Manager of Data Science, Personalization - Hybrid

CarMax • Full-time • Richmond, Virginia, United States of America • 3w ago

8901 - Corp Office West Crk - 12800 Tuckahoe Creek Parkway, Richmond, Virginia, 23238CarMax, the way your career should be!

About this job

It’s an exciting time at CarMax!  After decades of success and a rise to becoming the largest used car retailer in the US, CarMax is focused on disrupting the auto industry once again through our transformation to a leading omni-channel retailer.  To achieve this goal, CarMax has spent the last few years investing heavily in modernizing our digital and analytical infrastructure to support our customer-centric experience as the customer shopping journey continues to evolve online.  We’re stitching data science throughout our business to drive a great customer experience and optimize our operations.

As a Data Science Manager at CarMax, you’ll apply your passion and expertise for data, machine learning, predictive analytics, and entrepreneurship to create data-powered products that enrich CarMax’s culture of innovation and drive business results.  You will be a leader in the analytic community – advancing the use of data science in high impact areas of our business. 

With millions of customer interactions every day, and thousands of unique vehicles in inventory, you’ll be tapping the industry’s best data to develop new algorithms and personalized experiences that help customers efficiently find the right car and navigate their car buying journey. 

In this role you will:

Collaborate with Product teams across CarMax to explore new use cases for our Production-grade Recommendations Service, expanding across digital and physical customer touchpoints.

Lead the end-to-end experimentation lifecycle for Personalization initiatives, from hypothesis generation through A/B test design, analysis, and deployment. You will partner with Product and Strategy teams to identify and prioritize testing opportunities to drive key business metrics like vehicle reservation leads and sales conversion.

Evolvearchitectural solutions thatreflect the unique challenges at CarMax: the length of our customers’ consideration phase, the complexity of an omnichannel journey, and the need to balance customer discovery with inventory constraints.

Drive technical innovation and maintain industry awareness of best-in-class recommender systems, personalization techniques, and use of emerging AI. Research and implementrelevant approaches – including contextual bandits, two-tower architecture, and next-generation personalization paradigms like LLM integration – to continuously advance CarMax’s capabilities and ensure we leveragestate-of-the-art approaches that deliverbusiness value.

Qualifications and Requirements

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.  The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions

Advanced Degree (Master’s/Ph.D.) in quantitative discipline (Statistics, Math, Data Science, Engineering) is preferred
3+ years of experience in the following areas:
- R, Python, Scala, or other languages appropriate for large scale analysis of numerical and textual data
- Data mining, machine learning, statistical modeling tools and underlying algorithms
- Data Lake and cloud computing fundamentals

Strong analytical curiosity and passion for applying advanced modeling techniques in problem solving

Sound analytical thinker with a proven track record of providing actionable insights and clear strategic direction

Ability to convey complex, technical subject matter in a clear and straightforward manner; demonstrated ability to effectively communicate through written and oral presentations with all levels of the organization

Solid project management skills with the ability to juggle multiple priorities simultaneously in a fast-paced environment

Ability to train and mentor others

Experience in Recommender Systems, Search Algorithms, or operationalizing performant algorithms for website integration is a plus

Preferred Experience:

Experience building and scaling production recommendation systems in retail, e-commerce or marketplace environments.

Hands-on expertise with modern recommender architectures including embedding models, retrieval systems, and rerankers.

Deep understanding of MLOps practices.

Experience with large-scale A/B test design and analysis.

Experience with real-time or near-real-time inference systems and managing latency/throughput tradeoffs at scale.

Familiarity with complex products requiring nuanced personalization (automotive, real estate, high-consideration purchases) or multi-sided marketplace dynamics.

Track record of driving measurable business impact through personalization and experimentation.

Work Location and Arrangement: This role will be based out of the either the Richmond, VA Home Office, the Dallas, TX Technology Hub or the Atlanta, GA CarMax Auto Finance Office and has a Hybrid work arrangement.

Work Authorization: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Sponsorship will not be considered for this specific role.

About CarMax

CarMax disrupted the auto industry by delivering the honest, transparent and high-integrity experience customers want and deserve. This innovative thinking around the way cars are bought and sold has helped us become the nation’s largest retailer of used cars, with over 200 locations nationwide.

Our amazing team of more than 25,000 associates work together to deliver iconic customer experiences. Along the way, we help every associate grow their career and achieve their best, at work and in their community. We are recognized for our commitment to training and diversity and are one of the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For®.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:

CarMax is committed to bringing together people from different backgrounds and perspectives, providing employees with a safe, welcoming, and inclusive work environment.

CarMax is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, and any other characteristics protected by law.

Upon an applicant's request, CarMax will consider reasonable accommodation to complete the CarMax Job Application.

Related Jobs

Apply