Staff ML Engineer - Search Relevance & Retrieval

We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did we ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we’re collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar e-commerce industry from the ground up. We are one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies that established an unparalleled reputation for being a dominant and reliable force in South Korean commerce.  

We are proud to have the best of both worlds — a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. We are all entrepreneurs surrounded by opportunities to drive new initiatives and innovations. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people that like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact. At Coupang, you will see yourself, your colleagues, your team, and the company grow every day.  

Our mission to build the future of commerce is real. We push the boundaries of what’s possible to solve problems and break traditional tradeoffs. Join Coupang now to create an epic experience in this always-on, high-tech, and hyper-connected world. 

Role Overview

Search & Discovery is the most critical customer facing experience within Coupang, relevantly match-making the billions of products to customer intent. We are building the next-generation infrastructure to sustain the hypergrowth of the business for the coming years. We are looking for an experienced and passionate engineer leader that can drive this effort across the stack, including serving, pipelines, and machine learning.

The desired candidate can dive deep into underlying components, design and optimize the stack end-to-end and be a role model for building high-quality machine learning systems and delivering results with grit. Key to this position’s success will require the ability to understand business needs and work backwards to develop technical solutions while working effectively with leaders of individual teams and align technical directions with key stakeholders.

This role will involve working closely with Search senior leadership (VP, Sr. Directors) and will offer the autonomy to identify and solve key Search problems and explore innovations in various areas like deep learning and large language modeling.

What You Will Do

• Design and implement large-scale ML systems for search ranking, semantic retrieval, query understanding, and personalized product discovery using state-of-the-art techniques such as transformer-based models, contrastive learning and vector search
• Drive innovation in search relevance and user intent modeling using large language models (LLMs), embedding-based retrieval, and multi-modal learning
• Build and optimize ML pipelines using tools such as Apache Spark, Airflow, Kubeflow, and MLflow, ensuring reproducibility, scalability, and operational excellence
• Define and track key performance metrics to evaluate model impact and identify high-leverage opportunities for improvement
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering and data science teams to align technical solutions with business goals and customer experience
• Mentor and grow engineering talent, fostering a culture of technical excellence, experimentation and continuous learning

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors’ degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, statistics or closely related fields 
• 6 years of professional experience in applied machine learning 
• Experience in machine learning, deep learning, and statistical modeling including supervised and unsupervised learning, neural networks, and ensemble methods 
• Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and distributed computing 
• Proficiency in Python and/or Java, with experience in building production grade ML systems 

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in relevant technical fields
• Experience with search systems, information retrieval or recommendation engines
• Experience with LLMs, embeddings, and vector search technologies
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform including services like Vertex AI, BigQuery or SageMaker
• Experience working in startup or high-growth environments
• Proven ability to lead-cross-functional teams and deliver results in a multicultural, global organization
• Hands-on experience with modern ML frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, Keras, XGBoost, LightGMB, and H2o.ai
• Experience with ML lifecycle tools such as MLflow, Kubeflow, Weights & Biases, or Amazon SageMaker
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and manage ambiguity in fast-paced environments

Pay & Benefits

General Description of Other Compensation       

“Other Compensation” includes, but is not limited to, bonuses, equity, or other forms of compensation that would be offered to the hired applicant in addition to their established salary range or wage scale.