Staff, Data Scientist – AI Agent Platform
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 11, 2026. First seen by Alion on Nov 11, 2026. Walmart scores A on the Alion truth index.
Position Summary...
What you'll do...
About Team
We are building the next generation of AI-powered shopping experiences at Walmart, centered around our Super-Agent Sparky-an intelligent orchestrator that connects interactions across a rich ecosystem of specialized application agents. From intent-driven product discovery and context-aware recommendations to seamless checkout, smart substitutions, and end-to-end order tracking, Sparky transforms the entire shopping journey into a fluid, conversational experience.
For data scientists and ML engineers, this is a large-scale, real-world AI problem: designing multimodal systems that combine text, voice, and visual understanding; building retrieval and ranking systems over vast and dynamic catalogs; and developing real-time personalization under tight latency and reliability constraints. The work spans applied machine learning, experimentation, and optimization-powering intelligent systems that continuously improve how millions of customers discover and shop.
We are looking for a Staff data scientist to lead the next evolution of the AI assistant platform by defining and building highly scalable Generative AI systems and infrastructure. This will be a hands-on technical leadership role which requires expertise at the intersection of machine learning, LLMs, ASR, large-scale distributed systems, and more. Our AI assistants are rapidly incorporating LLMs, agent-based architecture with custom fine-tuned models, and multiple data modalities.
What You Will Do
- In this role, as a Staff Data Scientist you will own the technical roadmap and architecture for multiple initiatives within the Conversational AI platform. The responsibilities include:
- Partner with key business stakeholders and be a thought leader in the Conversational AI space for driving the development and planning of POCs and production AI solutions.
- Translate business requirements into strategies, initiatives, and projects. Align these with business strategy and objectives. Drive the execution of the deliverables.
- Design, build, test and deploy cutting edge AI solutions at scale, impacting millions of customers worldwide.
- Lead multiple initiatives within the platform, with focus on efficiency, innovation, and leverage.
- Collaborate with the applied scientists, ML engineers, software engineers and product managers to develop next generation of AI assistant experiences.
- Be up-to date on industry trends in the latest Generative AI, Speech/Video processing and AI assistant architecture patterns (e.g. agent chaining, COT, RAG, LLM guardrails etc)
- Provide technical leadership, guidance and mentorship to highly skilled and motivated data scientists in the team.
- Lead innovation and efficiency through the complete problem-solving cycle, from approach to methods to development and results.
- Partner and engage with associates in other regions for delivering the best services to customers around the globe.
- Proactively participate in the external community to strengthen Walmart's brand and gain insights into industry practices.
- Drive innovation in the charter and publish research in Rank A+ AI conferences like ICML, AAAI, NIPS, ACL, etc.
What You Will Bring
- Master's with 8+ years or Ph.D. with 6+ years of relevant experience. Educational qualifications should be Computer Science/Statistics/Mathematics or related area.
- Strong track record in a data science tech lead role (5+ years), with deployment of large-scale AI services.
- Extensive experience in the design, development, and delivery of AI products with a large customer base, preferably in conversational AI, speech, vision or machine learning based systems.
- Strong experience in machine learning: Gen AI, NLP, Speech processing, Image processing, Classification models, regression models, Forecasting, Unsupervised models, Optimization, Graph ML, Causal inference, Causal ML, Statistical Learning, experimentation & Gen-AI.
- Deep and demonstrated personal interest in generative AI space including awareness of latest architectural advancements in building generative AI applications.
- Excellent decision-making skills with the ability to balance conflicting interests in a complex and fast-paced environment.
- Deep experience in simultaneously leading multiple data science initiatives end to end - from translating business needs to analytical asks, leading the process of building solutions and the eventual act of deployment and maintenance.
- Thorough understanding of distributed technologies, public cloud technologies, scalable platforms, ML- platforms and Operational Excellence.
- Experience working with geographically distributed teams.
- Business acumen; combining technical vision with business insights.
- Research acumen; with papers published in top tier AI conferences like AAAI, NIPS, ICML, KDD, etc.
- Strong Experience with big data platforms - Hadoop (Hive, Map Reduce, HQL, Scala).
- Strong Experience in Python.
About Walmart Global Tech
Imagine working in an environment where one line of code can make life easier for hundreds of millions of people. That’s what we do at Walmart Global Tech. We’re a team of software engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity expert's and service professionals within the world’s leading retailer who make an epic impact and are at the forefront of the next retail disruption. People are why we innovate, and people power our innovations. We are people-led and tech-empowered.
We train our team in the skillsets of the future and bring in experts like you to help us grow. We have roles for those chasing their first opportunity as well as those looking for the opportunity that will define their career. Here, you can kickstart a great career in tech, gain new skills and experience for virtually every industry, or leverage your expertise to innovate at scale, impact millions and reimagine the future of retail.
Walmart’s culture sets us apart, and we know being together helps us innovate, learn and grow great careers. This role is based in our [Bangalore/Chennai] office for daily work, with the flexibility for associates to manage their personal lives.
Benefits
Beyond our great compensation package, you can receive incentive awards for your performance. Other great perks include a host of best-in-class benefits maternity and parental leave, pto, health benefits, and much more.
Belonging
We aim to create a culture where every associate feels valued for who they are, rooted in respect for the individual. Our goal is to foster a sense of belonging, to create opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers, and to be a Walmart for everyone.
At Walmart, our vision is "everyone included." by fostering a workplace culture where everyone is-and feels-included, everyone wins. Our associates and customers reflect the makeup of all 19 countries where we operate. By making Walmart a welcoming place where all people feel like they belong, we’re able to engage associates, strengthen our business, improve our ability to serve customers, and support the communities where we operate.
Equal opportunity employer
Walmart, inc., is an equal opportunities employer - by choice. We believe we are best equipped to help our associates, customers and the communities we serve live better when we really know them. That means understanding, respecting and valuing unique styles, experiences, identities, ideas and opinions - while being inclusive of all people.
Minimum Qualifications...
Outlined below are the required minimum qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no minimum qualifications.
Minimum Qualifications:Option 1: Bachelors degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 4 years' experience in an analytics related field. Option 2: Masters degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 2 years' experience in an analytics related field. Option 3: 6 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.