Principal AI Scientist - Supply Chain AI / Operations Planning

Key Skills

Apache Hadoop, C Programming, C++, Data science techniques, Java Programming, Machine learning techniques, MapReduce, Python Programming, PyTorch, R Programming, Scala Programming, SQL, TensorFlow

Job Description

JOIN TARGET AI AS A PRINCIPAL AI SCIENTIST – OPERATIONS PLANNING

As a Principal AI Scientist with Target AI – you’ll develop optimization and artificial intelligence models and algorithms that change the game in our retail operations planning business. You’ll work closely with peer data scientists and business partners to continuously learn more about our business and particularly develop a deep understanding of the various processes we have in play. You will partner with scientists on peer AI teams and engineering partners to build and productionize solutions for our business needs including design, development, deployment, and maintenance of algorithms and models. As a Principal, you will work with the CDO, AI team leadership and business partners to define product roadmaps that advance our ecosystem and solve large scale retail challenges.

Our 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 positioning of inventory across multiple channels and locations, planning for the right mix of inventory investments vs guest experience, transportation resource planning, etc. We aim to develop these tools to be more efficient and precise, whilst also making them directly available to our business team users, hence allowing us to quickly respond to Guest needs.

In this role as a Principal AI Scientist on the Operation Planning team, you’ll:

• Change the way inventory and transportation planning is managed at Target.
• Create our next generation inventory and transportation planning algorithms. Develop and deploy models/algorithms based on Stochastic Optimization, Markov Decision processes, Machine Learning, Dynamic Programing, Reinforcement Learning Algorithms etc.
• Partner with business users and other scientists / engineers to build a framework allowing us to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of new algorithms efficiently and on the fly.
• Impact our business by improving our ability to serve Guests through positioning inventory, and by directly reducing operational costs through more efficient planning algorithms.
• Coordinate the analysis, troubleshooting, and resolution of issues in our models, software and the broader infrastructure.

What we're looking for:

• M.S./Ph.D. in mathematics, statistics, operations research, economics, physics, computer science or related major (or equivalent research experience)
• 7+ years of experience in modeling and algorithms
• Significant expertise in optimization theory (deterministic/stochastic), Markov Decision processes, Dynamic programming, linear algebra, stats, Machine learning, etc.
• Highly proficient in Python, Scala, Kotlin and/or JVM ecosystem
• Deep understanding of data structures and algorithms
• Ability to test and measure algorithms/models
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Bonus Points:

• Experience in statistical inference, machine learning, artificial intelligence,
• You have deployed models with large-scale business impact in commercial setting
• Experience working with large event-driven distributed systems and multi-threaded applications
• Strong understanding of deep learning, dynamic programming, reinforcement learning or related areas both in theory and practice