Job Description

Company: Sam’s Club (part of Walmart)
Level: Director / Senior Director (Very Senior Leadership)
Salary Range: $195,000 – $370,000 + bonus + stock

This is not a hands-on data scientist role.
It is a strategic leadership role combining:

Data Science + Business Strategy + Customer Experience + Executive Influence

🧭 What This Role Really Is

Think of it as:

Chief Data Strategist for Customer Experience

You are responsible for:

• Member experience strategy
• Predictive decision frameworks
• Enterprise analytics direction
• Transformation initiatives
• Executive influence

You are shaping how the company invests billions.

🚀 Core Responsibilities

1. Enterprise Strategy Leadership

You convert insights into company-wide strategy:

• Customer journey optimization
• Growth investments
• Marketing direction
• Operational improvements

This is boardroom-level impact.

2. Data Science & Analytics Oversight

You won’t build models daily, but you:

• Guide modeling direction
• Challenge data scientists
• Approve methodologies
• Ensure analytics drives business outcomes

You must be technically credible.

3. Personalization & Engagement

Key focus areas:

• Multi-channel personalization
• Segmentation
• A/B testing
• Member lifecycle analytics

Goal → Increase revenue and loyalty.

4. Transformation Leadership

Major responsibility:

• Identify gaps in operations
• Launch new initiatives
• Modernize analytics capabilities
• Align teams across departments

This is organizational change leadership.

5. Executive Influence

You interact with:

• Senior executives
• Officers
• Board discussions
• Strategy meetings

Communication skill is critical.

6. Team Leadership

You build and mentor:

• Data scientists
• Analysts
• Strategy professionals

Culture building is part of the job.

🧠 Skills They Want

Technical Literacy

• Predictive modeling
• ML/NLP understanding
• Segmentation frameworks
• Experimentation
• Analytics architecture

You don’t code daily — but you must understand deeply.

Business Leadership (Most Important)

• Strategic thinking
• P&L understanding
• Marketing knowledge
• Customer experience design
• Organizational influence

Leadership Traits

• Transformation mindset
• Executive presence
• Decision making under ambiguity
• Cross-functional leadership

⭐ Seniority Level Compared to Other Roles You Shared

From your previous jobs:

Role	Level
Junior Data Scientist	Entry
Senior Data Scientist	Mid
Manager Data Science	Senior
Director Data	Leadership
Group Director (this role)	Executive Leadership

This is 10–15+ years experience level typically.

💰 Compensation Insight

Typical total compensation (big retail companies):

• Base: $200k – $350k
• Bonus: 20–40%
• Stock: Significant

Total comp can exceed $450k+.

🔥 Why This Role Is Powerful

You influence:

• Customer experience strategy
• Marketing spend
• Business investments
• Future growth direction

Few data roles reach this level.

📈 Career Path After This Role

Possible next steps:

• VP of Data Science
• Chief Data Officer (CDO)
• Chief Analytics Officer
• Business Unit GM
• COO track

This is near executive ladder.

⚠️ Important Reality

To qualify, candidates usually have:

• 8–15 years analytics experience
• 4+ years leadership
• Large company experience
• Proven business impact
• Team management success

💡 Simple Explanation

If Data Scientist = “build models”

Then this role =

“Decide what models the company should build and why.”