Applied Researcher

eBay; Nordrhein-Westfalen; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

eBay is seeking an Applied Researcher, Generative AI to join the Foundation Models team. You will tackle challenging research problems involving foundation models and Generative AI, turning ideas into capabilities used across eBay at scale.

You will collaborate with researchers, ML engineers, product teams, and AI platform teams to move from research to production, with opportunities to publish, patent, and contribute open-source work.

Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, ML, AI, or related field, or equivalent research experience.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct high-quality ML research in Generative AI, LLMs, or related areas.
• Strong programming skills in Python and ML frameworks; experience with production ML systems is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Research, develop, and evaluate new approaches for Generative AI and foundation models with direct impact on eBay’s users.
• Design rigorous experiments across LLMs, multimodal models, agents, and retrieval.
• Translate promising research into scalable capabilities and production systems.

Skills

Generative AI

LLMs

Multimodal models

Reinforcement learning

Python

PyTorch

Education

PhD or equivalent research

Tools

PyTorch

Job description

At eBay, we're more than a global ecommerce leader - we're changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. We're committed to pushing boundaries and leaving our mark as we reinvent the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts.

Our customers are our compass, authenticity thrives, bold ideas are welcome, and everyone can bring their unique selves to work - every day. We're in this together, sustaining the future of our customers, our company, and our planet.

Join a team of passionate thinkers, innovators, and dreamers - and help us connect people and build communities to create economic opportunity for all.

At eBay, we're more than a global ecommerce leader. We're changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. We're committed to pushing boundaries and reinventing the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts.

About the team and the role

The Foundation Models team builds next-generation Generative AI capabilities and products that power intelligent experiences across eBay at global scale. We work across the full AI lifecycle, from applied research and model development to evaluation, optimization, productionization, and integration into customer-facing products and platform capabilities.

We are looking for an Applied Researcher, Generative AI to join the team as an individual contributor. You will work on challenging applied research problems involving foundation models and Generative AI, developing new approaches and translating them into capabilities that can deliver measurable impact for eBay customers. You will work closely with other researchers, machine learning engineers, product teams, and AI platform teams, with opportunities to contribute across the lifecycle from research and experimentation to production.

This role is well suited to someone with strong research foundations who also enjoys building and experimenting with real systems and wants to see their research translated into products at scale.

What you will accomplish

• Research, develop, and evaluate new approaches for Generative AI and foundation models, addressing challenging problems with direct relevance to eBay's customers and marketplace.
• Design and run rigorous experiments across areas such as LLMs, multimodal models, agents, model adaptation and post-training, retrieval and context, and learning from feedback.
• Develop models and prototypes and work with machine learning engineers to translate promising research into scalable capabilities and production systems.
• Build and improve methods for model training, fine-tuning, evaluation, and continuous improvement using human, user, and production feedback.
• Work with large-scale text, image, behavioral, and marketplace data to formulate research problems, develop solutions, and measure their impact through offline and online evaluation.
• Collaborate across research, engineering, product, and platform teams while contributing to eBay's scientific and technical community through knowledge sharing, publications, patents, open-source work, or other technical contributions.

What you will bring

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent research experience, with demonstrated ability to conduct high-quality machine learning research.
• Hands-on research experience in one or more areas such as Large Language Models, multimodal models, NLP, agents, post-training, reinforcement learning, retrieval, or learning from feedback.
• Strong understanding of modern machine learning methods and the ability to formulate research questions, design rigorous experiments, analyze results, and translate findings into practical solutions.
• Strong programming skills, particularly in Python and modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch, with experience implementing, training, fine-tuning, and evaluating modern machine learning models.
• Experience applying research to real-world problems through industry experience, internships, research collaborations, open-source projects, or other applied work; experience with production ML systems is a plus.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to work across research and engineering disciplines and communicate technical ideas and experimental results clearly.

Additional Details

eBay is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and disability, or other legally protected status.If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at [e-mail]. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities.

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