Senior Applied Scientist , Recommendations Ranking

Company Description

Etsy is the global marketplace for unique and creative goods. We build, power, and evolve the tools and technologies that connect millions of entrepreneurs with millions of buyers around the world. As an Etsy Inc. employee, whether a team member of Etsy or Depop, you will tackle unique, meaningful, and large‑scale problems alongside passionate coworkers, all the while making a rewarding impact and keeping commerce human.

We are looking for a passionate and talented Applied Machine Learning Scientist to join our Recommendation Ranking team. The team develops Machine Learning models to understand buyers, personalize, and rank recommendations across  and the Etsy app. As an Applied Scientist, you will work closely with Software Engineers to improve the shopping experience for 90+ million buyers. The role is full‑time, reports to the Engineering Manager, and is located in the United States (candidates near the Brooklyn Office Hub may be preferred).

• Work closely with software engineers, data scientists, product managers, and designers to set the future technical direction of Etsy’s recommendation system.
• Push the state of the art and apply the latest advances in machine learning to improve buyer and seller experiences on Etsy.
• Build user models that allow us to better understand the unique interests, tastes, and shopping mission of Etsy’s buyers.
• Develop models that target Etsy‑specific problems, including but not limited to personalized ranking, multi‑objective optimization, and diversity constraints.
• Design foresight and intent prediction models that anticipate future buyer needs and predict lifecycle transitions.
• Improve feed reactivity and freshness, ensuring recommendations adapt quickly to user actions, emerging trends, and seasonal shifts.
• Prototype, optimize, and product ionize large‑scale machine learning models that help deliver key results.
• Conduct experiments (A/B testing, etc.) to validate the effectiveness of machine learning models and pipelines.

• Successful track record of applying machine learning techniques to address real‑world problems.
• Experience with deep learning, multi‑modal learning, reinforcement learning, or related fields.
• Hands‑on experience in training, deploying, monitoring, debugging, and iterating on production machine learning systems in search, recommendation, and/or ads systems.
• Production experience developing large‑scale machine learning systems in Python, Scala, PyTorch, Tensor Flow, or similar languages.
• Ability to write understandable, testable code and manipulate data at a large scale with an eye toward maintainability.
• MS or PhD in Computer Science or related engineering fields with at least two years of practical machine learning experience.

Position is based in the United States. Candidates living within commutable distance of Etsy’s Brooklyn Office Hub may be the first to be considered. For candidates in‑office proximity, Etsy requires attendance once or twice per week, depending on your proximity to the office. Etsy offers different work modes to meet the variety of needs and preferences of our team.

Salary Range: $ – $. In addition to salary, you will also be eligible for an equity package, an annual performance bonus, and our competitive benefits that support you and your family as part of your total rewards package at Etsy.

We encourage people from all backgrounds, ages, abilities, and experiences to apply. Etsy is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. If, due to a disability, you need an accommodation during any part of the application or interview process, please let your recruiter know.

While Etsy supports visa sponsorship, sponsorship opportunities may be limited to certain roles and skills.