Company Description
Etsy is the global marketplace for unique and creative goods. We build, power, and evolve the tools and technologies that connect millions of entrepreneurs with millions of buyers around the world. As an Etsy Inc. employee, whether a team member of Etsy, Reverb, or Depop, you will tackle unique, meaningful, and large-scale problems alongside passionate coworkers, all the while making a rewarding impact and Keeping Commerce Human.

Salary Range:

What’s the role?

Etsy is hiring a Senior Director of Engineering, Machine Learning to lead our Search organization—the engine that powers discovery for nearly 90 million buyers and over 120 million unique, handcrafted, and vintage items from 6 million independent sellers.

As the leader of Search Engineering, you’ll drive the innovation behind one of the most dynamic and unique e-commerce platforms in the world. Our Search team develops and maintains key capabilities like query understanding, semantic relevance, multi-objective personalized ranking, and low-latency, high-precision retrieval, all of which are critical to Etsy’s buyer and seller success.

Search is Etsy’s highest-impact product surface and a primary driver of growth. Your work will directly influence billions of dollars in transactions while supporting the livelihoods of creative entrepreneurs around the world. We're looking for a seasoned engineering leader with deep experience in data science & machine learning, large-scale search systems, and cross-functional leadership across engineering teams.

In this role, you'll shape the long-term vision and execution strategy for Etsy Search. You'll work closely with peers across Product, Design, Research, and Analytics to set priorities, allocate resources, and drive innovation grounded in business impact and measurable outcomes. To learn more about how we think and build at Etsy, check out our engineering blog.

This is a full-time role reporting to the Head of Engineering for Search & Discovery In addition to salary, you will also be eligible for an equity package, an annual performance bonus, and our competitive benefits that support you and your family as part of your total rewards package at Etsy.

For this role, we are considering candidates based in the United States. Candidates living within commutable distance of Etsy’s Brooklyn Office Hub or in the San Francisco Bay Area may be the first to be considered. For candidates within commutable distance, Etsy requires in-office attendance once or twice per week depending on your proximity to the office. Etsy offers different work modes to meet the variety of needs and preferences of our team. Learn more details about our  work modes and workplace safety policies here.

What’s the team like?

You’ll lead a large engineering team tackling some of the most complex and impactful challenges in e-commerce, including: 

• Helping buyers find high-quality, unique items from our massive inventory by:

  • Ensuring the most relevant results surface for each buyer.

  • Building personalized ranking systems that respect user privacy.

  • Adapting the search experience dynamically based on buyer context.

• Staying at the forefront of machine learning in ranking and information retrieval, while delivering consistent quarterly progress.

• Applying advanced ML techniques—including vector search, neural networks, and large language models—to interpret nuanced buyer queries and represent a wide-ranging inventory across multiple languages.

• Scaling a search infrastructure that supports over 90M buyers and 120M items and delivers millions of search results in milliseconds.

What does the day-to-day look like?

In this role, you will:

• Provide strategic and technical leadership across the Search UX and ML teams.

• Partner closely with Product, Design, Research, and Analytics to deliver business goals.

• Invest in the professional growth of both direct and indirect reports through coaching and support.

• Collaborate with other leaders to define the long-term technical direction of Etsy’s search architecture, with a focus on innovation, scalability, quality, and performance.

• Champion a culture of ML-focused innovation, ensuring Etsy remains at the forefront of retrieval, ranking, and buyer intent modeling.

• Of course, this is just a sample of the kinds of work this role will require! You should assume that your role will encompass other tasks, too, and that your job duties and responsibilities may change from time to time.

This list highlights some of your core responsibilities—but like any leadership role, it will evolve. You can expect to take on additional tasks based on business needs and team priorities.

Qualifications

You’ll thrive in this role if you:

• Have experience leading large engineering teams that build consumer-facing products with Machine Learning. Background in search, recommendations, ranking, or relevance is needed.

• Understand how and when to apply machine learning to solve customer problems.

• Possess deep technical expertise in search infrastructure, including retrieval, indexing, caching, and query pipelines.

• Know how to drive strategic alignment across multiple cross-functional teams.

• Have experience building and maintaining highly available systems at scale.

• Are skilled at translating business requirements into technical roadmaps and communicating clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Are a strong coach and mentor, capable of developing and empowering engineering managers.

• Value curiosity, generosity, accountability, and enthusiasm in a team culture.

Additional Information
 

What's Next
If you're interested in joining the team at Etsy, please share your resume with us and feel free to include a cover letter if you'd like. As we hope you've seen already, Etsy is a place that values individuality and variety. We don't want you to be like everyone else -- we want you to be like you! So tell us what you're all about.
 
Our Promise
At Etsy, we believe that a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace furthers relevance, resilience, and longevity. We encourage people from all backgrounds, ages, abilities, and experiences to apply. Etsy is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. If, due to a disability, you need an accommodation during any part of the application or interview process, please let your recruiter know. While Etsy supports visa sponsorship, sponsorship opportunities may be limited to certain roles and skills.