Senior Applied Researcher - Search

About eBay

eBay stands as a global leader in ecommerce, transforming the way people buy and sell worldwide. Serving millions across over 190 markets, the company is dedicated to innovation, fostering authenticity, and creating a diverse, inclusive environment where everyone can thrive. eBay's mission centers on connecting communities and generating economic opportunities for all.

Team and Role Overview

The Search Query Science team is crucial to driving eBay's search revenue and is rapidly expanding. This team addresses fundamental e-commerce search difficulties such as query rewriting, annotation, classification, and recovery by leveraging sophisticated machine learning algorithms that analyze large-scale user interactions. The role offers a collaborative and stimulating atmosphere to develop advanced query understanding solutions involving intent detection, entity resolution, categorization, expansion, and filter recommendation.

Key Responsibilities

• Tackle complex AI problems related to Query Science and Natural Language Processing.
• Work closely with both researchers and engineers to innovate with state-of-the-art technologies.
• Address challenging issues affecting eBay’s platform performance and user experience.
• Influence and define the technical direction for query understanding initiatives.
• Implement and uphold best practices in software engineering to streamline development processes.
• Create and maintain offline data pipelines used for training and validating machine learning models.
• Design, develop, and deploy web services that provide real-time inference capabilities.
• Mentor junior team members and elevate the engineering standards within and beyond the team.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or a closely related field, or at least eight years of relevant professional experience.
• Demonstrated success in applied research and software development within machine learning and natural language processing, supported by evidence such as publications in leading scientific venues or contributions to open-source projects.
• Strong foundational knowledge in computer science including data structures, algorithms, and computational complexity analysis.
• Proficiency in multiple programming languages such as Python, Java, Scala, C, C++, or scripting languages.
• Experience with service-oriented architectures and related frameworks like SpringBoot, along with cloud computing technologies including Docker and Kubernetes, plus database management.
• Proven capability to work autonomously and make effective decisions with limited supervision.
• Excellent communication skills with fluency in both spoken and written English.

Additional Information

eBay is committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability, or any other protected category. Accommodations are available upon request to support candidates with disabilities. The company also utilizes cookies to improve user experience and employs AI tools for administrative purposes during hiring.