Safeway hiring Sr. Director Data Science in Pleasanton, CA | LinkedIn (2024)

About The CompanyAlbertsons Companies is at the forefront of the revolution in retail. With a fixation on raising the bar with innovation and building belonging through our culture, our team is rallying our company around a unique purpose: to create joy around each table and inspire a healthier tomorrow for every community.

Albertsons Companies is one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States, with over 2,200 stores in 34 states and the District of Columbia. Our well-known banners include Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets, and Balducci's Food Lovers Market. We support our stores with 22 distribution centers and 19 manufacturing plants.

Placing a premium on adaptability, safety and family well-being, our work model, Presence with a Purpose, offers a hybrid work environment between remote work and office time. A one-size-fits-all approach does not apply to everyone, and teams are empowered to make decisions best for them.

Bring your flavor

Building the future of food and well-being starts with you. Join our team and bring your best self to the table.

The Data Science Department has an opening for a Senior Director Data Science.

The Data Science team at Albertsons Companies is looking for an experienced Data Science Leader to work for the most transformational food and drug retailers in the United States. Albertsons operates over 2,300 stores under 19 well-known banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen and Carrs. The company reported revenue of over $60 billion from over 34 million weekly shoppers and is the third largest private company in the country.

Data Science at Albertsons is inspired to build best in class customer experience and revolutionize the food and drug retail industry. We are looking for people who are excited in re-imagining the grocery experience by harnessing the power of AI and digital technologies. The Data Science team collects and relies on big data from existing stores and customer interactions at the 2300 nationwide stores and beyond. We are a highly driven team that applies data science to delight our customers, to improve store operations, to optimize supply chain and to proactively improve product lifecycle.

What you will be doing

This will be a key role in data science leadership and strategy and will build, maintain and nurture key partner relationships to create end-to-end data science solutions.

• You will partner with business leaders to drive continuous process improvement.
• You will act as a funnel for intake of all DS work across the enterprise and build appropriate coalition of modeling and engineering teams to deliver complete solutions.
• In conjunction with DS leadership group, you will develop and execute on an “end-to-end DS capabilities roadmap” for ML modeling and engineering work across data science in a cross-functional manner. To this end, you will hire experienced data scientists, ML architects, and AI product managers as might be necessary in the DS org.
• You will create and own a “Technology for data science roadmap” to enumerate the Data science specifications for ML platforms, chatbots, ML Ops infrastructure.
• You will ensure coordination between Data Science teams & various IT groups including ML Engineering, data engineering, and AI engineering in executing the strategy

You will enjoy working with one of the richest data sets in the world, cutting edge technology, and the ability to see your insights turned into business impacts on regular basis. You'll lead data scientists and partner with business in identifying and defining data science projects, building machine learning algorithms and models on top of existing data platforms. The candidate will have a background in a STEM discipline like computer science, engineering or a related technical field with experiences working with large data sets and applying data-driven decision making at enormous scale. A successful candidate will be both technically strong and business savvy, with a passion to make an impact through creative storytelling and timely actions. You are a self-starter, smart yet humble, with a bias for action. The level of this position will be determined at the time of the interview.

The position will be based in Pleasanton, CA or Boise, ID.

Main responsibilities

• You will set the vision and roadmap for a cross-functional team of data scientists, data analysts, data engineers and product managers that will build foundational data science capabilities in multiple areas including 1) end to end demand forecasting and price elasticity; 2) customer/ item/ offer 360 views; 3) end-to-end personalized ad/offer/item recommendations and cross sell; 4) deep learning model training and evaluation capabilities for discriminative and generative AI.
• You will lead the efforts to convert multiple point solutions to platforms at scale.
• You will lead efforts to connect merch planning, supply chain operations, promo, price, clearance and S&OP through common forecasts.
• You will lead efforts to connect ad, offer and item personalization, cross sell and other such customer growth initiatives.
• Lead partnerships with cross-functional teams to deliver analytical, predictive and decision-support solutions for supply chain and fulfillment-related functions and capabilities. Interface with cross functional leaders and represent point of views from data science to drive measurable success
• Recruit, build and lead high-performing teams of data scientists and machine learning engineers in a technical capacity. Inspire and deliver data science innovations that fuel the growth of the business
• Provide technical and thought leadership in data science. Guide architectures, data science models, machine learning algorithms and engineering best practices. Cultivate team managers and members and grow their skill sets.
• Use machine learning to solve real customer problems, power the next generation experiences for large scale applications in real time. Deliver breakthrough benefits to customers using personalized, enriched, and derived data from a range of sources
• Drive meetings and lead discussions. Prioritize projects across the team and allocate resources to meet business and team goals, supporting divisional and corporate efforts for cycles of planning and execution
• Communicate sophisticated machine learning and modeling solutions and capabilities effectively with intuitive visualizations for business stakeholders

The salary range is $ 218,900 to $ 284,300 annually. Starting salary will vary based on criteria such as location, experience, and qualifications. There may be flexibility for exceptional candidates. Benefits may include medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance, sick pay (accrued based on hours worked), PTO/Vacation Pay (accrued based on hours worked) or Flexible Time Off, paid holidays (8-9 days annually), bereavement pay, and retirement benefits (such as 401(k) eligibility). [If applicable:] Associates in this position are also eligible for a quarterly bonus.

A copy of the full job description can be made available to you.

What we are searching for

• Advanced degree in a STEM field like CS, DS, Engineering, Statistics, Math, etc. is preferred, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years management experience in building and leading data science teams
• Specific experience and skills working in the retail and grocery industry is preferred, including in the areas of supply chain optimization, merchandising and pricing, digital/ecommerce, fulfillment, and customer and marketing analytics and intelligence capabilities using data science, AI and machine learning tools and techniques
• You will bring product thinking and deep expertise in systems design to this role.
• You will bring an understanding of how planning and operations connects with customer related work from a data science perspective.
• You would have prior experience as a consultant and bring a service mindset to the work of business transformation.
• You will be equally comfortable interacting with scientists, engineers, product, and business clients.
• Business acumen and retail understanding is critical.
• Getting stuff done is critical.
• Has to be able to clearly set a vision to partners for the art of the possible.
• Track record of guiding teams through unstructured technical problems to deliver business impact. Ability to translate high-level business objectives into action
• Skilled at running cross-functional relationships and communicating with leadership across multiple organizations
• 10+ years of industry experience in applying data science: experimental design, machine learning, deep learning algorithms etc.
• 8+ years of experience and proficiency in Python, SQL
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in building data science solutions and production-ready systems on big data platforms such as Snowflake, Spark, Hadoop
• 5+ years of experience with Data Engineering, MLOps, and Model Life Cycle Management.
• Excellent communications skills, with the ability to synthesize, simplify and explain complex problems to different audience
• Experience with logistics and supply chain management systems, Snowflake, Azure Databricks is a plus

What is it like at Albertsons?

Our 290,000 associates have a passion for great service and building lasting relationships with our customers. Through a companywide focus on innovation, we are continually enhancing our digital and product offerings, making it easy for customers to get what they need, wherever they are.

Albertsons is an Equal Opportunity Employer

This Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, or on any other basis prohibited by law. Consistent with applicable state and local law, the Company will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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