Engineering Manager, Search Retrieval

Company Description
Etsy is the global marketplace for unique and creative goods. We build, power, and evolve the tools and technologies that connect millions of entrepreneurs with millions of buyers around the world. As an Etsy Inc. employee, whether a team member of Etsy, Reverb, or Depop, you will tackle unique, meaningful, and large-scale problems alongside passionate coworkers, all the while making a rewarding impact and Keeping Commerce Human.

Salary Range:

Etsy is the global marketplace for unique and creative goods. We build, power, and evolve the tools and technologies that connect millions of entrepreneurs with millions of buyers around the world. As an Etsy Inc. employee, whether a team member of Etsy, Reverb, or Depop, you will tackle unique, meaningful, and large-scale problems alongside passionate coworkers, all the while making a rewarding impact and Keeping Commerce Human.

What’s the role?

We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead our Search Retrieval team. You will lead a team of engineers and applied scientists to drive the design, development and optimization of our search retrieval systems, ensuring we deliver the best and relevant search experience for our users. We develop efficient, state-of-the-art, large-scale search models that sift through a universe of over a hundred million special, extraordinary items to help our buyers find something they will love.
 

As the engineering manager, you will support and grow our engineers and scientists with expertises spanning across machine learning, deep learning and high-performing retrieval systems. We closely follow the latest research in information retrieval and implement its best ideas efficiently, at scale for the benefit of our buyers. Working hands-on with a cross-functional team, we deliver robust production models that will be A/B tested! Does helping people find the perfect handmade or vintage good from using the latest ML research sound exciting to you? If so, we could be the perfect match.
 

This is a full-time position reporting to the Director of Engineering, Search Relevance. In addition to salary, you will also be eligible for an equity package, an annual performance bonus, and our competitive benefits that support you and your family as part of your total rewards package at Etsy.

For this role, we are considering candidates based in the United States. Candidates living within commutable distance of Etsy’s Brooklyn Office Hub or in the San Francisco Bay Area may be the first to be considered. For candidates within commutable distance, Etsy requires in-office attendance once or twice per week depending on your proximity to the office. Etsy offers different work modes to meet the variety of needs and preferences of our team. Learn more details about our  work modes and workplace safety policies here.

What’s this team like at Etsy?

Search Retrieval is a machine learning team under Search Relevance sub-initiative that strives to improve relevancy of search results for Etsy buyers. We apply the latest techniques from machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and information retrieval research at Etsy’s scale. Here is a taste of some of the problems we are solving:

• Use lexical and neural retrieval models to improve search relevance while also considering cross-border trades, nuances on different markets and query specificity.

• Work closely with fellow ML engineers, backend engineers, scientists, and product managers to develop & test large scale experiments to improve relevance.

• Optimize ML models to meet latency SLAs at the scale of Etsy production traffic and launch live A/B experiments to test our hypotheses.

• Co-organize research/paper-reading group to stay up to date with the latest trends and advancements in search technologies, information retrieval, and machine learning to guide team strategy and innovation.
   

What does the day-to-day look like?

• Work in a cross-functional team to understand user needs and translate them into technical solutions that improve search relevance on our search pages.

• Lead and manage a team of engineers and scientists to design, architect, and implement search retrieval models and systems, ensuring high availability, scalability, and low-latency performance.

• Foster a collaborative and high-performance engineering culture through mentorship, code reviews, and career development for your team.

• Set clear team goals, prioritize projects, and ensure timely delivery of features and improvements; monitor system performance and work proactively to identify and resolve related issues.

• Work with other engineering teams to ensure smooth integration with other services and platforms to best surface our users.

• Of course, this is just a sample of the kinds of work this role will require! You should assume that your role will encompass other tasks, too, and that your job duties and responsibilities may change from time to time at Etsy's discretion, or otherwise applicable with local law.

Qualities that will help you thrive in this role are:

• Master’s degree or PhD in computer science, engineering or a related technical field.

• Proven experience in software engineering, with a strong background in search, information retrieval, or machine learning

• 2+ years of experience leading engineering teams, ideally experience with real-time large-scale search, ads, or recommendation systems.

• Strong knowledge of search algorithms, ranking models, relevance tuning, and natural language processing (NLP) techniques.

• Expertise in one or more of the following technologies: Elasticsearch, Solr, Lucene, Vector search, or other search/retrieval frameworks. Familiarity with modern techniques in semantic search, transformers, or larger language models (LLMs).

• Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to manage complex, large-scale technical challenges. Knowledge of performance optimization, caching strategies, etc for high-performance retrieval systems.

• Strong communication skills, with the ability to work cross-functionally; explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

• Proven track record to drive product development from concept to delivery while maintaining a high standard of engineering excellence.

• Facilitate great technical decision-making across a broad technical stack, having passion for the technical aspects of your work, but a desire to let engineers drive the details.

• Support and coach your engineers through the challenges of developing ML and software at scale.

• Your enthusiasm and passion for learning and improving are contagious which shows through your experience empowering others to grow!

What's Next

If you're interested in joining the team at Etsy, please share your resume with us and feel free to include a cover letter if you'd like. As we hope you've seen already, Etsy is a place that values individuality and variety. We don't want you to be like everyone else -- we want you to be like you! So tell us what you're all about.

Our Promise

At Etsy, we believe that a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace furthers relevance, resilience, and longevity. We encourage people from all backgrounds, ages, abilities, and experiences to apply. Etsy is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If, due to a disability, you need an accommodation during any part of the interview process, please let your recruiter know. While Etsy supports visa sponsorship, sponsorship opportunities may be limited to certain roles and skills.

Additional Information

What's Next
If you're interested in joining the team at Etsy, please share your resume with us and feel free to include a cover letter if you'd like. As we hope you've seen already, Etsy is a place that values individuality and variety. We don't want you to be like everyone else -- we want you to be like you! So tell us what you're all about.

Our Promise
At Etsy, we believe that a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace furthers relevance, resilience, and longevity. We encourage people from all backgrounds, ages, abilities, and experiences to apply. Etsy is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If, due to a disability, you need an accommodation during any part of the interview process, please let your recruiter know. While Etsy supports visa sponsorship, sponsorship opportunities may be limited to certain roles and skills.