Lead Data Scientist Advanced AI (Applied ML, Agentic, Gen AI)

Pay is based on several factors which vary based on include labor markets and in some instancesmay include education work experience and addition to your pay Target cares about and invests in you as a team member so that you can take care of yourself and your family. Target offers eligible team members and their dependents comprehensive health benefits and programs which may include medical vision dental life insurance and more to help you and your family take care of your whole benefits for eligible team members include 401(k) employee discount short term disability long term disability paid sick leave paid national holidays and paid competitive benefits from financial and education to well-being and beyond at TARGET AS A LEAD DATA SCIENTIST ADVANCE AI / AI FACTORY

About us:

Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here.

About the role:

Targets Advanced AI team builds end-to-end AI/ML systems that create meaningful business value across the enterprise. These systems may be powered by LLMs classical machine learning or deep learning models and are designed as scalable reliable production-grade applications including agentic architectures where they add clear value.

As a Lead Data Scientist for Advanced AI you will help identify design develop evaluate and scale AI/ML capabilities that drive automation insight and action across core business workflows. You will work closely with AI Engineers Full-Stack Engineers product partners platform teams security teams and business stakeholders to translate ambiguous business problems into practical AI/ML solutions.

In this role you will provide hands-on data science leadership across Advanced AI initiatives. You will frame problems define success metrics explore data develop modeling approaches design experiments evaluate model and system performance and help guide solutions from prototype to production. You will work across LLM-powered applications classical machine learning deep learning retrieval-augmented generation agentic systems intelligent automation and other applied AI patterns where appropriate.

You will also partner with engineering teams to ensure AI/ML solutions are reliable measurable maintainable and aligned to Targets enterprise standards. This includes contributing to evaluation strategies model monitoring approaches feedback loops human-in-the-loop workflows and responsible AI practices. You will help shape technical approaches identify risks resolve ambiguity mentor other Data Scientists and support the evolution of reusable AI/ML patterns for the broader Advanced AI team.

A successful Lead Data Scientist will help deliver production-grade AI/ML applications that create measurable business value while raising the quality of data science experimentation evaluation and applied AI practices across the team.

Core responsibilities of this job are articulated within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

About you:

• PhD or MS in MS in Computer Science Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Applied Mathematics Physics or a related technical field preferred
• 7 years of hands-on experience in data science machine learning applied AI or AI/ML systems
• Demonstrated experience developing and evaluating AI/ML solutions including solutions powered by LLMs classical machine learning models and deep learning models
• Strong proficiency with Python programming in common data science machine learning and deep learning libraries (Pandas NumPy scikit-learn PyTorch TensorFlow etc.)
• Experience working with LLMs prompt engineering retrieval-augmented generation agentic workflows model APIs embeddings evaluation frameworks or AI observability tools is strongly preferred
• Strong understanding of the model development lifecycle including problem framing data exploration feature engineering model selection experimentation validation evaluation deployment partnership monitoring and continuous improvement
• Ability to define clear success metrics and evaluation strategies for AI/ML systems including both offline and production-facing measures of quality reliability adoption and business impact
• Experience deploying models prototypes or AI/ML capabilities into production applications
• Ability to translate ambiguous business problems into structured data science and modeling approaches
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex AI/ML concepts tradeoffs risks and recommendations to technical partners business stakeholders and leaders
• Ability to mentor applied data scientist contribute to technical direction and raise the quality of data science practices within a team
• Experience working in large enterprise environments with data governance privacy security platform and operational requirements
• Self-driven and results-oriented with strong ownership sound judgment curiosity and the ability to move quickly while maintaining high technical standards
• Collaborative team player with a commitment to continuous learning knowledge sharing responsible AI practices and building reliable AI/ML systems that create business value

This position will operate as a Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement based on Targets needs. A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team members core role will need to be performed both onsite at the Target HQ MN location the role is assigned to and virtually depending on what the role team and tasks require for that day. Work duties cannot be performed outside of the country of the primary work location unless otherwise prescribed by Target.

Benefits Eligibility

In compliance with state and federal laws Target will make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process please reach out to Non-accommodation-related requests such as application follow-ups or technical issues will not be addressed through this channel.