Director, Machine Learning Science

Expedia Group brands power global travel for everyone, everywhere. We design cutting-edge tech to make travel smoother and more memorable, and we create groundbreaking solutions for our partners. Our diverse, vibrant, and welcoming community is essential in driving our success.

Why Join Us?

To shape the future of travel, people must come first. Guided by our Values and Leadership Agreements, we foster an open culture where everyone belongs, differences are celebrated and know that when one of us wins, we all win.

We provide a full benefits package, including exciting travel perks, generous time‑off, parental leave, a flexible work model (with some pretty cool offices), and career development resources, all to fuel our employees' passion for travel and ensure a rewarding career journey. We’re building a more open world. Join us.

Our Technology Team partners with teams across Expedia Group to create innovative products, services, and tools to deliver high‑quality experiences for travelers, partners, and our employees. A singular technology platform powered by data and machine learning provides secure, differentiated, and personalized experiences that drive loyalty and traveler satisfaction.

Are you passionate about applying advanced machine learning techniques to solve real‑world problems? Expedia is seeking a Director of Machine Learning Science (MLS) to lead our team of scientists dedicated to our traveler facing experience.

Expedia Group possesses extensive and rich data sets, many of which remain untapped. Your passion for statistics and machine learning can drive significant growth for our business. We are seeking individuals with hands‑on experience in building machine learning models, acquired in either academic or industrial settings. You should have suitable management experience, with at least experience managing high‑performing machine learning teams.

An advanced degree (PhD preferred) in machine learning, computer science, or another quantitative discipline is required.

In this role, you will:

• Establish the roadmap and own the OKRs for machine learning systems powering our insurance business
• Utilize the latest ML and AI technologies to enhance our travelers' personalized experience and discovery experience on both app and web platforms. Drive innovation, technical excellence, and deliver business impacts that improve conversion rates, loyalty, and overall traveler experience
• Prioritize the team’s efforts between platform migration and experimenting with new features
• Foster cross‑functional partnerships with stakeholders, including product management, engineering, customer care, and supply teams. Collaborate with multiple product teams to make decisions and prioritize requirements
• Operate with a broad business perspective and technical depth, understanding company goals while navigating and influencing the EG data platform and ML technology stacks
• Recruit, develop, and manage highly skilled and independent applied machine learning scientists in a complex environment

Minimum Qualifications:

• You have a graduate degree in a quantitative field or relevant equivalent experience
• You have 12+ years experience in Machine Learning Science
• You have 5+ years of people management experience
• You have extensive, up-to-date knowledge and hands‑on experience with machine learning and data engineering technologies (e.g., Kubernetes, Spark, Databricks, GPU)
• You have extensive experience in Generative AI technology areas such as search, personalization, sorting, ranking, recommendation, bidding, pricing, et c
• You have large‑scale content experience; an area closely related to reimagine Content in the era of GenAI, personalization

Preferred Qualifications:

• You have a proven track record of designing and delivering high‑impact machine learning projects and products from concept to completion
• You have a proactive, problem‑solving mindset with the ability to simplify complexity and translate high‑level business requirements into specific projects
• You possess strong presentation skills, with the ability to communicate complex concepts clearly and tailor key messages…