Director, Data Science

Job Description:

At Chewy, taking care of pets and the people who love them through the highs, the lows, and the everyday is what drives us. Grounded in that purpose and focused on our mission to be the most trusted and convenient destination for pet parents and partners everywhere, we work every day to help people feel more confident, supported, and capable in caring for the animals they love—showing up with the products, services, care, and guidance they need, whenever they need it.

Bringing that to life takes exceptional leaders.

Leadership at Chewy is guided by our Operating Principles, which define how we lead, make decisions, develop talent, serve our customers, and grow our business. We value leaders who think strategically, stay close to the customer, and aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves alongside their teams. They solve complex challenges, build high-performing organizations, and partner closely with senior leaders to shape the future of Chewy.

Your Opportunity

We are hiring a Director, Data Science to own and lead all Ads Data Science for Chewy—fully accountable for the science strategy and production implementation behind Chewy’s onsite and offsite Chewy Ads.

You will lead a team of data scientists building the intelligence layer across the full advertising marketplace:

• (a) Supply-side algorithms — search, relevance, ranking, real-time bidding, bid-boosting, premium positioning, and dynamic auctions.
• (b) Demand-side algorithms — budgeting, pacing, budget allocation/reallocation, keyword recommendations, bid recommendations, campaign setup and auto-optimization, and advertiser ROAS optimization.
• (c) Portfolio management — orchestrating Chewy’s onsite and offsite Ads portfolio for optimal, balanced performance across shopper experience, advertiser outcomes, and Chewy revenue.

This is a rare seat: you will define how modern AI—LLMs, generative AI, foundation models, and multimodal systems—shows up in a real advertising marketplace, not as demos, but as durable production systems that move customer and advertiser outcomes at scale. As a core member of Ads leadership, you’ll partner closely with Product, Engineering, and business partners, and represent Ads science to Chewy senior leadership.

What You’ll Own

• Full ownership of Chewy Ads Data Science across onsite and offsite channels—strategy, roadmap, model portfolio, delivery, and scientific quality bar.
• Lead, grow, and mentor a high-performing team of data scientists; set standards for modeling, experimentation, MLOps, and research-to-production excellence.
• Advance state-of-the-art applied science across the three pillars above: embeddings and representation learning, CTR/CVR prediction, multi-objective ranking, auction and bidding dynamics, budget optimization, ROAS optimization, causal measurement, and marketplace balance.
• Define and execute Chewy Ads’ AI / GenAI strategy, including LLM-powered workstreams such as:
  • Generative creative and offer assistance
  • Intelligent keyword and query recommendation
  • Bid recommendation and automated bidding guidance
  • Auto-campaign setup and optimization copilots for advertisers
  • Retrieval-augmented systems for relevance, discovery, and ranking quality

• Partner with Product and Engineering to ship production systems that improve shopper relevance, advertiser ROI/ROAS, and Ads business performance.
• Establish rigorous experimentation and decision frameworks so science investments map clearly to customer and revenue impact.
• Represent Ads science to senior leadership—translating complex work into clear strategy, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
• Raise Chewy’s external scientific presence through publications, talks, and recruiting at leading ML/AI/advertising venues (encouraged, not required).

What You’ll Need

• Advanced degree (M.S., PhD, or equivalent experience) in a quantitative field (e.g., CS, ML, Statistics, OR, Applied Math, Data Science), or 10+ years building and leading large-scale ML/optimization systems.
• Proven experience leading data scientists / applied scientists and owning end-to-end science delivery in production—ideally in ads, search, recommendations, personalization, or marketplace systems.
• Deep hands-on fluency with modern ML for ranking and prediction at scale: deep learning, embeddings, retrieval, multi-objective optimization, and online experimentation.
• Experience with advertising optimization systems spanning supply and demand—auctions, real-time bidding, pacing, budget allocation, keyword/bid recommendations, auto-campaign optimization, and ROAS optimization under real-time, constrained-spend settings.
• Demonstrated experience productizing LLMs / generative AI in real systems (e.g., RAG, agentic workflows, evaluation harnesses, quality/safety controls)—ideally in ads, search, or ecommerce.
• Strong foundation in mathematics, statistics, and scientific method; a high bar for model quality, causal measurement, and production reliability.
• Experience operating distributed training/serving pipelines and partnering with Engineering on scalable deployment.
• Exceptional communication: able to influence senior executives and cross-functional partners with clarity and technical credibility.

Nice to Have

• Direct experience in digital advertising / retail media / sponsored products.
• Ecommerce or retail marketplace experience.
• Experience with cloud ML platforms (e.g., AWS SageMaker or equivalent) and modern GenAI tooling.
• Track record of hiring and developing senior scientific talent.

What You’ll Get

Chewy is committed to equal opportunity. We value and embrace diversity and inclusion of all Team Members. If you have a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act or similar law and you need an accommodation during the application process or to perform these job requirements, please contact [email protected].

Chewy offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, 401(k) with company matching, paid time off, employee discounts, and additional wellness and support programs designed to help Team Members thrive personally and professionally.

The base salary range for this role is $198,500 - $300,000.00.

• The specific salary offered to a candidate may be influenced by a variety of factors including but not limited to the candidate’s relevant experience, education, and work location. In addition, this position is eligible for 401k and a new hire and annual equity grant. C08+ positions may also be eligible for annual bonus.

We offer different types of insurance and benefits, such as medical/Rx, vision, dental, life, disability, hospital indemnity, critical illness, and accident. We offer parental leave, family services benefits, backup dependent care, flexible spending accounts, telemedicine, pet adoption reimbursement, employee assistance program, and many discounts including 10% off pet insurance and 20% off at Chewy.com. 

Exempt salary team members have unlimited PTO, subject to manager approval. Team members will receive six paid holidays per year. Team members may be eligible for paid sick and family leave in compliance with applicable state and local regulations. 

Chewy is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, citizenship, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, results of genetic testing, veteran status, as well as any other legally-protected characteristic. If you have a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act or similar law, and you need an accommodation during the application process or to perform these job requirements, or if you need a religious accommodation, please contact [email protected].

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