Data Science Manager, Personalization

8901 - Corp Office West Crk - 12800 Tuckahoe Creek Parkway, Richmond, Virginia, 23238

CarMax, the way your career should be!

About The Team

The Personalization data science team builds and maintains search algorithms and recommender systems that are at the forefront of creating a modern, engaging, digital shopping experience for our customers. We see millions of customers every week across web and mobile. We deploy custom deep learning embedding models, ranking and segmentation algorithms, and are constantly testing new approaches. Our systems are used in dozens of product use cases across the retail and wholesale businesses, which means we partner with many diverse teams throughout the organization.

About The Role

Vehicle Recommender is our team’s marquee data science product - a full-scale, modern software solution built on a custom embedding model. Launched in 2024 to replace our legacy system, it delivers intelligent, real-time, customizable product recommendations across our retail and wholesale businesses. We're looking for a data scientist who wants to own a product, not just build models. In this role, you'll develop deep technical expertise in our recommender system, but you'll spend just as much time working with partners across the business - understanding their needs, scoping use cases, advocating for adoption, and ensuring we deliver real value.

To be clear: this is a data scientist role, not a product manager role. You'll still be hands-on with data, experimentation, and model evaluation. But if you're the kind of DS who lights up in a roadmap discussion, loves translating ML capabilities into business terms, and wants to be the go-to expert that partners come to - this is your role. This role may or may not initially include direct reports, but that can depend on the individual candidate. It's ideal for an experienced data scientist interested in growing toward technical leadership or product-oriented career paths.

What You Will Do – Essential Responsibilities

Product Ownership & Partner Engagement

Serve as the primary point of contact for Vehicle Recommender across the organization - owning relationships with product managers, business stakeholders, and engineering partners

Drive adoption by helping partners understand what recommendations can do for them, scoping new use cases, and ensuring successful implementation

Own the roadmap for Vehicle Recommender in partnership with engineering and DS leadership - prioritizing enhancements, maintenance, and new capabilities

Translate between technical and business audiences; present to leadership, write strategy docs, and make the case for investment

Data Science & Technical

Develop deep technical expertise in the Vehicle Recommender system - how the embedding models work, how recommendations are generated and served, and how performance is measured

Design, execute, and interpret experiments (A/B tests, holdouts, pre/post analyses) to quantify impact and guide decisions

Partner with data scientists and engineers on feature development, model validation, and system monitoring

Stay current on recommender system research and best practices; bring informed perspective to technical decisions

Qualifications and Requirements

5+ years of experience in a data science role, preferably in e-commerce, marketplace, or a data-rich environment

Strong development skills and experience with Python for data manipulation, analysis, and model development

Solid foundation in statistics, including hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, and experimental design - you should be comfortable explaining why a test result is or isn't significant

Experience working with large datasets using tools like Spark, Databricks, or similar

Clear communication skills - you can explain a complex analysis to a PM or executive without losing them, and present a compelling argument for how and why a team will benefit from using recommendations

Genuine enthusiasm for how search and recommendation systems work and passion for continued learning

Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field (statistics, economics, math, engineering, or similar)

Advanced degree (Master’s/Ph.D.) is preferred

Work Location and Arrangement

This role will be based out of the CarMax Technology Innovation Center (Richmond, VA) and associates will work onsite 4 days per week.

Work Authorization: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Sponsorship will not be considered for this specific role.

About CarMax

CarMax disrupted the auto industry by delivering the honest, transparent and high-integrity experience customers want and deserve. This innovative thinking around the way cars are bought and sold has helped us become the nation’s largest retailer of used cars, with over 200 locations nationwide.

Our amazing team of more than 25,000 associates work together to deliver iconic customer experiences. Along the way, we help every associate grow their career and achieve their best, at work and in their community. We are recognized for our commitment to training and diversity and are one of the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For®.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:

CarMax is committed to bringing together people from different backgrounds and perspectives, providing employees with a safe, welcoming, and inclusive work environment.

Upon an applicant's request, CarMax will consider reasonable accommodation to complete the CarMax Job Application.

The annual salary for this position is:

$120,400.00 - $192,600.00

May be eligible for bonus and equity.

Benefits:

Except as otherwise required by state law, CarMax Associates are entitled to the following paid sick, vacation, and holiday time.

Associates that are considered full-time hourly or commission/incentive eligible:

To earn up to 48 hours of sick time per year accrued on a per pay period basis and between 80 hours and 200 hours per year of vacation time after a 90 day waiting period depending on years of continuous service with the Company.

For 8 hours of pay for each of a total of 6 paid scheduled holidays per year plus 1 floating holiday. If such an Associate does work on a scheduled holiday due to business need, they are eligible for Holiday Premium Pay.

Associates considered full-time salaried are entitled to paid time away with no specified limit as needed for sick, vacation, bereavement, jury duty, holidays, floating holiday, etc. subject to manager approval.

For more details about benefits, please visit our CarMax Benefits website.

Upon an applicant's request, CarMax will consider reasonable accommodation to complete the CarMax Job Application.