Senior Product Manager, Search and Discovery

Yami; Brea (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) matching

Health insurance

PTO

On-site gym/pool and game rooms

Coffee and snacks

Job summary

Yami in California seeks a Senior Product Manager for Search and Discovery to own product experiences that help customers find and engage with products across the platform. You will define strategy, roadmap, and delivery plans tied to search performance and customer satisfaction.

You will partner with Engineering, Data Science, Analytics, Merchandising, UX Design, and Content to build end-to-end capabilities including query understanding, ranking, autocomplete, browse navigation, personalized

Qualifications

• 5+ years of product management experience in ecommerce or content platforms.
• Deep understanding of search and information retrieval concepts.
• Knowledge of metrics like CTR, conversion rate, null result rate, MRR, NDCG.
• Experience with ML/data science teams to define model objectives and translate ML into features.
• Experience leading distributed or remote engineering teams.
• Bilingual written and verbal communication in Chinese and English.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end product strategy and roadmap for search and discovery.
• Drive improvements in key metrics such as search relevance, CTR, conversion rate, null/low result rate, and search-driven GMV.
• Lead the development of core capabilities: query understanding, ranking, autocomplete, and suggestions.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Data Science, Merchandising, Content, and UX teams.
• Establish clear success metrics and translate insights into actionable product improvements.
• Drive alignment across cross-functional stakeholders and distributed teams.

Skills

Product management

Search & discovery

Data analysis

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Bilingual Chinese/English

Tools

SQL

Job description

Founded in 2013, Yami’s mission is to bring the world closer for everyone to experience and enjoy. We make it easy to discover exciting flavors and trending products from Asia. Named Inc. Magazine’s fastest-growing start-up on the ”Inc. 500 List.”, we’re committed to connecting people with authentic food, beauty, home, and wellness experiences through our e-commerce platform, iOS, and Android apps.

Benefits & Compensation:

401(k) matching

Health insurance: medical, vision, and dental

$100K-135K

Paid time off (PTO): vacation, sick, and holidays

On-site gym/pool and game rooms

Coffee and snacks

Description

Senior Product Manager, Search and Discovery will own the systems and product experiences that help customers efficiently find, explore, and engage with the right products across the platform.

This role defines product strategy, roadmap, and delivery plans by working backward from the search and discovery strategy and targeted business outcomes, including improvements in search relevance, query understanding, conversion rate, click-through rate, null/low result rate, search-driven GMV, and overall customer satisfaction.

Partnering closely with Engineering, Data Science, Analytics, Merchandising, UX Design, and Content, you will drive the build and evolution of end-to-end search and discovery capabilities across query understanding and intent recognition, search ranking and relevance optimization, autocomplete and query suggestion, browse and navigation taxonomy, personalized search and recommendation, search analytics and performance dashboards, content discovery and merchandising integration, and search result presentation (trust signals, product differentiation, and information architecture) — with clear visibility, ownership, and reliable follow-through.

Job responsibilities:

Own the end-to-end product strategy and roadmap for search and discovery systems

Drive improvements in key metrics such as search relevance, CTR, conversion rate, null/low result rate, and search-driven GMV

Lead the development of core capabilities, including:

Query understanding and intent recognition

Search ranking and relevance optimization

Autocomplete and query suggestions

Browse and navigation taxonomy

Personalized search and recommendations

Search analytics and performance dashboards

Content discovery and merchandising integration

Search result presentation (trust signals, product differentiation, information architecture)

Partner closely with Engineering and Data Science teams to define model objectives, evaluate performance, and translate ML capabilities into product features

Collaborate with Merchandising, Content, and UX teams to enhance product discovery and user experience

Establish clear success metrics, conduct root-cause analysis, and translate insights into actionable product improvements

Drive alignment across cross-functional stakeholders and ensure strong execution across distributed teams

Basic Qualifications

5+ years of product management experience delivering scaled search, discovery, or recommendation systems in e-commerce, marketplace, or content platform environments.

Deep understanding of search and information retrieval concepts, including query parsing, intent classification, ranking algorithms, indexing, recall and precision trade-offs, and relevance tuning.

Knowledge of key search and discovery metrics, including CTR, conversion rate, null result rate, MRR (Mean Reciprocal Rank), NDCG (Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain), search exit rate, add-to-cart rate, and search-attributed GMV.

Strong analytical and structured problem solving: root-cause analysis, clear problem framing, success metrics definition, and translation of insights into system capabilities and operational mechanisms.

Experience working with machine learning and data science teams to define model objectives, evaluate model performance, and translate ML capabilities into product features.

Experience influencing multiple stakeholders across engineering, data science, merchandising, and content teams, and driving alignment and decisions.

Leadership experience in distributed or remote engineering teams, driving execution across time zones and geographies.

Bilingual written and verbal communication skills in Chinese and English.

Preferred Qualifications

Hands-on experience building or scaling search ranking, query understanding, or recommendation systems.

Experience with NLP, LLM-powered search, semantic search, vector search, or conversational/agentic shopping experiences (e.g., multi-turn dialogue, intent progression, AI-assisted product discovery).

Experience with personalization strategies, including user behavior modeling, collaborative filtering, and real-time personalization.

Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity effectively and identify structural improvements in search and discovery workflows.

Strong engineering and design judgment: able to partner with Engineering to make sound technical trade-offs and collaborate with UX Design to deliver high-quality user experiences.

Track record of building data-driven and automated solutions for search relevance optimization, A/B testing frameworks, or search analytics that reduce manual work and improve operational efficiency.

Strong data fluency with SQL and common analytics/BI tools.