General Mills · 15 hours ago
Principal Data Scientist - Golden Valley, MN
Minneapolis, MN
Full-time
Onsite
Lead/Staff
$147K/yr - $245K/yr
10+ years expGeneral Mills is a leading food company, and they are seeking a Principal Data Scientist to strategize enterprise-grade AI solutions. This role involves translating complex business requirements into analytical problems and overseeing the AI architecture and strategic roadmap to enhance the Supply Chain.
Food and BeverageFood ProcessingManufacturingSnack FoodWholesale
No H1B
U.S. Citizen Only
Responsibilities
Lead, design, and execute novel, end-to-end AI solutions and systems that help business partners achieve strategic objectives through advanced analytics, modeling, and optimization, with a primary focus on complex Supply Chain decisioning
Partner with data science leadership, engineering, AI platform teams, and business stakeholders to define, prioritize, and deliver production-grade AI/ML products and services, leveraging best-in-class tools, frameworks, and cloud-native architectures on GCP
Provide technical leadership through strong business partnership, challenging assumptions, offering alternate architectural patterns, and making informed trade-offs between complexity, performance, cost, and long-term maintainability
Lead the reference architecture, design, and implementation of LLMs, NLP, and computer vision-driven solutions, owning patterns for problem framing, data curation, model lifecycle, and integration with core enterprise platforms and applications
Provide technical oversight across core data science methodologies—including statistical, machine learning, and optimization approaches, ensuring method selection, validation, and implementation are rigorous, fit-for-purpose, and consistent with AI standards
Partner closely with AI Leadership, ML Engineering, and business stakeholders to define and evolve the architecture for agentic AI and retrieval-augmented systems, establishing standards, guardrails, and reusable components
Own the creation and operationalization of production-ready, scalable AI platforms, services, and models that provide real-time or near-real-time insights and decisions, fully aligned with General Mills technology standards for security, reliability, observability, and lifecycle management
Provide technical leadership for analytical solution design and experimentation through hypothesis-driven approaches, robust evaluation strategies, and clear error taxonomies, with strong documentation and governance to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and reuse across capabilities
Serve as a key member of the Data Science leadership team, shaping technical strategy, multi-year capability roadmaps, architectural standards, and operating practices that scale AI impact across the enterprise
Coach and develop data scientists and adjacent talent through deep technical reviews and mentoring on advanced AI concepts, domain best practices, and effective use of shared platforms and patterns
Champion Responsible AI by ensuring privacy, security, and governance compliance; proactively identifying and reducing model risks and embedding responsible AI principles into architecture, processes, and user experiences
Act as an internal and external thought leader on AI strategy, architecture, and data science, representing the Digital and Technology organization in forums, communities of practice, and key stakeholder engagements
Qualification
Required
10+ years of experience in data science / applied analytics, with ownership of end-to-end solutions from problem framing through production and measurable business impact with at least 3 years in a Principal, Lead, or equivalent senior technical level
Advanced degree in a quantitative field (Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Math, Operations Research, or related)
Strong expertise in core data science methodologies (statistical modeling, machine learning, optimization) and their practical application to complex business problems
Hands-on experience architecting and deploying scalable AI/ML solutions on a major cloud platform (preferably GCP)
Proven track record of building and operating production-grade models and decisioning systems at scale, including monitoring, performance management, and lifecycle governance
Demonstrated technical leadership setting technical direction, establishing standards, and influencing architecture and platform decisions
Experience leading complex AI/ML programs across multiple teams, with strong grasp of project/program management fundamentals (roadmaps, prioritization, risk/dependency management)
Experience with unstructured data and advanced AI (e.g., LLMs, NLP, computer vision) integrated into business workflows and applications
Strong communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain analytical concepts, results, and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Proficiency with modern data science engineering practices: version control, code review, testing, CI/CD for models, and agile delivery
Demonstrated ability to mentor and develop other data scientists, leading by example on modeling rigor, experimentation, and documentation
Proven ability to stay current on evolving AI/ML technologies and to anticipate, evaluate, and advocate for appropriate adoption within the enterprise
Preferred
Deep experience applying data science and AI to Supply Chain domains (e.g., planning, logistics, manufacturing, sourcing)
Experience leading solutions that combine traditional modeling (predictive/prescriptive analytics, optimization) with newer paradigms (LLMs, agentic AI, RAG) in production
Exposure to large-scale data processing and modern stack components
Evidence of thought leadership in data science (e.g., internal forums, publications, or open-source contributions)
Benefits
Foundation of health benefits
Retirement and financial wellbeing
Time off programs
Wellbeing support and perks
Annual incentive program
Company
General Mills
General Mills is a food company that manufactures and markets branded consumer foods.
10001+ employees
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$2.7B2024-10-15Post Ipo Debt· $2.7B
1928-11-30IPO
Leadership Team
Asheesh Saksena
Chief Growth Officer
Jacqueline R. Williams Roll
Chief Human Resources Officer
Recent News
AgTechNavigator.com
2026-02-03
2026-01-07
Company data provided by crunchbase