Principal Data Analyst - Transportation Strategy & Optimization

Role summary

We are looking for someone with a strong operational mindset who can quickly understand complex business processes, identify opportunities for improvement, and lead ambiguous problems from investigation through implementation. You will build strong business relationships, challenge assumptions, use data and AI to shape strategy, and influence operational decisions and change.

Success requires exceptional critical thinking, business judgment, technical and analytical leadership, structured problem solving, and influence across teams and senior leadership. Whether your background is in operations, supply chain, process improvement, strategy, or analytics, you must be able to develop and defend data-driven recommendations and turn them into measurable business outcomes.

We work on problems where

• the question may not be clearly defined,
• understanding operational processes is essential,
• the data may not tell the full story,
• stakeholders may see the problem differently,
• decisions involve tradeoffs across cost, service, and execution,
• and solutions require changing how work gets done.

Team members investigate how operations work, develop hypotheses, evaluate alternatives, and lead partners from analysis through implementation and measurement. You will also shape analytical strategy, connect work across teams, establish scalable approaches, and elevate how other analysts solve problems.

What you'll do

• Lead ambiguous, cross-functional operational problems, identifying root causes, challenging assumptions, and reframing questions to drive business outcomes.
• Partner with operations, product, technology, data science, and senior leadership to identify opportunities, shape priorities, and influence decisions.
• Apply advanced analytics, automation, AI, and operational knowledge to test hypotheses, evaluate tradeoffs, and develop actionable recommendations.
• Influence stakeholders, navigate resistance, and help drive implementation and measurable operational improvements.
• Design scalable analytical solutions and decision frameworks using SQL, Python, visualization platforms, cloud data environments, and AI.
• Serve as a thought leader, mentor others, and strengthen analytical capabilities across teams.

What you'll bring

Demonstrated critical thinking, business and analytical judgment, strategic ownership, stakeholder leadership, technical and AI fluency, and cross-functional impact.

You

• understand operational processes and can identify opportunities others may overlook
• thrive in ambiguity, challenge assumptions, and determine the right problems to solve
• connect analysis to operational, financial, customer, and organizational outcomes
• have strong analytical and technical capabilities, using data and AI responsibly to develop and validate recommendations
• independently shape priorities and lead initiatives across organizational boundaries
• communicate clearly, influence senior leaders, and drive adoption without positional authority

Additional information

We are equally interested in candidates who came to analytics through the business as we are in candidates who started in technical roles and developed deep business ownership and stakeholder leadership.

Pay and benefits

At Walmart, we offer competitive pay as well as performance-based bonus awards and other great benefits for a happier mind, body, and wallet. Health benefits include medical, vision and dental coverage. Financial benefits include 401(k), stock purchase and company-paid life insurance. Paid time off benefits include PTO (including sick leave), parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting. Other benefits include short-term and long-term disability, company discounts, Military Leave Pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, and more.

You will also receive PTO and/or PPTO that can be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes. The amount you receive depends on your job classification and length of employment. It will meet or exceed the requirements of paid sick leave laws, where applicable.

Live Better U is a Walmart-paid education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates in Walmart and Sam's Club facilities. Programs range from high school completion to bachelor's degrees, including English Language Learning and short-form certificates. Tuition, books, and fees are completely paid for by Walmart.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to a specific plan or program terms.

For information about benefits and eligibility, see One.Walmart.

The annual salary range for this position is $90,000.00 - $180,000.00

Additional compensation includes annual or quarterly performance bonuses.

Additional compensation for certain positions may also include

• Stock

Minimum Qualifications

Outlined below are the required minimum qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no minimum qualifications.

Option 1: Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Arts, Finance or related field and 4 years' experience in data analysis, data science, statistics, or related field. Option 2: Master's degree in Business, Engineering, Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field and 2 years' experience in data analysis, data science, statistics, or related field. Option 3: 6 years' experience in data analysis, data science, statistics, or related field.

Preferred Qualifications

Outlined below are the optional preferred qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no preferred qualifications.

Data science, data analysis, statistics, or related field, Master's degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or related field, Related industry experience (for example, retail, merchandising, healthcare, eCommerce), Successful completion of assessments in data analysis and Business Intelligence tools and scripting languages (for example, SQL, Python, Spark, Scala, R, Power BI, or Tableau)

Primary Location

805 Respect, Bentonville, AR 72716, United States of America