Senior Product Manager, Search & Recommendations Quality

11105 Expedia, Inc.; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 173,000 - 243,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision

Travel discounts

IATA membership

Job summary

Expedia Group is seeking a seasoned Product Manager to own the quality measurement for search and recommendations across our portfolio of brands. You will define metrics, run experiments, and collaborate with ML Science/ML Engineering to improve ranking and personalization at scale.

You will lead cross-functional initiatives, shape the roadmap, and report progress to senior stakeholders, ensuring our search and recommendation surfaces deliver relevant, trusted results for travelers worldwide.

Qualifications

• Experience owning product metrics, experimentation, or evaluation frameworks for a ranking, recommendations, personalization, or search system.
• Strong technical depth and experience partnering directly with ML Science/ML Engineering teams on model evaluation and tradeoffs.

Responsibilities

• Own the product vision and roadmap for search and recommendations quality measurement, mapping target outcomes and KPIs to delivery milestones.
• Define and evaluate ranking and recommendation model quality including offline metrics and online proxies; facilitate tradeoff decisions on model changes.
• Own and scale evaluation system for search relevance: curated query corpus, human relevance annotation, and LLM-as-judge scoring; extend to recommendations.
• Define and own product metrics for search relevance and recommendation quality; run regular metric reviews and align roadmap to outcomes.
• Lead competitive relevance and benchmarking across brands; translate findings into prioritized investments.
• Coordinate experimentation and win-loss analysis on ranking, relevance, and recommendations changes.
• Coach and influence PMs and stakeholders on relevance and measurement best practices.

Skills

Product metrics ownership

Experimentation framework

Ranking/recs knowledge

ML collaboration

Communication

Job description

At Expedia Group, we help travelers explore the world, one journey at a time. As a global travel company powered by passionate people, trusted partnerships, and leading technology, we connect travelers, partners, and advertisers through our consumer brands, B2B network, and travel advertising business. Here, you'll do meaningful work that helps millions of people discover, book, and experience travel with more ease, confidence, and joy. Our five Behaviors-Traveler First, Think Big, Operate with Excellence, Ownership Mindset, and Succeed Together-help foster a supportive environment where people can grow their careers and have the flexibility, benefits, and support to do their best work. Join us and build for travelers everywhere.

Introduction to The Team:

The Product Team creates high-quality end-to-end experiences for travelers, partners, and Expedia Group. Our focus on customer-centric innovation enables us to develop products that build loyalty and repeat business. We partner closely with teams across Expedia Group to drive growth and achieve results for our customers and the company. Search and Recommendations are the front door to every trip travelers plan on Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo: from the ranked results on a search results page to the recommendation modules that suggest the next property, destination, or add-on. The ranking and relevance decisions made across these surfaces in a fraction of a second shape whether a traveler finds the right option, and whether that moment converts into a booking. As Search & Recs grows in scale and complexity across brands, our ability to measure relevance and engagement quality, diagnose regressions, and benchmark against the competition becomes essential to protecting and growing that value. The Search & Recs Quality team defines how Expedia Group measures and improves the health of search ranking and recommendation surfaces. We build the metrics, evaluation tooling, and operating cadences that tell Search, Recs, ML, and Engineering teams whether ranking and recommendations are working for travelers, for suppliers, and for the business and where to focus the next improvement.

In this role, you will own product quality and relevance measurement across all Search and Recommendations surfaces, partnering closely with Ranking and Personalization ML Science, ML Engineering, and Search Engineering to turn ambiguous relevance and engagement questions into clear, defensible metrics and roadmap decisions. Your work will directly influence how travelers experience search results and recommendations across brands, and how confidently the organization can ship ranking and personalization changes.

In this Role You Will:

• Own the product vision and roadmap for search and recommendations quality measurement, mapping target outcomes and KPIs (e.g., relevance, ranking quality, recommendation engagement, search-to-booking success) to delivery milestones
• Partner with ML Science and ML Engineering to define and evaluate ranking and recommendation model quality including offline metrics (e.g., NDCG@10) and online proxies (e.g., Average Booking Position, recommendation click-through and conversion) and to facilitate technical tradeoff decisions on model changes
• Own and scale evaluation system for search relevance: a curated query corpus, human relevance annotation, and LLM-as-judge scoring, reported through our larger Search Health program and extend these methods to evaluate recommendation surfaces (e.g., destination recs, cross-sell, rebooking recommendations)
• Define and own product metrics for search relevance and recommendation quality, running regular metric reviews and holding the roadmap accountable to measurable outcomes across both surfaces
• Lead competitive relevance and recommendation benchmarking against key players in the marketplace, translating findings into a prioritized set of product, ranking, and personalization investments
• Coordinate experimentation and win-loss analysis on ranking, relevance, and recommendation changes, recommending strategies to optimize quality across brands
• Coach and influence PMs and stakeholders across the broader Search & Recs organization on relevance and recommendation quality measurement best practices

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in a technical, quantitative, or related field, or equivalent practical experience; 8+ years of product management experience (6+ years with a Master's degree)
• Experience owning product metrics, experimentation, or evaluation frameworks for a ranking, recommendations, personalization, or search system
• Strong technical depth and experience partnering directly with ML Science/ML Engineering teams on model evaluation and tradeoffs
• Demonstrated ability to independently design product experiments, interpret ranking, relevance, or recommendation engagement data, and translate findings into a defensible roadmap
• Track record of driving milestone and release planning for complex, cross-functional initiatives, including proactive risk mitigation
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting to and influencing senior stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with search ranking and/or recommendation systems (e.g., learning-to-rank models, collaborative filtering, NDCG, engagement and conversion metrics)
• Familiarity with LLM-as-judge or other AI-assisted relevance and recommendation evaluation methods
• Experience in a marketplace or travel/e-commerce search and recommendations context, balancing traveler relevance with supplier and commercial considerations
• Experience running or contributing to competitive benchmarking programs across search and/or recommendation surfaces

The total cash range for this position in Seattle is $173,000.00 to $242,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $277,000.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role. Starting pay for this role will vary based on multiple factors, including location, available budget, and an individual’s knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges may be modified in the future.

• Benefits and perks Expedia Group offers benefits and perks designed to support employees and their families, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, an Employee Assistance Program, wellness and travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN) membership

Accommodation requests

Expedia Group is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruiting experience. If you need an accommodation or adjustment due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please submit a request at https://expedia.service-now.com/askeg?id=job_accommodation.

Equal Opportunity Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This employer participates in E-Verify. The employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee's I-9 to confirm work authorization. Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is the global travel marketplace with one purpose: to help travelers explore the world, one journey at a time. Expedia Group™ connects travelers, partners, and advertisers through its trusted brands, leading technology, and rich first-party data, delivering predictive, personalized experiences that shape the future of travel. Expedia Group’s ecosystem includes three flagship consumer brands – Expedia®, Hotels.com®, and Vrbo® – the largest B2B travel business, and a premier advertising network. Guided by an experienced and passionate global team, Expedia Group helps millions of travelers in more than 70 countries explore the world with confidence and ease.