Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Scalable Search & Retrieval

Etsy, Inc.; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 218,000 - 294,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity package

Annual performance bonus

Competitive benefits

Job summary

Etsy, Inc. in New York is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer I to join the Search Retrieval team. You will own models end-to-end—from data pipelines to production serving—applying cutting-edge information retrieval and ML techniques to surface relevant listings.

You’ll collaborate with engineers, applied scientists, and product managers to evaluate models via live A/B experiments and improve latency, recall, and user experience. This is a full-time role.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience building retrieval or search systems end-to-end, including lexical and semantic retrieval.
• Proven track record of delivering ML and NLP solutions across the full pipeline, from data to production.
• Experience designing scalable ML systems with localization/globalization for global impact.
• Demonstrated technical leadership on complex ML systems and cross-team initiatives.
• Strong software engineering foundations with production-ready code in Python, Java, or Scala.
• Hands-on experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow/TFX in production.
• Ability to translate ideas into reliable, well-tested production code.
• Collaborative and empathetic team member with clear communication.

Responsibilities

• Architect and scale advanced retrieval systems that optimize relevance, recall, latency, and resilience in production.
• Lead cross-functional collaborations to shape roadmaps and drive product impact.
• Take retrieval techniques from research to reliable production-grade systems, owning end-to-end delivery.
• Design and analyze complex A/B experiments with methodological rigor and measurable relevance.
• Investigate and resolve nuanced retrieval issues to improve recall, coverage, and diversity across experiences.
• Partner with product and engineering leadership to deliver 6–12 month roadmaps.

Skills

Retrieval systems

ML in production

Technical leadership

Software engineering

Python/Java/Scala

PyTorch

TensorFlow/TFX

Localization

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow/TFX

Job description

Etsy, Inc. in New York is seeking a Staff Machine Learning Engineer I to join the Search Retrieval team. You will own models end-to-end—from data pipelines to production serving—applying cutting-edge information retrieval and ML techniques to surface relevant listings.

You’ll collaborate with engineers, applied scientists, and product managers to evaluate models via live A/B experiments and improve latency, recall, and user experience. This is a full-time role.