Machine Learning Scientist II

Who we are:

The Search and Recommendations Machine Learning (ML) team is at Wayfair is at the forefront of designing and implementing algorithms that define our global search experience. Using cutting-edge machine learning approaches—including deep sequence models, embeddings and multi-modal technologies—we aim to deliver a personalized and compelling experience for over 22 million active customers. Our mission is to make the user experience intuitive and efficient, helping customers discover exactly what they need in a vast and diverse product catalog.

What You’ll Do:

• Elevate recommendation quality: Design and implement scalable machine learning models to improve the ranking, and personalization of product recommendations across Wayfair
• Develop robust retrieval systems: Build and optimize candidate generation pipelines that surface high-quality, personalized product recommendations at scale.
• Leverage user and product signals: Apply deep learning and representation learning to model user preferences, product attributes, and contextual signals for better recommendation performance.
• Innovate with cutting-edge techniques: Explore sequence modeling, embeddings, and multi-modal modeling to drive the next generation of recommender systems.
• Collaborate cross-functionally: Partner with product managers, engineers, and data scientists to align recommendation strategies with business objectives and user needs.
• Tackle recommendation-specific challenges: Solve key issues such as the cold-start problem, data sparsity, product compatibility and seasonality in dynamic environments.
• Advance the ML community at Wayfair: Contribute to internal knowledge sharing, author technical documentation, and represent Wayfair at top ML conferences like NeurIPS and RecSys.
  
  

Who You Are: 

• Bachelor's or advanced degree (Master’s, PhD) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Statistics, or related field.
• 3-6 years of experience as an ML engineer, applied scientist, or research scientist, with a proven track record of delivering ML projects autonomously and driving measurable business impact, particularly in recommendations, search, or ranking. 
• Expertise in recommendation systems, including candidate generation, ranking algorithms, and user-item modeling. 
• Deep understanding of collaborative filtering, sequence modeling, and embedding-based personalization. 
• Experience with end-to-end project ownership, including collaboration with business partners and strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong proficiency in Python and/or Java for building and deploying ML-driven recommendation systems.
• Experience deploying machine learning models in production environments, with a focus on cloud-based solutions such as GCP (BigQuery, GCS, Vertex AI, Composer), as well as workflow orchestration tools like Airflow, model tracking using MLflow, and containerization technologies like Docker.

Why You’ll Love Wayfair:

• Time Off:
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Health & Wellness:
• Full Health Benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA/FSA)
• Life Insurance
• DIsability Protection (Short Term & Long Term DIsability) 
• Global Wellbeing: Gym/Fitness discounts (including US Peloton, Global ClassPass, and various regional gym memberships)
• Mental Health Support (Global Mental Health, Global Wayhealthy Recordings)
• Caregiver Services
• Financial Growth & Security:
• 401K Matching (Employee Matching Program)
• Tuition Reimbursement 
• Financial Health Education (Knowledge of Financial Education - KOFE)
• Tax Advantaged Accounts
• Family Support:
• Family Planning Support
• Parental Leave
• Global Surrogacy & Adoption Policy
• Professional Development & Recognition:
• Rewards & Recognition 
• Global Employee Anniversary Awards 
• Paid Volunteer Work 
• Unique Perks:
• Employee Discount 
• U.S. Bluebikes Membership
• Global Pod Outings
• Work/Life Balance:
• Emphasizing a supportive & flexible work environment that encourages a balance between personal and professional commitments 

If you don’t meet every qualification listed, we still encourage you to apply. We’re looking for strong team players who can learn, grow, and make an impact.

About Wayfair Inc.

Wayfair is one of the world’s largest online destinations for the home. Whether you work in our global headquarters in Boston, or in our warehouses or offices throughout the world, we’re reinventing the way people shop for their homes. Through our commitment to industry-leading technology and creative problem-solving, we are confident that Wayfair will be home to the most rewarding work of your career. If you’re looking for rapid growth, constant learning, and dynamic challenges, then you’ll find that amazing career opportunities are knocking.

No matter who you are, Wayfair is a place you can call home. We’re a community of innovators, risk-takers, and trailblazers who celebrate our differences, and know that our unique perspectives make us stronger, smarter, and well-positioned for success. We value and rely on the collective voices of our employees, customers, community, and suppliers to help guide us as we build a better Wayfair – and world – for all. Every voice, every perspective matters. That’s why we’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Your personal data is processed in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Notice (https://www.wayfair.com/careers/privacy). If you have any questions or wish to exercise your rights under applicable privacy and data protection laws, please contact us at dataprotectionofficer@wayfair.com.