Data Scientist, Digital

Purpose:

The Data Scientist, Digital Machine Learning (ML), develops, deploys, and maintains ML models that support Floor & Decor's digital customer experience across flooranddecor.com, FND apps, and omnichannel digital shopping tools. Areas of responsibility include personalization and recommendations, product search and discovery, product data enrichment, and customer intent signals. Working cross-functionally with Ecommerce Product, Engineering & Analytics, Data Engineering, Merchandising, and Digital Marketing, this role advances models from development through production deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement. The position adheres to the team's technical standards and partners closely with the Senior Data Scientist, Digital, to deliver measurable improvements in how customers find, evaluate, and select products.

Minimum Qualifications:

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, Economics, or a related quantitative field (advanced degree a plus); relevant experience can be substituted for the required education on the basis of one calendar year of experience for one academic year of education.

- 3+ years of experience in data science or machine learning, including hands-on contribution to at least one model deployed into a production system, or an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to perform the essential functions of the job, as determined by the company.

- Experience building machine learning for live, customer-facing digital products such as search, recommendations, ranking, personalization, or ads, in e-commerce, marketplaces, media, or similar environments.

- Strong proficiency in Python and SQL, writing clean, tested, production-ready code.

- Solid foundation in machine learning, including classification, ranking, and recommendation approaches.

- Familiarity with ML lifecycle practices, including automated training and scoring pipelines, deployment, and monitoring.

- Experience designing and analyzing A/B tests and interpreting results for business partners.

- Proficiency with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor) to accelerate exploration, modeling, and engineering.

Preferred:

- Databricks on Azure, PySpark, and CI/CD for ML.

- Experience extending, evaluating, or migrating commercial search or personalization platforms (e.g., Bloomreach, Constructor, Algolia, Dynamic Yield, Salesforce).

- Experience with deep learning recommenders, embeddings, or LLMs applied to product, content, or customer data.

- Experience with clickstream and customer behavioral data.

- Ecommerce or omnichannel retail experience, ideally in high-consideration, project-based categories.

Competencies:

- Analytical Problem-Solving

- Technical Communication

- Organization & Adaptability

- Collaboration Across Product Teams

- Integrity, Humility & Teamwork

Essential Functions / Key Responsibilities:

- Build and maintain recommendation models across site and app, including similar products, "complete the project" recommendations (e.g., tile with the setting materials, tools, and underlayment the project requires), and continue-your-project experiences.

- Develop session-based models that infer shopper intent (project type, style, DIY vs. Pro, stage in the purchase journey) for anonymous and infrequent visitors.

- Rank content, offers, and modules across the home page, category and product pages, and app.

- Contribute to product search improvements, including query classification, synonyms, and relevance evaluation.

- Apply LLMs and embeddings to enrich product attributes that improve search, filtering, and recommendations, with quality checks on technical specifications, and support evaluation of LLM-powered features by building evaluation sets and reviewing output quality.

- Produce digital propensity and intent scores (e.g., sample-to-purchase conversion, Pro identification) for the site, app, and marketing systems, leveraging enterprise customer segments from Customer Analytics & Insights rather than building parallel segmentation.

- Contribute to shared ML assets that carry across Ecommerce platform and vendor changes, and support vendor evaluations with analysis on Floor & Decor data.

- Bring personalization, search, and recommendations to Floor & Decor's upcoming PRO app, using Pro purchase history, project patterns, and loyalty data to drive app adoption, engagement, and share of wallet with Pro customers.

- Deploy and operate models on Databricks following team standards; monitor performance, data quality, and drift, and retrain as needed.

- Partner with Data Engineering, Product, and Engineering on the data and event tracking needed to train and measure models.

- Design and analyze A/B tests for model-driven features and measure incremental impact on conversion, average order value, and engagement. Standard digital performance reporting is owned by Ecommerce Analytics.

- Communicate results, tradeoffs, and recommendations to product teams and business stakeholders in a clear, actionable way.

- Maintain clear documentation of methodologies, model assumptions, and limitations, and participate in code and design reviews.

- Stay abreast of industry trends and best practices in personalization, search, recommender systems, and applied data science.

- Be compliant with all appropriate Privacy Preferences, Responsible AI, and Security protocols, including customer consent and preference requirements for personalization.

Travel Required:

- Travel may be required, typically less than 10%, including occasional air and car travel.

Working Conditions:

The role is based in the Store Support Center in Atlanta, GA. Work is primarily sedentary, involving extended periods of sitting at a computer, with occasional walking or standing. The work environment is typically quiet to moderate.

Physical/Sensory Requirements:

Sedentary work – ability to exert up to 10–20 lbs. occasionally and negligible force frequently to lift, carry, push, or pull objects.

Note: Floor & Decor considers all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital or familial status, veteran status, or based on any other class protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.  Floor & Decor also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and applicable state and local law.

This job description does not constitute an employment agreement between the employer and the employee and is subject to change by the employer at its sole discretion.

Benefits & Rewards

Bonus opportunities & career advancement opportunities at every level

Programs that help you reach your financial goals: 401k with company match, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, and Referral Bonus Program

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, and other Insurance Plans (subject to eligibility criteria)

Work-life balance, including:

- Paid vacation and sick time for eligible associates
- Paid holidays plus a personal holiday
- Paid Volunteer Time Off that starts on Day 1

Equal Employment Opportunity

Floor & Decor provides equal employment opportunities to all associates and applicants without regard to age, race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other category protected by law.

This policy applies to all areas of employment, including recruitment, testing, screening, hiring, selection for training, upgrading, transfer, demotion, layoff, discipline, termination, compensation, benefits and all other privileges, terms and conditions of employment.  This policy and the law prohibit employment discrimination against any associate or applicant on the basis of any legally protected status outlined above.