Sr. Data Scientist I at Zoro in Chicago, IL

Company Summary

Zoro.com is a leading eCommerce platform offering nearly 12 million tools, parts and supplies for our business customers. Launched in 2011, we brought a B2C-like experience to the B2B industry, and continue to be at the forefront of digital innovation at the intersection of technology and distribution. We have rapidly grown to over $1 billion in annual revenue and we’re just getting started!

Position Description: As a Data Sr. Scientist I at Zoro, you’ll apply your expertise in machine learning, deep learning, statistical modeling, and data analysis to solve a variety of business challenges. From forecasting and customer segmentation to improving onsite search and recommendations, our team directly enhances our customers' experiences and informs critical business decisions. At Zoro, every day brings new challenges and opportunities to innovate.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Apply domain and industry knowledge to solve complex data science projects, developing advanced machine learning models, and driving data-driven decisions within the organization.
• Lead data science projects from start to finish by refining objectives, developing a project plan and methodology, and collaborating with business and technical teams.
• Write and maintain high-quality, production grade code, including unit and integration tests.
• Establish and maintain comprehensive, accurate evaluation frameworks to assess model performance and inform ongoing improvements.
• Collaborate with other data scientists to develop and implement algorithms, write code, evaluate relevant academic research to deliver final outputs.
• Provide guidance on tools, practices to drive efficiency, technical debt, data sources, and best practices.
• Mentor and guide junior data scientists on algorithms, coding best practices, and other technical concepts.
• Document code and data science processes that are critical to the company and develop strategies to ensure those processes are robust and fault-tolerant.
• Communicate findings to business leaders and colleagues using data visualizations, presentations and reports.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in quantitative fields such as Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science, and other STEM disciplines.
• 6+ years of experience leading data science projects that have a direct impact on a company's objectives or PhD degree in quantitative fields such as Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science with 4+ years of experience.
• 6+ years of experience applying data mining and machine learning to solve complex business problems, including 5+ years of hands-on experience using deep learning frameworks to develop, train, and optimize machine learning models.
• Deep understanding of relevance, ranking, and building representation-learning solutions, with 2+ years of hands-on experience developing and optimizing learning-to-rank models, utilizing and tuning for ranking and relevance metrics.
• 5+ years of experience leveraging Python to process large, complex, and diverse datasets, develop and productionize predictive models, and deploy scalable machine learning solutions across cloud-based and distributed computing environments.
• 5+ years of experience with advanced SQL and cloud-based data platforms, such as Google Cloud Platform or AWS.
• 3+ years of experience applying large language models (LLMs), generative AI in business use cases, including experience designing evaluation frameworks to assess model quality, relevance, and business impact through offline metrics.
• Strong knowledge of statistical, causal inference methods, parametric models, and planning experiments.
• Hands-on application of SOLID principles and modern software engineering practices, including designing maintainable, testable, and scalable production systems.
• Strong communication skills to collaborate effectively with business stakeholders. Must be able to interact cross-functionally and drive both business and technical discussions.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience building or operating real-time, low-latency systems is preferred.
• Experience working with vector databases and feature stores.
• Experience using data science or advanced analytics in an Internet retailer or a top-tier consumer-focused company.
• Experience using containerization tools like Docker and Kubernetes in production environments.
• Experience using orchestration tools such as Airflow or Kubeflow for production workloads.
• Familiarity with BI tools such as Tableau or Looker, and ability to communicate results to business partners

Total Rewards

Zoro’s total compensation plan includes our Zoro Incentive Plan (ZIP) that is designed to foster and reward our team members for strong performance. Total compensation will be highly competitive.

In addition to competitive compensation, Zoro offers comprehensive benefits and perks including:

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans with coverage starting on day one of employment
• Maternity support programs, nursing benefits, and up to 14 weeks paid leave for birth parents and up to 4 weeks paid leave for non-birth parents. We also support growing your family through access to adoption assistance program
• 6 free sessions each year with a licensed therapist and Wellhub portal membership to support your mental and emotional wellbeing
• At least 18 paid time off days annually for full-time employees and 6 company holidays per year
• 6% company contribution to a 401K Retirement Savings Plan each pay period, no employee contribution required
• Tuition reimbursement, student loan refinancing and access to financial counseling, education, and tools
• Charitable Gift Program - match gift to an eligible educational, cultural, community health, and human service organizations
• Employee discounts and admission to various civic and cultural institutions around Chicago
• Zoro office perks including coffee bar, beer on tap, unlimited snacks, access to the onsite gym, and incredible city skyline views

For additional information and details regarding our benefits and our parent company, W. W. Grainger, please click on the link here.

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The pay range provided is not a guarantee of compensation. The range listed reflects the expected base pay for this position at the time of posting, based on the role's job grade. Actual compensation may vary depending on factors such as location, relevant experience and individual qualifications.

Illinois

$105,100—$175,100 USD

Our Culture

Zoro was founded in 2011 with a simple idea: make it easy for businesses to get the tools, parts, and supplies they need to keep things running. We've grown by staying curious, moving quickly, and solving everyday challenges in smart, practical ways. Backed by W.W. Grainger and inspired by our endless assortment business model, we’re on a clear path toward our next big milestone: $2 billion in revenue—and beyond.

At Zoro, we don’t just follow a playbook—we help build it. You’ll get to work on real problems with a supportive team that shares ideas freely, learns from each other, and celebrates wins together. Our culture is grounded in values that guide how we show up every day: Winning & Learning Together, Being Customer Obsessed, Being Transparent, and Taking Ownership. We don’t have all the answers, but we’re always asking good questions.

Zoro’s culture has been recognized by Fortune, Best Places to Work, and Built In Chicago—but the recognition we care about most comes from our team members, who make this place what it is.

We also know that flexibility matters. Our hybrid work model gives you space to focus and the flexibility to live your life — asking team members to be onsite at least two days a week. Our Chicago HQ (right above Ogilvie Transportation Center in the Accenture Tower) is always open and ready for connection, collaboration, or just a good cup of coffee.

At Zoro, we’re growing fast toward big aspirations — and we’re continuously excited about the new challenges we get to solve together.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are also committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible work environment that includes both providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the application and hiring process as well as throughout the course of one’s employment. Should you need a reasonable accommodation during the application and selection process, including, but not limited to use of our website, any part of the application, interview, or hiring process, please advise us so that we can provide appropriate assistance.