Director Operations Research - Last Mile Demand Forecasting and Capacity Management

The pay range is $168,000.00 - $303,000.00

Pay is based on several factors which vary based on position. These include labor markets and in some instances may include education, work experience and certifications. In addition to your pay, Target cares about and invests in you as a team member, so that you can take care of yourself and your family. Target offers eligible team members and their dependents comprehensive health benefits and programs, which may include medical, vision, dental, life insurance and more, to help you and your family take care of your whole selves. Other benefits for eligible team members include 401(k), employee discount, short term disability, long term disability, paid sick leave, paid national holidays, and paid vacation. Find competitive benefits from financial and education to well-being and beyond at https://corporate.target.com/careers/benefits.

JOIN TARGET AS DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH – LAST MILE DEMAND FORECASTING AND CAPACITY MANAGEMENT

About Us:

Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here.

As the Director of Operations Research you’ll develop optimization models and algorithms that change the game in our last mile delivery operations. Our team oversees the development of state-of-the-art mathematical techniques to help solve strategic initiatives for Target’s Supply Chain! For example, we’re identifying opportunities to reduce variable costs by improving the routing optimization, network configuration and scheduling. This contributes to the development, implementation and maintenance of the machine learning components as it relates to forecasting, scheduling and other initiatives that drive service, community experience and costs. This also helps create the metrics to quantify improvements to the network costs resulting from the application of these optimization models.

Working and leading the Last Mile Data ML systems that create meaningful business value across the enterprise. These systems may be powered by LLMs, classical machine learning, or deep learning models and are designed as scalable, reliable, production-grade applications where they add clear value.

As a Director of Operations Research you will:

• Oversee the creation and development of the demand forecasting and capacity management by building the key components which allow us to evaluate the demand and manage the last mile capacity for speed and cost.  We aim to develop these tools to be more efficient and precise, while also making them directly available to our business team users, allowing us to quickly respond to guest needs on the largest scale with more accuracy
• Design, develop, deploy and maintain machine learning algorithms for our last mile business.  You’ll work closely with applied data scientists, operational research scientist, Product, engineering and last mile operations to continuously learn more about our business needs
• Collaborate with Product and business partners to define product roadmaps that fit in our ecosystem and solve last mile challenges at scale
• Build consensus and communicate with senior level leadership
• Drive best practices with a focus on emerging technologies and author various project related documents, vision statements and roadmap
• Develop a world-class team providing development, coaching, motivation and feedback to team members
• Create an atmosphere of teamwork and collaboration communicating day-to-day decisions, priorities and relevant project information
• Manage resource allocation as well as define and communicate overall vision and goals for the team
• Enhance the way demand forecasting and capacity is conducted at Target
• Impact our business by improving our ability to serve our Guests and by directly reducing compute cost through more efficient algorithms
• Coordinate the analysis, troubleshooting and resolution of issues in our software

Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

About You:

• PhD or MS in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics or relevant industry experience
• 7 plus years of experience leading, developing and mentoring teams of applied data scientists and operations research scientists
• 5 plus years of experience in building optimization models and algorithms at scale
• Highly proficient in Python, Scala or Java programming
• Deep understanding of data structures, design principals and algorithms
• Ability to test and measure algorithms and models
• Significant demonstrated expertise in optimization theory (deterministic/stochastic), dynamic programming, linear algebra, probability and statistics
• Experience in statistical inference, machine learning and deploying machine learning models with large-scale business impact in commercial setting
• Experience working with large event-driven distributed systems and multi-threaded applications
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to clearly tell data  
  driven stories through appropriate visualizations, graphs and narratives
• Constant learner mentality that stays on the leading edge of supply chain optimization, network planning, operations research, AI, ML, etc.

This position may be considered for a Remote or Hybrid (known internally at Target as "Flex for Your Day") work arrangement based on Target's needs.  A Remote work arrangement means the team member works full-time from home or an alternate location that's not a Target location, does not have a desk at a Target location and may travel to HQ up to 4 times a year.  A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team member's core role may be performed either remote or onsite at a Target location depending upon what your role, team and tasks require for that day. Work duties cannot be performed outside of the country of the primary work location, unless otherwise prescribed by Target.

Benefits Eligibility

Please paste this url into your preferred browser to learn about benefits eligibility for this role: https://tgt.biz/BenefitsForYou_F

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

In compliance with state and federal laws, Target will make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please reach out to [email protected]. Non-accommodation-related requests, such as application follow-ups or technical issues, will not be addressed through this channel.  

Application deadline is : 07/30/2026