Timothy Jacobs - Purdue Distinguished Engineering Alumni/Alumnae - Purdue University

Timothy Jacobs

Vice President, Applied AI and Machine Learning, Walmart
BSCE ‘84, MSCE ‘85, PhD CE ‘88

Throughout a career spanning over 40 years, Tim Jacobs has operated under a single guiding principle that he now instills in his teams: "You can experience the future, or you can invent the future; I prefer the latter." This mindset of unconstrained problem-solving was forged at Purdue University, where he learned to approach complex challenges with a level of creativity and originality that has become the common thread in his global successes.

Tim’s ability to deliver impactful results began as an undergraduate, where he helped develop UMPIRE (Using Minimum Penalties to Improve Rolling Efficiency) for Bethlehem Steel. This iterative search algorithm saved millions in operational costs and served as a precursor to the sophisticated routing algorithms used today by global logistics giants. After spending seven years as an Assistant Professor at Duke University — where he was awarded the ASCE Collingwood Prize for his work in reliability-based optimal infrastructure replacement and rehabilitation — Tim transitioned to the private sector to apply theoretical rigor to massive-scale industrial challenges.

During his tenure at Sabre, American Airlines and U.S. Airways, Tim pioneered solutions for combinatorically "tough" nonlinear problems. His breakthrough in decomposing combined passenger flow and fleet assignment resulted in a patented approach now utilized by most major airline carriers. His leadership in revenue management gave rise to innovations like real-time seat inventory control and dynamic airline pricing. His work in crew planning and operations further optimized the industry, reducing flight cancellations due to crew availability by more than 90% and reducing the number of aircraft needed to cover the schedule.

In 2016, Tim joined Amazon where he formed the Product Research and Optimization Science Group. There, he helped launch Amazon Air from its inception building all science and tech needed to operate a world leading air cargo service. Starting with three charter flights, Amazon Air grew to more than 100 aircraft operating on three continents in less than nine years. Tim also transformed Amazon’s ground transportation network into a high-efficiency, two-sided marketplace by blending traditional optimization with machine learning and generative AI.

Now serving as Walmart’s Vice President of Applied AI and Machine Learning, Tim is integrating generative AI into the world’s largest enterprise-wide digital infrastructure. In this role, he has already spearheaded the retail industry’s first AI-based safety agent, which utilizes computer vision and agentic AI to proactively identify, diagnose and resolve in-store issues. His current focus areas include AI-based pricing to manage the millions of products available in stores and online at the lowest prices, supply chain operations and speed of delivery to maximize customer satisfaction and associate experience.

With over 35 refereed publications and more than a dozen U.S. patents, Tim remains active in innovative research. He is an active member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and a Fellow of the Airline Group of the International Federation of Operations Research Societies (AGIFORS). A 2021 recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award from Purdue’s Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering, he continues to mentor the next generation of engineers, encouraging them to move beyond conventional methods to invent the solutions of tomorrow.

Career Highlights

Education