Senior Applied Researcher, Query Science

At eBay, we're more than a global ecommerce leader — we’re changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. We’re committed to pushing boundaries and leaving our mark as we reinvent the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts.

Our customers are our compass, authenticity thrives, bold ideas are welcome, and everyone can bring their unique selves to work — every day. We're in this together, sustaining the future of our customers, our company, and our planet.

Join a team of passionate thinkers, innovators, and dreamers — and help us connect people and build communities to create economic opportunity for all.

eBay Inc. is a global commerce leader that connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world. We exist to enable economic opportunity for individuals, entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations of all sizes. ​The Query Science team is at the core of eBay’s Search product and it is composed of passionate professionals united in our mission to make searching and buying at eBay as efficient and enjoyable as possible. Innovation is at the heart of everything we do. We believe that by understanding the intent and behaviors of our buyers, we can tailor our services to provide the best possible shopping experience, setting new standards in the e-commerce industry. Join us, and be part of a forward-thinking company that values creativity, hard work, and innovation.

• Be directly responsible for improving search recall and ranking via query understanding and machine learned models that power the end-end search experience at eBay.

• Showcase the spectrum of value in the world’s most diverse ecommerce inventory, by improving whole page relevance, query recommendations, spell corrections, synonym/acronym expansions, and query rewrites.

• Conceptualize, document, design, architect, code, deploy, and iterate on designs from prototypes all the way through to production systems. Help define and refine project scopes and goals.

• Analyze petabytes of real-world behavioral data to understand patterns and trends. Transform data insights into actionable reports, targeting algorithms, and model features.

• Focus on our biggest opportunities in search, convert them into applied science problem statements, and then develop end-to-end solutions.

• Directly see the results of your applied research improving and powering the experience of eBay’s core search platform across the globe.

• Guide, mentor, and grow team members while overseeing the development and implementation of cutting-edge algorithms and models for Natural Language Processing (NLP), Embedding Based Retrieval (EBR), semantic search, and machine learning to enhance query understanding and retrieval.

• Collaborate with management and cross-functional teams, including product managers, engineers, applied researchers, engineers, and data scientists, to integrate relevant solutions into the search platform.

• Stay abreast of the latest advancements and provide technical leadership in NLP, machine learning, LLMs, and other search technologies, applying state-of-the-art approaches to continually improve the search experience.

• Develop metrics and run A/B tests to assess the effectiveness of query understanding improvements and their impact on user experience.

• Communicate complex technical concepts and the value of applied research projects to all stake-holders within the company.

• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Information Retrieval, or a related field, with a focus on NLP or machine learning.

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience.

• Proven track record of leading research projects in search, query understanding, NLP, or related areas, with demonstrable impacts on product improvement.

• Strong background in machine learning, NLP, and related technologies, with experience applying these techniques to large-scale, real world problems.

• Excellent leadership and team management skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate a high-performing team.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a creative approach to tackling complex challenges.

• Proficiency in Python, and experience with machine learning frameworks and tools.

• Excellent communication skills, with fluency in English. Proficiency in German is a plus.

• Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, managing multiple projects simultaneously.

• Results oriented. Research is great but at the end of the day you want to see your creation live and breathe.

• Proficient with distributed systems like Hadoop and Spark. You’re not necessarily an expert, but you have experience processing large datasets in such frameworks.

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