Machine Learning Engineer - Search ML

Summary

Join Instacart's mission to revolutionize the grocery industry using cutting-edge technologies. As a Machine Learning Engineer focused on Core Experience, you will build seamless shopping experiences by leveraging advanced machine learning techniques to improve search relevance and discovery on Instacart's platform. You will collaborate with engineers, data scientists, and product managers to enhance search relevance, ranking, and personalization, delivering highly relevant results to users. This role offers the opportunity to drive immediate impact and showcase your work through publications and conferences. The Core Experience ML team at Instacart applies cutting-edge AI technologies, including large language models (LLMs), to revolutionize how customers find products. You will tackle complex, large-scale search challenges using deep learning, natural language understanding, and LLM fine-tuning techniques.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related fields
• Strong programming skills in Python and fluency in data manipulation (SQL, Spark, Pandas) and machine learning (Pytorch, Tensorflow) tools
• Strong analytical skills and problem-solving ability
• Strong communicator who can collaborate with diverse stakeholders across all levels

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy advanced AI and machine learning solutions, including LLMs and neural networks, to solve complex challenges in our dynamic marketplace environment
• Architect and implement state-of-the-art deep learning systems that leverage transformer models, multimodal AI, and generative techniques to create intelligent, adaptive solutions
• Collaborate closely with product managers, data scientists, and backend engineers to translate business requirements into cutting-edge AI applications that deliver measurable impact
• Pioneer the application of foundation models, prompt engineering, and fine-tuning methodologies to create AI systems that understand context and user intent at unprecedented levels
• Engage with diverse stakeholders to ensure our AI solutions are ethically implemented, well-integrated with existing systems, and fully aligned with strategic business objectives
• Drive continuous innovation in our AI infrastructure by researching, testing, and implementing the latest advancements in machine learning, from embeddings and vector databases to reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF)
• Push the boundaries of operational efficiency through intelligent automation, predictive modeling, and algorithmic optimization powered by our custom-trained AI systems

Preferred Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience building and deploying machine learning models in production environments
• PhD in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or related fields
• Previous experience working on search or recommendation systems at scale
• Strong publication track record in top-tier AI/ML conferences
• Familiarity with A/B testing and experimentation methodologies for search relevance improvement

Benefits

• Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work
• This role is remote
• This role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants