Lead Data Scientist – Recommendations, Applied ML, Reinforcement Learning, Contextual Bandit Design

Target

. Provide technical leadership for machine learning systems powering Target's digital recommendations and personalization experiences .

Posted 9/25/2026full-timeMinneapolis • Minnesota • United StatesSenior💰 $132,000 - $238,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

PythonPyTorchSparkSQL

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Provide technical leadership for machine learning systems powering Target's digital recommendations and personalization experiences
Identify opportunities to improve guest experiences through recommendation, retrieval, ranking, and personalization solutions at massive scale
Lead the design, development, evaluation, and deployment of machine learning models influencing product discovery across Target's digital experiences
Translate ambiguous business challenges into scalable algorithmic solutions that drive measurable guest and business impact
Drive projects from problem definition through production deployment and measurement
Balance innovation with operational excellence and long-term maintainability
Shape the technical direction of Target's recommendation capabilities
Establish best practices for model development, evaluation, and measurement
Influence decisions across product, engineering, and data science teams
Mentor and develop other scientists
Raise the technical bar across the organization
Contribute to the growth of Target's data science community through collaboration, thought leadership, and adoption of emerging machine learning techniques and technologies
Perform modeling and data science, develop highly performant software, elevate Target's culture, and apply retail domain knowledge

Requirements

What you’ll need

PhD or MS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, or a related quantitative field with 2+ years of industry experience
5+ years of experience developing machine learning solutions scaling recommendation, personalization, ranking, retrieval, or search machine learning systems
Experience with reinforcement learning and/or contextual bandit design, implementation, and evaluation
Experience leading the development, evaluation, and deployment of machine learning solutions and partnering with engineering teams to deliver scalable production systems
Strong programming skills in Python and SQL
Experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX
Experience working with large-scale data processing and analytics platforms such as Spark or equivalent
Deep understanding of machine learning, deep learning, optimization, statistics, probability, and experimental design
Experience designing, analyzing, and interpreting online experiments and using results to inform product and business decisions
Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous business challenges into scalable machine learning solutions
Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction and drive alignment across product, engineering, and business stakeholders
Experience leveraging modern AI and generative AI tools to accelerate development, experimentation, and model delivery
Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly communicate complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences
Strong software engineering fundamentals, including testing, code reviews, documentation, and maintainable system design
Work duties cannot be performed outside of the country of the primary work location, unless otherwise prescribed by Target

Benefits

Comp & perks

Comprehensive health benefits, which may include medical, vision, dental, and life insurance
401(k)
Employee discount
Short-term disability
Long-term disability
Paid sick leave
Paid national holidays
Paid vacation
Financial, education, and well-being benefits and programs
Remote work arrangement may allow working full-time from home or an alternate non-Target location
Remote team members may travel to HQ up to 4 times a year