Senior Director, Machine Learning, Search

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:

$326,000.00 - $424,000.00

What’s the role?

Etsy is hiring a Senior Director of Engineering, Machine Learning to lead our Search organization—the engine that powers discovery for nearly 90 million buyers and over 120 million unique, handcrafted, and vintage items from 6 million independent sellers.

As the leader of Search Engineering, you’ll drive the innovation behind one of the most dynamic and unique e-commerce platforms in the world. Our Search team develops and maintains key capabilities like query understanding, semantic relevance, multi-objective personalized ranking, and low-latency, high-precision retrieval, all of which are critical to Etsy’s buyer and seller success.

Search is Etsy’s highest-impact product surface and a primary driver of growth. Your work will directly influence billions of dollars in transactions while supporting the livelihoods of creative entrepreneurs around the world. We're looking for a seasoned engineering leader with deep experience in data science & machine learning, large-scale search systems, and cross-functional leadership across engineering teams.

In this role, you'll shape the long-term vision and execution strategy for Etsy Search. You'll work closely with peers across Product, Design, Research, and Analytics to set priorities, allocate resources, and drive innovation grounded in business impact and measurable outcomes. To learn more about how we think and build at Etsy, check out our engineering blog.

This is a full-time role reporting to the Head of Engineering for Search & Discovery 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 the team like?

You’ll lead a large engineering team tackling some of the most complex and impactful challenges in e-commerce, including: 

• Helping buyers find high-quality, unique items from our massive inventory by:

  • Ensuring the most relevant results surface for each buyer.

  • Building personalized ranking systems that respect user privacy.

  • Adapting the search experience dynamically based on buyer context.

• Staying at the forefront of machine learning in ranking and information retrieval, while delivering consistent quarterly progress.

• Applying advanced ML techniques—including vector search, neural networks, and large language models—to interpret nuanced buyer queries and represent a wide-ranging inventory across multiple languages.

• Scaling a search infrastructure that supports over 90M buyers and 120M items and delivers millions of search results in milliseconds.

What does the day-to-day look like?

In this role, you will:

• Provide strategic and technical leadership across the Search UX and ML teams.