the art mathematical models

• Collaborate with engineers to design and deploy algorithms in production at scale. Our models run many times a day for millions of combinations of stock keeping units and distribution networks

• Work with business partners to learn about the retail business and processes in play

• Ideate and resolve tradeoffs between model granularity and features as well as performance, reliability, and usability of our codebase. Improve engineering standards, tooling, and processes

What we're looking for:

• Strong knowledge of supply chain optimization – inventory, transportation, sourcing, distribution, fulfillment, planning, etc.

• Strong computer science fundamentals with rock-solid, well-structured and efficient code: data structures, design, algorithms, programming and information retrieval

• Strong technical and communication skills to deliver with quality and evangelize technical solutions to business, product and engineering partners

• Ability to write understandable, testable code with an eye towards maintainability

• You constantly think about the end-user for solutions you develop, and prioritize business impact over technical sophistication

• Ability to deal with ambiguity, and prioritize progress over perfection

• You have an eye for detail, and relentless curiosity for supply chain problems

• You have a knack for answering open questions with data

• You understand that simplicity is hard but key to achieving maintainability and to being able to continually deliver value to the business

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

About you:

• PhD or MS in Industrial Engineering, Operations Research, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Physics or related quantitative fields

• 3+ years of experience leading large-scale implementations of optimization, simulation, machine learning and deep learning at scale

• Extensive experience writing highly performant Python code and deploying algorithms in a production environment. Proficient in predictive and prescriptive algorithms

• Expert at formulating and implementing mathematical models ranging from mixed-integer programming, stochastic dynamic programming and reinforcement learning

• Experience in implementing advanced statistical techniques like regression, clustering, PCA, time series forecasting, etc.

• Proficient in application/software architecture (definition, process modeling, etc.)

• Experience writing production datasets in SQL/Hive or building internal/production data tools for research or experimentation in a scripting language like Python

• Able to produce reasonable documents and narratives suggesting actionable insights

• Excellent communication skills with an ability to clearly tell data driven stories through appropriate visualizations, graphs, and narratives

• Self-driven and results-oriented, with strong ownership, sound judgment and the ability to move quickly while maintaining high technical standards

• Collaborative team player with a commitment to continuous learning, knowledge sharing, and building reliable AI systems that create business value

​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 Sunnyvale 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.