Lead Data Scientist- Operations Research

JOIN TARGET AS Lead Data Scientist - Digital Fulfillment

Description:

Target is an iconic brand, a Fortune 50 company and one of America’s leading retailers.

Global Supply Chain and Logistics at Target is evolving at an incredible pace. We are constantly reimagining how we get the right product to the guests better, faster and more cost effectively than before across 1900 locations

A role with the Data Science team means building scalable data science products in support of the ever-changing supply chain landscape. This will mean being more intelligent, automated and algorithmic in our decision-making. Evaluating product flow from vendor to distribution center, and to the stores across the first mile, middle mile and last mile, with focus on inventory modeling and replenishment, to improve operating efficiencies both within 4 walls of distribution center and across the network.

So, we’re looking for exceptional people who are proactive, creative, independent, innovative and comfortable working in varying degrees of ambiguity. Are you a creative problem-solver who seeks root cause, simplifies problems, quickly identifies solutions, commits to a plan and then positively influences others to execute it? If so, you will have success on this dynamic team.

About the role:

Our Supply Chain Data Science team oversees the development of state-of-the-art mathematical techniques to help solve important problems for Target’s Supply Chain e.g. identifying the optimal quantities and positioning of inventory across multiple channels and locations, planning for the right mix of inventory investments vs guest experience, Digital order Fulfillment planning, transportation resource planning, etc. As a Lead Data Scientist in Digital fulfillment Planning space, you will have the opportunity to work with Product, Tech and business partners to solve retail challenges at scale for our fulfillment network

As a Lead Data Scientist at Target you will get an opportunity design, develop, deploy and maintain data science models and tools. You’ll work closely with applied data scientists, data analysts and business partners to continuously learn and understand evolving business needs. You’ll also collaborate with engineers and data scientists on peer teams to build and productionize fulfillment solutions for our supply chain/logistics needs.

In this role as a Lead Data Scientist, you will:

• Develop a strong understanding of business and operational processes within Target’s Supply chain.

• Develop an in-depth understanding of the various systems and processes that influence Digital order fulfillment speed & costs.

• Work hands on and actively partner across the team – defining business problem, data discovery to insights/predictions leading to business process improvements or solution development.

• Understand the business problem, identify the key challenges, formalize the problem algorithmically, and prototype solutions.

• Analyze data to identify and propose feature enhancements. Design and implement features to improve scope of the product.

• Develop optimization-based solutions, approximate mathematical models (probabilistic/deterministic models) of real-world phenomena, predictive models and implement the same in real production systems with measurable impact.

• Generate analyses and other project artefacts to document, archive, and communicate work and outcomes.

• Anticipate and Evaluate impact of Data science solutions on related projects as part of the developing complex data science algorithm/solutions for various business problems.

• Work with the team to build and maintain complex software systems and tools.

• Add new capabilities and features to the simulation framework to reflect the complexities of an evolving digital fulfillment network.

• Develop and deploy modules to run simulations for testing and validating multiple scenarios to evaluate the impact of various fulfillment strategies.

• Adopt modular architecture and good software development/engineering practices to enhance the overall product performance and guide other team members.

• Produce clean, efficient, modular, and annotated code based on specifications.

• Enhance and maintain simulation environment to enable testing/deploying new features for running custom, user defined scenarios through the simulator.

• Coordinate the analysis, troubleshooting and resolution of issues in the models and software.

Requirements:

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

• 6-7+ years of relevant experience

• Strong analytical thinking and data visualization skills. Ability to creatively solve business problems, innovating new approaches where required and a passion for solving interesting and relevant real-world problems using Data science approach.

• Ability to clean, transform, manipulate, and analyze large datasets for insights leading to business process improvements or solution development. Background in handling supply chain data will be preferable but not mandatory.

• Experience developing, testing, and maintaining large codebases and models in a collaborative environment while meeting industry best practices.

• Highly proficient in programming skills in Python, SQL, Hadoop/Hive, Spark.

• Excellent working knowledge of Mathematical and statistical concepts, optimization, data structures and algorithms, data analysis, simulations, visualizations, and applications of same in a variety of business problems.

• Good working knowledge of machine learning, probability estimation methods, linear programming (integer, real and mixed integer) stochastic processes, and their applications in industry settings.

• Experience deploying solutions/models with large-scale business impact in commercial setting.

• Self-driven and results oriented. Willing to stretch to meet tight timelines.

• Strong team player with ability to collaborate effectively across geographies/ time zones.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Why work with us at Target?

• You will work directly on the Data Science problems that have the most impact on Target’s entire supply chain, forecasting and merchandising teams.

• We love open source! Many of our team members contribute to open source communities and get to do it during work time. We try to contribute back to our communities where we can and are grateful to be able to open source some of our own projects!

• We value diversity. We believe that diversity and inclusion is of core importance when try to create positive in-store experiences for our guests, and we think it is also critically important when building our teams. Read more about our commitment to diversity and inclusion

• We value our team members for who they are, not just what they can get done. We are parents, hobbyists, enthusiasts, family members, and community members, and can offer flexibility to our team members’ schedules and work arrangements so that they can flourish both inside and outside of work.