Applied Data Scientist – Search Ranking (Applied ML, LLMs, NLP) Full Time NEW

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 DATA SCIENTIST – SEARCH

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 at scale to automate and optimize decisions at scale. Whether you join our Statistics, Optimization 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 Optimization, Network Security and Personalization rely on.

Every 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.

As a Data Scientist, you’ll Influence by interacting within the Data Sciences team, 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. You will get the opportunity to develop in one or more approved programming languages (Java, Scala, Python, R), and learn and adhere to best practices in data analysis and data understanding.

As you follow agile processes, you will implement prototypes for individual components of software or data science solutions and understand and leverage basic data structures and algorithms in implementing solutions. Leverage your high-level understanding in business domain to gain knowledge of high-level Target business priorities, strategic goals and their impact, as well as details of the specific business sub-problem you are focused on. You will collaborate with peers on their product and document and present work to peers and participate in code reviews and gain broader understanding of different components within the application. The exciting part of retail? It’s always changing!

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

About You

• 4-year degree in Quantitative disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) or equivalent experience
• Exceptional Python programming experience with advanced technical problem-solving skills
• 1 plus year of experience deploying end to end ML models and algorithms into production environment
• Knowledge of search indexing, ranking, information retrieval, query understanding or recommendation / recommender systems
• Experience with ML Ops (VetexAI, BigQuery, etc.) as well as 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, ranking, 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 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.

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 candidate.accommodations@HRHelp.Target.com. Non-accommodation-related requests, such as application follow-ups or technical issues, will not be addressed through this channel.  

Application deadline is : 05/11/2026