Senior Machine Learning Engineer II, Search & Recommendations Ranking
AI summary of the role
Architect the ranking backbone for Instacart's Search & Personalization ML team, unifying search, discovery, recommendations, ads, and merchandising into a single multi-task, multi-objective platform.
What you’ll do
- Architect the ranking backbone unifying query understanding, personalization, multi-objective ranking, ads, and merchandising into a single adaptive platform.
- Design and build a search autosuggest system optimized for personalization and value-based relevance.
- Design long-horizon objective functions (e.g., incrementality, LTV, habit formation) and build uplift/causal value models.
- Develop production-grade Multi-Task Learning (shared encoders, MMOE/PLE) to jointly learn relevance, propensity, margin, and churn risk.
What you’ll bring
- 5+ years applying ML at scale (3+ years in technical leadership) with proven track record improving ranking or recommendation systems in production.
- Demonstrated success in multi-objective or constrained optimization balancing relevance, revenue, margin, and user experience; experience with online testing and attribution beyond CTR.
- Strong coding (Python) and data fluency (SQL/Pandas), with expertise in classic ML (e.g., XGBoost) and deep learning frameworks (TensorFlow/PyTorch).
- Excellent analytical skills and strong cross-functional communication abilities.
Technologies
Python · SQL · Pandas · XGBoost · TensorFlow · PyTorch · MMOE · PLE · LLMs · contextual bandits
About Instacart
North America's largest online grocery marketplace, monetizing a four-sided network (consumers, shoppers, retailers, CPG advertisers) via delivery fees, retail-media ads, and enterprise tech for grocers.
Public
Source and classification
Internal deployment & tooling · Evidence for this classification:
where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work. Overview The Search & Personalization ML team is Instacart’s engine for state-of-the-art multi-task, multi-objective ranking—unifying search, discovery, recommendation, ads, and merchandising into a single value-aware platform. Partnering with world-class engineers, scientists, and PMs, we build the ranking backbone that powers every pixel of the shopping journey, optimizing not just for clicks, but for incremental GTV, basket lift, and retention over the long run. What We’re Building Foundational Ranking Backbone Models: Multi-task/multi-objective models (shared encoders + task heads) that jointly learn relevance, conversion, margin contribution, churn
More from the job description
We're transforming the grocery industry At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers. Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table. Instacart is a Flex First team There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work. Overview The Search & Personalization ML team is Instacart’s engine for state-of-the-art multi-task, multi-objective ranking—unifying search, discovery, recommendation, ads, and merchandising into a single value-aware platform. Partnering with world-class engineers, scie [... source excerpt omitted ...] evance. Design long-horizon objective functions (e.g., incrementality, LTV, habit formation) and build uplift/causal value models that move beyond short-term engagement. Develop production-grade Multi-Task Learning (e.g., shared encoders, MMOE/PLE task heads) to jointly learn relevance, propensity, margin, and churn risk—ensuring calibration, constraints, and explainability. Own the inference layer: goal-aware re-rankers, diversity and quality constraints, safe exploration, and millisecond-class latency optimization. Advance evaluation practices: online experiments, long-horizon cohort metrics, counterfactual evaluations, and attribution pipelines for tracking incremental GTV a [... source excerpt omitted ...] ate business goals into ranking policies and measurable ROI. Mentor ML engineers to build expertise in ranking, causal inference, and scalable serving systems. About You Minimum Qualifications 5+ years applying ML at scale (3+ years in technical leadership), with a proven track record improving ranking or recommendation systems in production. Demonstrated success in applying multi-objective or constrained optimization to balance relevance, revenue, margin, and user experience; experience with online testing and attribution beyond CTR. Strong coding (Python) and data fluency (SQL/Pandas), with expertise in classic ML techniques (e.g., XGBoost) and deep learning frameworks (TensorFl
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