Lead Data Scientist (P4356)

84.51° Overview:

84.51° is a retail data science, insights and media company. We help The Kroger Co., consumer packaged goods companies, agencies, publishers and affiliates create more personalized and valuable experiences for shoppers across the path to purchase.

Powered by cutting-edge science, we utilize first-party retail data from more than 62 million U.S. households sourced through the Kroger Plus loyalty card program to fuel a more customer-centric journey using 84.51° Insights, 84.51° Loyalty Marketing and our retail media advertising solution, Kroger Precision Marketing.

84.51° follows a 5‑day in‑office work schedule to support collaboration, alignment, and team connection.

Join us at 84.51°!

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Senior Data Scientist, Foundation Models, AI Enablement (P4356) HM: Saurav Acharya

Summary

We are seeking an experienced Senior Data Scientist to serve as a Developer Advocate for our Foundation Models team. In this unique role, you will bridge the gap between our cutting-edge AI capabilities and practical business needs by driving adoption of our foundation models portfolio, including embeddings, pre-trained LLMs, and fine-tuned language models. You will work directly with business stakeholders and end users to demonstrate value, create compelling use cases, and build the resources needed to accelerate model adoption across the organization. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in machine learning and AI with exceptional communication skills and a passion for enabling others to leverage AI effectively.

Responsibilities

• Drive adoption of foundation models across business units through stakeholder engagement, workshops, and training sessions.

• Create comprehensive user guides, documentations, tutorials, and best practices for model adoption.

• Design and execute rapid proof of concepts to demonstrate model value and feasibility for specific business problems.

• Develop customer facing multi-modal Generative AI demos for foundation models.

• Collaborate with MLE/Researchers/Engineers to build product-based training material.

• Evaluate and validate models developed by the team against quality metrics and performance standards prior to release.

• Develop workshops, Jupyter notebooks and AI Workflows.

• Provide technical guidance for production implementations and troubleshoot integration challenges.

• Document and guide others through technical content and videos.

• Track adoption metrics and success stories to measure impact and identify optimization opportunities.

• Be the evangelist for AI Factory Program and Proprietary Models.

• Serve as liaison between Foundation Models team and business stakeholders, gathering feedback to inform development roadmap.

• Provide external community usability feedback.

Qualifications and Experience

Required

• Advanced degree in Data Science, ML, Computer Science, or related field; 5+ years data science experience with 2+ years in senior role

• Deep hands-on experience with LLMs, embeddings, and foundation model architectures; proven track record of shipping DS/ML models to production.

• Strong programming in Python, ML frameworks (PyTorch, Transformers), and cloud platforms/ML/AI tools

• Expert knowledge of transformer architectures, fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and model evaluation

• Exceptional communication skills with ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences

• Experience in stakeholder management, technical documentation creation, and cross-functional collaboration

Preferred

• Previous developer relations, technical evangelism, or advocacy experience

• Background in NLP, conversational AI, or generative AI applications

• Open-source contributions or thought leadership in AI/ML community

#LI-SSS

Pay Transparency and Benefits

• The stated salary range represents the entire span applicable across all geographic markets from lowest to highest. Actual salary offers will be determined by multiple factors including but not limited to geographic location, relevant experience, knowledge, skills, other job-related qualifications, and alignment with market data and cost of labor. In addition to salary, this position is also eligible for variable compensation.

• Below is a list of some of the benefits we offer our associates:

• Health: Medical: with competitive plan designs and support for self-care, wellness and mental health. Dental: with in-network and out-of-network benefit. Vision: with in-network and out-of-network benefit.

• Wealth: 401(k) with Roth option and matching contribution. Health Savings Account with matching contribution (requires participation in qualifying medical plan). AD&D and supplemental insurance options to help ensure additional protection for you.

• Happiness: Paid time off with flexibility to meet your life needs, including 5 weeks of vacation time, 7 health and wellness days, 3 floating holidays, as well as 6 company-paid holidays per year. Paid leave for maternity, paternity and family care instances.

Pay Range
$121,000—$201,250 USD