Instacart

3 months ago

Senior Applied Scientist II, Ads Optimization

✓ Verified Job

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

Source: Company careers pageValidated by: Fursa AI

Last checked: 6 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Lead design and deployment of real-time optimization systems for ad bidding, pacing, and budgeting at Instacart, translating control theory, constrained optimization, and auction economics into production code that makes millions of decisions daily, while shaping the technical roadmap and measuring impact.

Location: United States

Workplace: Remote

Employment Type: Full time

Job Function: Research & Scientific (R&D)

Key Responsibilities

•Design and evolve real-time bid optimization systems that translate advertiser goals into optimal auction bids under uncertainty.
•Build intelligent budget pacing algorithms that distribute spend across time and auction opportunities.
•Develop the analytical frameworks that connect bidding, pacing, and budgeting into a coherent optimization objective.
•Shape auction mechanics including reserve pricing, multi-slot allocation, and bid-to-price mapping.
•Own the full research-to-production loop: diagnose system behavior from large-scale data, formulate hypotheses, design experiments, ship production code, and measure impact.

Pay and Benefits

Perks:EquityRemote Work

Key Requirements

•MS or PhD in operations research, applied mathematics, control systems, computational economics, or a related quantitative field.
•8+ years of experience building and deploying optimization or control systems in production environments.
•Strong foundation in at least two of: feedback control theory (PID, MPC), convex and stochastic optimization, auction theory and mechanism design, dynamic programming.
•Proficiency in one of the following languages: Go, Java, C++ for production systems and Python for data analysis and offline pipelines.
•Demonstrated ability to translate mathematical formulations into production code that runs at scale (millions of decisions per day, sub-100ms latency constraints).

Experience:8+ yearsAdvertising techReal-time biddingOptimizationProduction systemsAuction theory

Education:Master's

Skills:Problem-solvingCommunicationCollaborationAnalytical thinking

Languages:English

Tech Stack:GoJavaC++Python

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

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Instacart

3 months ago

Senior Applied Scientist II, Ads Optimization

✓ Verified Job

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

Source: Company careers pageValidated by: Fursa AI

Last checked: 6 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Location: United States

Workplace: Remote

Employment Type: Full time

Job Function: Research & Scientific (R&D)

Key Responsibilities

•Design and evolve real-time bid optimization systems that translate advertiser goals into optimal auction bids under uncertainty.
•Build intelligent budget pacing algorithms that distribute spend across time and auction opportunities.
•Develop the analytical frameworks that connect bidding, pacing, and budgeting into a coherent optimization objective.
•Shape auction mechanics including reserve pricing, multi-slot allocation, and bid-to-price mapping.
•Own the full research-to-production loop: diagnose system behavior from large-scale data, formulate hypotheses, design experiments, ship production code, and measure impact.

Pay and Benefits

Perks:EquityRemote Work

Key Requirements

•MS or PhD in operations research, applied mathematics, control systems, computational economics, or a related quantitative field.
•8+ years of experience building and deploying optimization or control systems in production environments.
•Strong foundation in at least two of: feedback control theory (PID, MPC), convex and stochastic optimization, auction theory and mechanism design, dynamic programming.
•Proficiency in one of the following languages: Go, Java, C++ for production systems and Python for data analysis and offline pipelines.
•Demonstrated ability to translate mathematical formulations into production code that runs at scale (millions of decisions per day, sub-100ms latency constraints).

Experience:8+ yearsAdvertising techReal-time biddingOptimizationProduction systemsAuction theory

Education:Master's

Skills:Problem-solvingCommunicationCollaborationAnalytical thinking

Languages:English

Tech Stack:GoJavaC++Python

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