Applied Data Scientist - Search Ranking (Applied ML, LLMs, NLP)

Data Scientist - Search

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. Whether you join our Statistics, Optimization or Machine Learning teams, you'll be challenged to harness Target's impressive data breadth to build the algorithms that power solutions our partners in Marketing, Supply Chain Optimization, Network Security and Personalization rely on.
Every Scientist on Target's Data Sciences team can expect modeling and data science, software/product development of highly performant code for Model Performance, to elevate Target's culture, and apply retail domain knowledge.
As a Data Scientist, you'll Influence by interacting within the Data Sciences team, perform within the scale and scope of your role by implementing solutions, and contribute to Data Sciences' and Target's culture by modeling the culture. Through your understanding of the foundations and working principles of machine learning algorithms, linear algebra, probability theory, statistics, and optimization theory, you will perform data exploration and analysis (look at distributions, find anomalies, create simple visualizations, etc.) and implement algorithmic solution given specifications, while adhering to best practices in model development. We will look to you to understand and actively follow foundational programming principles (best practices, know about unit tests, code organization, basics of CI/CD etc.) and create a well-maintainable & tested codebase with relevant documentation. You will get the opportunity to develop in one or more approved programming languages (Java, Scala, Python, R), and learn and adhere to best practices in data analysis and data understanding.
As you follow agile processes, you will implement prototypes for individual components of software or data science solutions and understand and leverage basic data structures and algorithms in implementing solutions. Leverage your high-level understanding in business domain to gain knowledge of high-level Target business priorities, strategic goals and their impact, as well as details of the specific business sub-problem you are focused on. You will collaborate with peers on their product and document and present work to peers and participate in code reviews and gain broader understanding of different components within the application. The exciting part of retail? It's always changing!
Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.
About you:
4-year degree in Quantitative disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) or equivalent experience
Exceptional Python programming experience with advanced technical problem-solving skills
1 plus year of experience implementing end to end ML models and algorithms into production
Knowledge of search indexing, ranking, information retrieval, query understanding or recommendation / recommender systems
Experience deploying Machine Learning algorithms into production environments
Experience with ML Ops (VetexAI, Bigquery, etc.) and various testing frameworks and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)
Experience querying large databases with SQL, HQL or some variations
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills that can partner with a global teams
Constant learner mentality that stays on the leading edge of search, ranking, applied ML, LLM's and NLP advancements
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.