Jake Liebert

Hello, I'm

Jake Liebert

I transform enterprises through AI platforms that executives bet hundreds of millions on.

Senior Director of Product at Walmart. I've transformed ambiguous enterprise problems into production AI systems that drive $600M+ in business impact. I scaled product teams from 4 to 10 PMs while coordinating 60+ technical personnel. Former Navy Nuclear Officer. Duke MBA.

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$0M Impact Target (Margin + Sales)
0→0 PM Team Growth
$0B Company Scale (Walmart Revenue)
0 Patrols Strategic Deterrent Missions

How I Operate

I learned leadership on a nuclear submarine, earned technical depth through a CS degree, and refined strategic thinking at Duke.

I don't just build products—I drive organizational transformation. When I built Walmart's forecasting platform, I didn't just ship software. I changed how Finance and Merchandising collaborate, replaced manual Excel processes with ML-driven planning, and got 6 business units to adopt a shared system. That's change management at $650B scale.

I think in systems, not features. When I walked into Walmart's forecasting problem, I didn't see a dashboard gap—I saw Finance and Merchandising operating on different truths. Built a platform that unified them. When ML models shipped with 30% accuracy gains, I didn't celebrate early—I validated coverage expansion before scaling.

I operate at the intersection where technical credibility meets executive influence. I've presented quarterly roadmaps to C-suite stakeholders, built consensus across SVP leaders for $100M+ initiatives, and secured multi-year platform investments by translating ML capabilities into P&L impact.

I'm most valuable when the problem is ambiguous, the stakes are high, and success requires both building the right team and building the right product.

0 → 1 Builder Created Walmart's ML forecasting platform from scratch
Navy Nuclear Officer 5 years leading in zero-error-tolerance environments
Product Org Builder Scaled PM team from 4 to 10; established product best practices

Operating at Enterprise Scale

I've operated in environments where a 25 basis point improvement means $200M, and where getting a product to production requires aligning C-suite stakeholders across Finance, Merchandising, and Supply Chain.

Cross-Functional Orchestration

Coordinated 60+ technical personnel while building consensus across SVP leaders for $100M+ initiatives. I present quarterly to C-suite and translate ML capabilities into P&L impact.

Platform Thinking

Built systems designed for enterprise adoption—not one-off solutions. Secured multi-year platform investments by demonstrating scalability from pilot to production across multiple business units.

Change Management

Drove organizational transformation by replacing legacy Excel-based processes with unified ML-driven planning systems. Adoption isn't an afterthought—it's core to the product strategy.

Marquee Wins

Transformed Enterprise Planning with ML

$200M+ margin impact target

The Problem: Finance and Merchandising ran on separate forecasting systems. Finance had Excel models. Merchandising had legacy planning tools. Nobody had a single source of truth for a $650B business.

What I Did: Built Walmart's first unified ML forecasting platform—replacing fragmented Excel-based workflows with a single source of truth. Driver-based models, demand forecasting, and Gen AI explainability. This wasn't just a product launch—it was organizational transformation across a $650B business.

Impact: Targeting 25 bps margin forecast accuracy improvement ($200M+ annual) and $400M incremental sales through reduced stockouts. Scaled across 6 Merchandising business units. Presented quarterly to C-suite.

Secured Multi-Year Platform Investment

Enterprise-scale commitment

The Problem: ML forecasting was proving value in pilots, but the business hadn't committed to platform-level investment. Without multi-year funding, we'd stay stuck in proof-of-concept mode.

What I Did: Built a business case showing P&L impact, not just model accuracy. Demonstrated how forecast improvements translated to margin gains and inventory optimization. Coordinated SVP stakeholders across Finance, Merchandising, and Supply Chain to align on vision.

Impact: Secured multi-year investment that positioned the platform as Walmart's enterprise forecasting engine. Expanded from pilot to production across labor, capacity, and financial planning workstreams.

Built Consensus for $100M+ Initiative

$1B+ revenue potential

The Problem: Assortment optimization was stuck in competing priorities across business units. Each SVP had different goals. No one agreed on how to measure success or prioritize rollout.

What I Did: Aligned stakeholders on a shared metric: sales lift. Demonstrated $100M+ one-year impact through ML-enabled store-item optimization. Coordinated 60+ technical personnel to deliver a 2% sales lift in initial rollout.

Impact: Accelerated assortment transformation with $1B+ potential annual revenue impact. Partnered with Applied AI to increase model accuracy by 30% and expand business coverage 4x.

Experience

2025 - Present

Senior Director of Product Management

Walmart | Forecasting & Planning

  • Own end-to-end product strategy for Walmart US enterprise forecasting platform serving Finance, Merchandising, and Supply Chain
  • Targeting 25 bps margin forecast accuracy improvement ($200M+ annual impact) and $400M incremental sales through reduced out-of-stocks
  • Scaled product organization from 4 to 10 PMs; established platform vision adopted across 6 merchandising business units
2024 - 2025

Director of Product Management

Walmart | Machine Learning Forecasting Platform

  • Led product strategy for Walmart's first ML-driven forecasting platform for Merchandising and Finance
  • Launched AI-driven forecasting connecting demand to Finance's departmental P&L view — foundation for the F1 platform
  • Scaled ML forecasting from pilot to enterprise use, achieving 20-30% MAPE improvement across departments
  • Unified Merch Ops and Finance workflows, replacing manual Excel processes with real-time, explainable forecasts
  • Secured multi-year investment for platform expansion, positioning IBG as Walmart's finance transformation engine
2022 - 2024

Principal Product Manager

Walmart | Assortment Optimization and Planning

  • Spearheaded ML-enabled store-item optimization platform yielding 2% sales lift with $1B+ potential annual revenue impact
  • Managed 3 PMs while coordinating 60+ technical personnel across engineering, data science, and design
  • Partnered with Applied AI to validate ML models, increasing predictive accuracy by 30%
  • Established product development best practices reducing deployment cycles by 30%
2021 - 2022

Senior Product Manager

Walmart | eCommerce Strategy & Enablement

  • Accelerated market expansion by onboarding 10K additional SKUs, growing 1P assortment by ~20% in 6 months
  • Established self-service data tools for 1000+ internal users, driving data democratization
2014 - 2019

Nuclear Submarine Officer

United States Navy | USS Nevada (SSBN-733) | Strategic Deterrent Forces

Zero-error nuclear operations on strategic deterrent patrols. Entrusted with critical national security mission during global tension.

  • Led division of 19 nuclear-trained technicians; maintained 100% operational readiness across 5 strategic deterrent patrols
  • Qualified Officer of the Deck (OOD) and Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW)—entrusted with independent command authority over ballistic missile submarine operations
  • Drove process improvements reducing time for critical missile management procedures in zero-error-tolerance environment

Education

Duke University

Master of Business Administration

Decision Sciences

Fuqua Class of 1987 Scholarship | Dean's List | GPA 3.86

Stanford University

Design Thinking Bootcamp

Human-Centered Design

United States Naval Academy

Bachelor of Science

Computer Science

Division I Basketball | MIT Draper Lab Internship

What I Bring

Product Strategy

Building product visions that align technical capabilities with business objectives at enterprise scale.

AI/ML Leadership

Translating machine learning capabilities into production systems that drive measurable business value.

Cross-Functional Leadership

Building alignment across engineering, data science, design, and business stakeholders.

Data-Driven Decisions

Using analytics and experimentation to validate hypotheses and drive continuous improvement.

What I'm Building Toward

I'm most energized by ambiguous 0→1 problems at enterprise scale—where technical credibility, executive influence, and operational discipline converge.

I'm drawn to roles where AI/ML strategy directly shapes capital allocation, and where building the right team matters as much as building the right product. The best problems are the ones where nobody's sure it can be done, the stakes justify the investment, and success requires both shipping code and shipping organizational change.

I've built platforms that inform billions in decisions at Walmart. Next, I want to lead product at a company where AI/ML strategy shapes competitive advantage—whether that's as VP/Chief Product Officer driving transformation at scale, or as a founding product leader at a company betting its future on AI.

Let's Talk

I enjoy connecting with people working on interesting problems in AI, product, and enterprise technology. Always happy to exchange ideas.