URBN Senior Data Scientist

Role Summary

URBN seeks a Senior Data Scientist to lead the development of AI-powered digital experiences, initially focusing on a Product Design & Development workstream. As Algorithm Lead, you'll apply advanced machine learning to support the generation of creative styles that inform the Design team with AI-assisted capabilities (visualization, cost/material inputs). This role involves technical ownership of innovative AI/ML solutions and close collaboration with digital product creation, technical design, Product Management, and Engineering teams to streamline AI-driven product concepts. 

As Senior Data Scientist, you will play a pivotal role in developing ML solutions that empower multiple AI-first innovations at URBN, ensuring data-driven innovation enhances experiences and decision-making. If you are passionate about AI-powered digital transformation, predictive analytics, and machine learning, we invite you to help shape the future of intelligent retail and digital solutions at URBN.

Role Responsibilities

• Design and implement machine learning models to power AI-assisted product visualization, working with complex, high-dimensional datasets.

• Develop and refine Generative AI techniques and pipelines to support product concepts based on trend insights and material availability.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including digital product teams and technical designers, to integrate AI solutions into the product design and development workflows.

• Partner with engineers to translate AI prototypes and models into scalable features and services as part of the product lifecycle.  

• Guide data exploration and feature engineering to support high-performing models for image generation and design automation.  

• Analyze large-scale data sets, including trend data and material specifications, to generate actionable insights and recommendations for design.

• Partner with Product Management to translate business needs for accelerated and innovative design into technical AI solutions.  

• Test hypotheses and analyze the results of AI-driven design experiments to drive continuous improvement and efficiency in the product development pipeline.

• Lead the technical evaluation of external AI/ML tools and vendors relevant to generative design and image creation, influencing decisions for our technology stack.  

• Design and execute validation strategies for AI-generated designs, ensuring they meet brand standards and are technically feasible for production.

Role Qualifications

• 5+ years of industry experience in data science, AI/ML, and predictive analytics.  

• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL for data manipulation, analysis, and model development.  

• Practical experience with computer vision, image understanding, and generative models (e.g., GANs, VAEs, diffusion models, LoRA adapters). 

• A solid understanding of the data science principles that underpin image generation, beyond prompt engineering.

• Proven success in developing and deploying production-level machine learning models.  

• Experience with machine learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch) and cloud-based AI infrastructure.  

• Hands-on experience with large-scale data processing, feature engineering, and automation.

• Ability to translate complex business challenges in product design and development into data-driven AI solutions.  

• Excellent communication, collaboration, and strategic problem-solving skills, with experience working in agile environments.  

• Familiarity with the fashion or apparel industry and product development lifecycle is a plus.

• Experience with tools like ComfyUI, Stable Diffusion Models, FLUX, Imagen, or similar in a production setting is a strong plus, but not required.

The Perks

URBN offers comprehensive Perks & Benefits to employees. Availability and eligibility to specific benefits may be subject to your location and employment status. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, PTO, generous employee discounts, retirement savings and much more! For additional information visit www.urbn.com/work-with-us/benefits

EEO Statement

URBN celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We are proud to provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex (including gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression), religion, creed, age, physical or mental disability, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, citizenship, service in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic as established by law. We believe strongly in fostering a safe, fair and respectful work environment. To ensure compliance with our non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies, we offer anti-harassment training to managers and employees.