We are looking for an experienced data scientist to be part of the Pricing and Demand Science team within Whole Foods Market. The Pricing and Demand Science team is part of the Pricing Center of Excellence and is responsible for building a best-in-class Pricing Science Platform and framework for measuring pricing strategy effectiveness, improving customer price/value perception and business performance. This person will play an integral role in designing, developing, and deploying sophisticated algorithm-based solutions that provide pricing analysts the ability to synthesize a variety of pricing recommendations, optimize to multiple financial goals and run numerous what-if scenarios. The position is in Austin, Texas.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop a framework for measuring pricing effectiveness utilizing Machine Learning, Statistical and other advance mathematical techniques. 
• Build and maintain rigorous pricing metrics that will serve as inputs into the test and optimization platform.
• Manage modeling processes from end-to-end including data gathering, data validation, model building, calibration, cross-validation, and maximizing model accuracy. Interpret and validate model results with statistical checks.
• Translate complex analytical results into clear, concise, and actionable insights to all levels within the organization.
• Maintain a thorough understanding of WFM pricing, promotion, and financial processes to effectively understand and analyze internal and external data.
• Collaborate with Pricing COE, Merchandising, Marketing, Finance and Tech to implement and operationalize various pricing solutions.
• Build & maintains strong working relationships across departments or teams based on trust and mutual respect. Communicate with senior stakeholder to balance stakeholder and analytics perspectives.

Skills & Experience

• PhD in Economics, Statistics, Mathematics, or related quantitative field preferred.
• 6+ years’ experience designing, developing, and implementing price testing and optimization methodologies.
• Strong understanding and experience with utilizing advanced mathematical, statistical and machine learning techniques to collect data, analyze and construct solutions for complex pricing problems.
• Working knowledge of data science analytical tools (Hadoop, Spark, AWS, Sagemaker, Jupyter Notebooks) and coding languages such as R, Python, SQL. 
• Experience analyzing large, complex data sets with demonstrated ability to independently query and prepare data for analysis.
• Self-directed, innovative thinker. In addition to a strong attention to detail, strong candidates will also be able to see the strategic implications for the business in the big picture. You are fluent in telling the story to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong communication and presentation skills and ability to partner with internal stakeholders to shape pricing strategy and planning.
• Comfortable with uncertainty: projects and assignments will change rapidly so must be flexible enough to accommodate changing priorities and timelines.
• Positive attitude, ability to work well under pressure and provide exceptional customer service.
• Comfortable in a decentralized structure where results are based on cooperation with and influence of others. Ability to work with partners who have a range of analytical skill sets.
• Grocery or retail pricing experience preferred.

At Whole Foods Market, we provide a fair and equal employment opportunity for all Team Members and candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, marital status, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Whole Foods Market hires and promotes individuals solely based on qualifications for the position to be filled and business needs.