Senior, Data Scientist – Conversational AI

Position Summary...

What you'll do...

The Cortex team is the core A.I. platform powering the vision of delivering the world’s best intelligent personal assistants to Walmart’s customers, accessible via natural voice commands, text messages, rich UI interactions, and a mix of all of the above via multi-modal experiences.

We believe conversations are a natural and powerful user interface for interacting with technology and enable a richer customer experiences – both online and in-store. We are building and designing the next generation of Natural Language Understanding (NLU) services that other teams can easily integrate and leverage, and build rich experiences: from pure voice and text shopping assistants (Siri, Google Assistant, Text to Shop), to customer care channels, to mobile apps with rich, intertwined, multi-modal interaction modes (Me@Walmart).

Interested in diving in?

We need passionate and seasoned NLU data-scientists to help us improve and evolve our capabilities, taking into account the full conversational context, multi-modal interactions, and an ever increasing list of use cases.

Come at the right time, and you will have an enormous opportunity to make a massive impact on the design, architecture, and implementation of an innovative, mission critical product, driven by data-science, used every day, by people you know, and which customers love.

As part of the emerging tech group, you will also have the additional opportunity of building demos, proof of concepts, creating white papers, writing blogs, etc.

Here are some of our team publications:

• Blog Posts
  • “Building a conversational assistant platform for voice-enabled shopping” https://medium.com/walmartglobaltech/building-a-conversational-assistant-platform-for-voice-enabled-shopping-6d174cdc4131
  • “Using Context to Improve Intent Classification in Walmart’s Shopping Assistant” https://medium.com/walmartglobaltech/using-context-to-improve-intent-classification-in-walmarts-shopping-assistant-28f62d40fd17
  • “Making Walmart’s Shopping Assistant Proactive” https://medium.com/walmartglobaltech/making-walmarts-shopping-assistant-proactive-53a1764fcdee
• Papers & Talks
  • Semantic Representation and Parsing for Voice eCommerce (Paper and Talk) - Vivek Kaul, Shankara B Subramanya, R2K Workshop at KR 2018
  • Knowledge Graphs for AI-Powered Shopping Assistants, GraphConnect 2020, Ghodrat Aalipour, Mohammed Samiul Saeef https://graphconnect2020.sched.com/event/atkC/knowledge-graphs-for-ai-powered-shopping-assistants
  • Improving Intent Classification in an E-commerce Voice Assistant by Using Inter-Utterance Context (Paper + Talk) - Arpit Sharma, e-Commerce & NLP at ACL 2020 https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/2020.ecnlp-1.6/

Minimum Qualifications

• Experience with Python; solid knowledge SQL.
• Hands on experience with classical ML models, test/train/evaluation metrics, key parameters/techniques that affect model performance
• Understanding of relevant statistical measures such as confidence intervals, significance of error measurements, development and evaluation data sets.
• Familiarity and ideally experience with more recent deep ML models and NLU (e.g., Transformers, BERT, Electra, T5).
• A business analytical mind; ability to communicate with consumers of the model and present results in intuitive ways.
• Experience analyzing data to identify patterns and conducting error/deviation analysis; passion for fixing issues in the data and finding the optimal representation.
• Ability to take a project from scoping requirements through actual launch.
• A continuous drive to explore, improve, enhance, automate, and optimize models and products.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Bachelor’s degree or certification in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or any other related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to develop experimental and analytic plans for data modeling processes, use of strong baselines, ability to accurately determine cause and effect relations
• Strong attention to detail and exceptional level of organization
• Proven ability to achieve results in a fast paced, highly collaborative, dynamic work environment
• Hands-on expertise in many disparate technologies and the full model lifecycle, typically ranging from data pipelines, data extraction, model training, model serving, labeling tools, ML-ops, ad-hoc tooling and all points in between.
• PhD in a relevant field (Machine Learning, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics or a related field)

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.

Flexible, hybrid work:
We use a hybrid way of working that is primarily in office coupled with virtual when not onsite. Our campuses serve as a hub to enhance collaboration, bring us together for purpose and deliver on business needs. This approach helps us make quicker decisions, remove location barriers across our global team and be more flexible in our personal lives.

Benefits:
Benefits: Beyond our great compensation package, you can receive incentive awards for your performance. Other great perks include 401(k) match, stock purchase plan, paid maternity and parental leave, PTO, multiple health plans, and much more.

Equal Opportunity Employer:
Walmart, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity 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 diversity- unique styles, experiences, identities, ideas and opinions – while being inclusive of all people.

At Walmart, 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 (including sick leave), parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting. Other benefits include short-term and long-term disability, company discounts, Military Leave Pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, and more.

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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.

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For information about PTO, see https://one.walmart.com/notices.

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Live Better U is a Walmart-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.

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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.

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For information about benefits and eligibility, see One.Walmart.

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The annual salary range for this position is $117,000.00-$234,000.00

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Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses.

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Additional compensation for certain positions may also include:

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- Stock

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Minimum Qualifications...

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

Option 1- Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field and 3 years' experience in an analytics related field. Option 2- Master’s degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field and 1 years' experience in an analytics related field. Option 3 - 5 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...

680 West California Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94086-4834, United States of America