Senior Manager, Applied Research

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.
About the team and the role:
Looking for a company that inspires passion, courage and creativity, where you can be on the team shaping the future of global commerce? Want to shape how millions of people buy, sell, connect, and share around the world? If you’re interested in joining a purpose driven community that is dedicated to crafting an ambitious and inclusive work environment, join eBay – a company you can be proud to be with.
eBay’s Ads AI organization builds intelligent systems that help buyers find what they want and help sellers connect with the right customers. The organization brings together applied research, machine learning engineering, product, analytics, and platform teams working across multiple ads and marketplace discovery experiences.
As a Senior Manager, Applied Research, you will lead a high-performing team of applied researchers and engineers developing production AI systems at eBay scale. You will set technical direction, hire and develop talent, and partner with product, design, analytics, engineering, and business leaders to deliver measurable customer and business impact. This is a shared leadership role across Ads AI teams and will support the needs of Recommendations Ads, Search Ads, and Ads Guidance.
What you will accomplish:
Lead and manage a team of applied researchers and engineers with deep expertise in natural language processing, large language models / AI, recommender systems, and ML production engineering.
Set technical direction for production ML systems that improve customer and business outcomes.
Partner across product, engineering, analytics, design, and business teams to turn ambiguous opportunities into scalable solutions.
Build and deploy models, pipelines, and platforms that operate reliably at eBay scale.
Develop talent, raise the technical bar, and create an environment where applied researchers and engineers can do their best work.
Drive measurable impact on buyer experience, seller success, marketplace growth, and advertising performance.
What you will bring:
PhD/MS/BS in Computer Science or related area with 9+/12+/14+ years of relevant work experience in Engineering / Machine Learning / AI research.
Experience leading a nimble engineering/research team, preferably in a ML/AI technology environment.
Strong technical depth in machine learning, AI, NLP, LLMs, ranking, retrieval, personalization, recommender systems, Ads experiences, or related industrial AI domains.
Experience building and operating cloud-based, big data, database, and distributed production systems.
Hands-on background with object-oriented programming languages such as Scala, Java, or similar, and experience with high-volume web applications or services.
Demonstrated ability to hire, mentor, and develop senior technical talent while setting strategy, execution standards, and technical direction.
Strong cross-functional leadership skills with the ability to partner effectively across product, design, analytics, engineering, and business teams.
Track record of external technical contributions such as publications, patents, conference talks, open-source work, or technical blogs is a plus.
Links to some of our previous work:
How eBay Created a Language Model With Three Billion Item Titles
Complementary Item Recommendations at eBay Scale
Transforming Fashion Discovery in E-Commerce through Theme-Based Categorization with GenAI
Scroll into the Future: How eBay’s Multi-Arm Bandits Elevate Product Recommendations Through Dynamic Pagination
Improving eBay’s Fashion Fitment Using Size Signals From Search Queries
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 talent@ebay.com. 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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