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# Principal Applied Data Scientist - Search and Browse (NLP, Vector Search, LLMs)

- **Company:** Target Brands, Inc.
- **Location:** Sunnyvale, CA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $168,000.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems, Python (Programming Language), Natural Language Processing, Software Product Management, Recommender Systems, Search Technologies, Large Language Models, Reliability of Systems, AI Platforms, Information Technology, Low Latency, Machine Learning Operations, Virtual Agents
- **Published:** July 24, 2026
- **Apply:** https://dejobs.org/x/x/C2014EC13F6F42A89E3587DF4E231DCA/job/

## About the Role

* PhD or MS in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Physics or related quantitative discipline
 * 8+ years of industry experience building and scaling ML systems for Search, Recommendation, Personalization, Ads, or AI platforms
 * Strong experience with semantic retrieval, vector search, RAG systems, conversational search or agentic AI systems
 * Deep expertise in retrieval/ranking architectures, recommendation systems, semantic search, NLP/LLMs, experimentation and ML infrastructure (VertexAI)
 * Demonstrated Python programming and technical ML problem-solving skills
 * Proven experience defining architecture and long-term strategy for large-scale production AI systems
 * Experience operating large-scale online systems with strict latency, scalability, reliability, and infrastructure cost requirements
 * Strong understanding of retrieval/ranking system tradeoffs, experimentation strategy, and operational excellence
 * Strong track record driving measurable business impact through ML innovation
 * Experience leading cross-functional initiatives spanning multiple teams or organizations
 * Ability to influence executive stakeholders and drive organizational technical direction
 * Exceptional communication, technical leadership, strategic thinking, and mentoring skills

## Description

* Building zero-shot and cold-start discovery systems for rapidly changing, seasonal retail inventory
 * Solving natural language and long-tail search problems where conversational queries and traditional retrieval systems break against massive unstructured product catalogs
 * Evolving multi-stage retrieval and ranking architectures that balance relevance quality, latency, scalability, and infrastructure efficiency at enterprise scale

We are looking for pragmatic builders and technical leaders who thrive on shipping production systems at scale. Engineering excellence, sub-second latency, operational reliability, infrastructure economics, and seamless integration with core Retrieval and Ranking systems matter just as much as modeling sophistication.

This role requires deep technical expertise, exceptional product judgment, and the ability to influence organizational strategy while driving measurable customer and business impact

As a Principal Data Scientist - Search and Browse you'll:

 * Define the long-term technical vision and organizational roadmap for Search, Browse, and AI-driven discovery systems
 * Lead architecture strategy for large-scale retrieval, ranking, semantic search, and GenAI systems operating at massive scale
 * Drive innovation across transformers, LLMs, RAG architectures, multi-stage ranking systems, personalization, conversational commerce, and agentic AI
 * Architect search and retrieval systems for external LLM and agentic search ecosystem integration
 * Define the future evolution of semantic retrieval, conversational search, and zero-shot discovery systems
 * Influence organization-wide strategy across relevance, experimentation, evaluation, ML infrastructure, and AI product investments
 * Lead highly ambiguous, multi-quarter initiatives involving Product, Engineering, Applied Science, Infrastructure, and executive stakeholders
 * Establish scalable ML architecture patterns, experimentation standards, and operational best practices across multiple teams
 * Drive foundational investments and technical direction across Search, Retrieval Infrastructure, and AI-powered discovery platforms
 * Balance customer experience, business impact, system reliability, latency, scalability, and infrastructure cost at enterprise scale
 * Mentor Lead scientists and technical leaders across the organization
 * Represent the organization in executive reviews and drive alignment on major technical and product decisions
 * Influence technical direction and investment priorities across multiple teams and organizations

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


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