Instacart

5 months ago

Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Search & Recommendations Ranking

✓ Verified Job

Canonical indexed version, validated from employer's careers page.

Source: Company careers pageValidated by: Fursa AI

Last checked: 2 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Senior ML Engineer to architect and optimize Instacart’s Search & Recommendations ranking backbone. You’ll design multi-task learning models, implement long-horizon objective functions, and own low-latency inference while collaborating with ads, infrastructure, product, and design teams to drive incremental value and retention across a four-sided marketplace.

Location: United States

Workplace: Remote

Employment Type: Full time

Job Function: Data Science & Machine Learning

Seniority: Sr. Manager level

Key Responsibilities

•Architect the ranking backbone that unifies query understanding, personalization, multi-objective ranking, ads, and merchandising into a single adaptive platform.
•Design long-horizon objective functions (e.g., incrementality, LTV, habit formation) and build uplift/causal value models that move beyond short-term engagement.
•Develop production-grade Multi-Task Learning (e.g., shared encoders, MMOE/PLE task heads) to jointly learn relevance, propensity, margin, and churn risk—ensuring calibration, constraints, and explainability.
•Own the inference layer: goal-aware re-rankers, diversity and quality constraints, safe exploration, and millisecond-class latency optimization.
•Partner across ads, infrastructure, product, and design teams to translate business goals into ranking policies and measurable ROI.
•Mentor ML engineers to build expertise in ranking, causal inference, and scalable serving systems.

Key Requirements

•5+ years applying ML at scale (3+ years in technical leadership), with a proven track record improving ranking or recommendation systems in production.
•Strong coding (Python) and data fluency (SQL/Pandas), with expertise in classic ML techniques (e.g., XGBoost) and deep learning frameworks (TensorFlow/PyTorch).
•Demonstrated success in applying multi-objective or constrained optimization to balance relevance, revenue, margin, and user experience; experience with online testing and attribution beyond CTR.
•Excellent analytical skills and strong cross-functional communication abilities.
•5+ years of applying ML at scale (3+ years in technical leadership)

Experience:5+ yearsMarketplaceE-commerceRanking

Skills:CommunicationLeadershipProblem-solving

Languages:English

Tech Stack:PythonSQLPandasXGBoostTensorFlowPyTorchMMOEPLE

Company Brief

Instacart

Operates an online grocery marketplace connecting customers with personal shoppers and local retailers for grocery delivery and pickup. Provides technology, logistics, and advertising solutions to supermarkets and consumer packaged goods brands.

Industry: Online Marketplaces

Company Size: Enterprise (1,001+ employees)

Revenue: USD 1B+

Growth: Public Company

Valuation: Public Company (Market Cap in USD)

Funding: IPO / Publicly Listed

Headquarters: San Francisco, United States

Founded: 2012

Glassdoor: 3.6

Website LinkedIn

Loading job details...

Preparing the role view and application actions.

Instacart

5 months ago

Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Search & Recommendations Ranking

✓ Verified Job

Canonical indexed version, validated from employer's careers page.

Source: Company careers pageValidated by: Fursa AI

Last checked: 2 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Location: United States

Workplace: Remote

Employment Type: Full time

Job Function: Data Science & Machine Learning

Seniority: Sr. Manager level

Key Responsibilities

•Architect the ranking backbone that unifies query understanding, personalization, multi-objective ranking, ads, and merchandising into a single adaptive platform.
•Design long-horizon objective functions (e.g., incrementality, LTV, habit formation) and build uplift/causal value models that move beyond short-term engagement.
•Develop production-grade Multi-Task Learning (e.g., shared encoders, MMOE/PLE task heads) to jointly learn relevance, propensity, margin, and churn risk—ensuring calibration, constraints, and explainability.
•Own the inference layer: goal-aware re-rankers, diversity and quality constraints, safe exploration, and millisecond-class latency optimization.
•Partner across ads, infrastructure, product, and design teams to translate business goals into ranking policies and measurable ROI.
•Mentor ML engineers to build expertise in ranking, causal inference, and scalable serving systems.

Key Requirements

•5+ years applying ML at scale (3+ years in technical leadership), with a proven track record improving ranking or recommendation systems in production.
•Strong coding (Python) and data fluency (SQL/Pandas), with expertise in classic ML techniques (e.g., XGBoost) and deep learning frameworks (TensorFlow/PyTorch).
•Demonstrated success in applying multi-objective or constrained optimization to balance relevance, revenue, margin, and user experience; experience with online testing and attribution beyond CTR.
•Excellent analytical skills and strong cross-functional communication abilities.
•5+ years of applying ML at scale (3+ years in technical leadership)

Experience:5+ yearsMarketplaceE-commerceRanking

Skills:CommunicationLeadershipProblem-solving

Languages:English

Tech Stack:PythonSQLPandasXGBoostTensorFlowPyTorchMMOEPLE

Company Brief

Instacart

Industry: Online Marketplaces

Company Size: Enterprise (1,001+ employees)

Revenue: USD 1B+

Growth: Public Company

Valuation: Public Company (Market Cap in USD)

Funding: IPO / Publicly Listed

Headquarters: San Francisco, United States

Founded: 2012

Glassdoor: 3.6

Website LinkedIn