Senior Director, Data Science & Ontology
Walmart
Bentonville, Arkansas
Part-Time
$160,000
RemoteDirector
Lead Enterprise Data Science and Ontology Strategy
Define and execute a multi-year strategy for ontology, taxonomy, knowledge graph, semantic search, metadata, and AI-enabled data products. Translate Walmart’s business priorities into scalable semantic data capabilities that improve customer experiences, associate productivity, operational efficiency, and decision quality.
Build Scalable Semantic and AI Systems
Lead the development of ontology-driven systems that connect structured and unstructured data across complex business domains. Guide teams building capabilities such as entity resolution, classification, product and content enrichment, semantic search, recommendation relevance, knowledge graphs, embeddings, LLM-enabled workflows, RAG, and intelligent data discovery.
Own Data Quality, Governance, and Responsible AI
Establish standards for ontology design, taxonomy governance, metadata quality, lineage, stewardship, measurement, and model governance. Ensure data science and AI systems are explainable, reliable, monitored, auditable, and aligned with Walmart’s standards for integrity, privacy, compliance, and responsible technology use.
Drive Business Impact and Executive Alignment
Partner with senior leaders across product, engineering, merchandising, operations, customer experience, and business teams to identify high-value opportunities, define success metrics, build business cases, and deliver measurable ROI. Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to executive, technical, and non-technical audiences.
Lead the End-to-End Data Science Lifecycle
Oversee problem formulation, exploratory analysis, feature strategy, ontology design, model development, experimentation, validation, deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement. Ensure teams use appropriate statistical, machine learning, optimization, and AI techniques to solve high-scale business problems.
Scale Teams, Talent, and Operating Models
Build, lead, and develop a world-class team of data scientists, ontology specialists, applied scientists, machine learning practitioners, data strategists, and technical leaders. Create a high-performance culture through hiring, coaching, mentoring, succession planning, capability building, and clear accountability.
Champion Innovation at Walmart Scale
Stay current with emerging practices in data science, ontology engineering, generative AI, knowledge graphs, MLOps, semantic data platforms, and responsible AI. Identify where new technologies can create competitive advantage, while ensuring practical adoption, measurable impact, and operational excellence.
What You’ll Bring…
Additional Qualifications:
Leadership Expectations
Respect the Individual
Build high-performing teams by seeking and embracing different perspectives, backgrounds, ideas, and experiences. Create an environment where associates feel seen, supported, connected, and empowered to do their best work. Develop talent through feedback, coaching, mentoring, recognition, and clear growth opportunities.
Act with Integrity
Model Walmart’s values and lead with the highest standards of ethics, compliance, transparency, and accountability. Ensure teams follow the law, Walmart’s Code of Conduct, company policies, and responsible data and AI practices. Foster a culture where associates feel safe raising concerns and where leaders act with humility, fairness, and trust.
Serve Customers and Members
Put customers and members first in every strategy, roadmap, and technology decision. Use data, analytics, customer insights, and business understanding to improve experiences, increase relevance, reduce friction, and support Walmart’s Every Day Low Cost and Every Day Low Price commitments.
Strive for Excellence
Raise the bar for technical quality, business impact, innovation, and speed. Encourage curiosity, learning, intelligent risk-taking, and resilience. Drive continuous improvement and responsible adoption of new technologies that strengthen Walmart’s business model and create real-world impact.
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.
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.
For information about PTO, see https://one.walmart.com/notices.
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.
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.
For information about benefits and eligibility, see One.Walmart.
The annual salary range for this position is $160,000.00 - $320,000.00
Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses.
Additional compensation for certain positions may also include :
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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 7Outlined below are the optional preferred qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no preferred qualifications.
Data science, machine learning, optimization models, PhD 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, Supervisory experience, 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.