Sr Applied Data Scientist - Search (NLP, Query Understanding, LLM's)

The pay range is $98,000.00 - $211,000.00

Pay is based on several factors which vary based on position. These include labor markets and in some instances may include education, work experience and certifications. In 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 selves. Other benefits for eligible team members include 401(k), employee discount, short term disability, long term disability, paid sick leave, paid national holidays, and paid vacation. Find competitive benefits from financial and education to well-being and beyond at https://corporate.target.com/careers/benefits.

JOIN TARGET AS A SR DATA SCIENTIST – SEARCH (NLP, APPLIED ML)

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.   

A role with Target Data Sciences means the chance to help develop and manage state of the art predictive algorithms that use data to automate and optimize decisions at scale. Whether you join our Data Sciences or Machine Learning teams, you’ll be challenged to harness Target’s impressive data breadth to build the algorithms that power solutions our partners in Marketing, Supply Chain, Demand Forecasting, Search and Personalization rely on.

Every Data Scientist on Target’s Data Sciences team can expect modeling and data science, software/product development of highly performant code for Model Performance to elevate Target’s culture and apply retail domain knowledge.

The Target Search and Browse Data Science team builds the core relevance engine and Data Science products that power Target’s digital experience. As a Sr Data Scientist on this team – you’ll work with business partners to provide solutions for business problems in a fast-paced and global environment. You’ll have the opportunity to design quality, flexible and performant Data Science systems and services at scale.  You’ll also architect Data Science solutions that capture, process and mine huge datasets in the retail industry. We’ll also promote innovative thinking as well as the opportunity to utilize cutting-edge machine learning algorithms and NLP techniques to improve our Mobile and Web Search systems at Target!

As a Sr Data Scientist, you will influence by interacting within the Data Sciences team and with Product teams, perform within the scale and scope of your role by implementing solutions, and contribute to Data Sciences’ and Target’s culture by modeling the culture. Through your understanding of the foundations and working principles of machine learning algorithms, linear algebra, probability theory, statistics, and optimization theory, you will perform data exploration and analysis (look at distributions, find anomalies, create simple visualizations, etc.) and implement algorithmic solution given specifications, while adhering to best practices in model development. We will look to you to understand and actively follow foundational programming principles (best practices, know about unit tests, code organization, basics of CI/CD etc.) and create a well-maintainable & tested codebase with relevant documentation.

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

About you:

• PhD or MS in Computer Science, Information Technology, Applied Mathematics, Physics or relevant industry work experience in a quantitative field
• Exceptional coding/programming in Python or Java with advanced technical problem-solving skills
• 3 plus year of experience implementing end to end ML models and algorithms into production
• Demonstrated experience implementing search indexing, ranking, information retrieval, query understanding or recommendation / recommender systems
• Experience deploying Machine Learning algorithms into production environments
• Experience with ML Ops (VetexAI, Bigquery, etc.) and various testing frameworks and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)
• Experience querying large databases with SQL, HQL or some variations
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills that can partner with a global teams
• Constant learner mentality that stays on the leading edge of search, query understanding, applied ML, LLM’s and NLP advancements

This position will operate as a Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement based on Target’s needs. A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team member’s core role will need to be performed both onsite at the Target HQ Sunnyvale or MN location the role is assigned to and virtually, depending upon what your 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. Click here if you are curious to learn more about Minnesota

Target will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the San Francisco and City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Ordinances.

Benefits Eligibility

Please paste this url into your preferred browser to learn about benefits eligibility for this role: https://tgt.biz/BenefitsForYou_D

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

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 [email protected]. Non-accommodation-related requests, such as application follow-ups or technical issues, will not be addressed through this channel.  

Application deadline is : 03/29/2026