Position Purpose:

The Principal Data Scientist is responsible for leading high-impact data science and AI initiatives that drive business growth, improve operational efficiency, and create better customer and associate experiences. A key focus of this role will be advancing AI-powered customer support and agentic workflows that apply the reasoning, context, and decision-making patterns used by skilled associates to help customers resolve complex needs. These capabilities are designed to provide customers with faster, more effective self-service experiences while improving resolution quality and reducing the cost to serve.

As a Principal Data Scientist, you will lead the design and development of end-to-end AI and data science solutions, including predictive models, generative AI applications, agentic workflows, decisioning and orchestration capabilities. You will identify opportunities to apply the right combination of machine learning, large language models, optimization, business rules, enterprise data, and APIs to create intelligent solutions that can reason across customer needs, take appropriate actions, and integrate with production systems.

You will partner closely with Product, Engineering, Architecture, and business teams to translate complex customer and operational problems into scalable AI capabilities. You will help refine how AI workflows understand intent, make decisions, use enterprise tools and data, and determine the appropriate next action. You will guide solutions from experimentation and proof of concept through production deployment, while establishing rigorous approaches for evaluation, experimentation, monitoring, reliability, and continuous improvement.

The Principal Data Scientist will also provide technical leadership across data science teams, mentor other data scientists, develop reusable AI capabilities and intellectual property, and help shape the adoption of emerging AI technologies across The Home Depot. This role contributes to building strong data science talent through mentorship, recruiting, and hiring while maintaining connections with academic and industry experts to advance the application of AI and data science to complex business problems.

Key Responsibilities:

• 25% Solution Development – Utilize advanced expertise when designing and developing algorithms and models to use against large datasets to create business insights; Make appropriate selection, utilization and interpretation of advanced analytics methodologies; Effectively communicate insights and recommendations to both technical and non-technical leaders and business customers/partners; Clearly communicate impacts of recommendations to drive alignment and appropriate implementation; Test alternative methodology and cutting-edge algorithms on business problems to deliver even better solutions and recommendations
• 20% Project Management & Team Support – Work with project teams and business partners to determine project goals; Provide direction on prioritization of work and ensure quality of work; Provide mentoring and coaching to more junior roles to support their technical competencies; Collaborate with managers and team in the distribution of workload and resources; Support recruiting and hiring efforts for the team; Serve as a technical subject matter expert (SME) for one or more data science methods, both predictive and prescriptive
• 20% Business Collaboration – Leverage extensive business knowledge into solution approach; Effectively develop trust and collaboration with internal customers and cross-functional teams; Provide general education on advanced analytics to technical and non-technical business partners; Deep understanding of IT needs for the team to be successful in tackling business problems; Actively seek out new business opportunities to leverage data science as a competitive advantage
• 35% Technical Exploration & Development – Seek further knowledge on key developments within data science, technical skill sets, and additional data sources; Participate in the continuous improvement of data science and analytics by developing replicable solutions (for example, codified data products, project documentation, process flowcharts) to ensure solutions are leveraged for future projects; Define best practices and develop clear vision for data analysis and model productionalization; Support development of cutting-edge, innovative algorithms that would serve as Intellectual Property for Home Depot; Demonstrate and share technical expertise by attending conferences, speaking events and publishing papers; Be a thought leader within Home Depot in one or more Prescriptive Modeling techniques like optimization, computer vision, recommendation, search or NLP; Network with both academic and industry experts to further the application of data science to business problems

Direct Manager/Direct Reports:

• This position typically reports to Senior Manager or above
• This position has 0 Direct Reports and leads/manages projects

Travel Requirements:

• Typically requires overnight travel less than 10% of the time.

Physical Requirements:

• Most of the time is spent sitting in a comfortable position and there is frequent opportunity to move about. On rare occasions there may be a need to move or lift light articles.

Working Conditions:

• Located in a comfortable indoor area. Any unpleasant conditions would be infrequent and not objectionable.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Must be eighteen years of age or older.
• Must be legally permitted to work in the United States.

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, or advanced analytics.
• Expert-level proficiency in Python and strong experience with modern data science and machine learning libraries and frameworks.
• Advanced proficiency in SQL and experience working with large-scale cloud data platforms such as Google BigQuery or equivalent technologies.
• Strong expertise in Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), including prompt engineering, structured generation, embeddings, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), context management, and model selection.
• Experience designing agentic AI systems and multi-step AI workflows, including tool/function calling, reasoning and planning patterns, state and memory management, and orchestration across models, APIs, and enterprise data sources.
• Strong knowledge of LLM and agent evaluation techniques, including automated and human evaluation, groundedness, hallucination detection, task completion, response quality, latency, and cost optimization.
• Strong understanding of API-based AI architectures and integration patterns for connecting models and agents with external tools, data, and systems.
• Knowledge of modern ML/AI development and operational tooling, including model versioning, observability, experimentation, monitoring, and evaluation frameworks.

Minimum Education:

• The knowledge, skills and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a bachelor's degree program or equivalent degree in a field of study related to the job.

Preferred Education:

• No additional education

Minimum Years of Work Experience:

• 10

Preferred Years of Work Experience:

• No additional years of experience

Minimum Leadership Experience:

• None

Preferred Leadership Experience:

• None

Certifications:

• None

Competencies:

• Business Insight: Applying knowledge of the business and the marketplace to advance the organization's goals
• Communicates Effectively: Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences
• Cultivates Innovation: Creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful
• Develops Talent: Developing people to meet both their career goals and the organization's goals
• Drives Vision and Purpose: Painting a compelling picture of the vision and strategy that motivates others to action
• Instills Trust: Gaining the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, and authenticity
• Optimizes Work Processes: Knowing the most efficient and effective processes to get things done, with a focus on continuous improvement
• Persuades: Using compelling arguments to gain the support and commitment of others
• Self-Development: Actively seeking new ways to grow and be challenged using both formal and informal development channels
• Strategic Mindset: Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies
• Tech Savvy: Anticipating and adopting innovations in business building digital and technology applications