5+ years of industry experience in building and deploying ML systems at scale.
Proven track record of leading end-to-end ML projects with measurable business outcomes.
Expertise in personalization, ranking, or user modeling with a strong understanding of consumer behavior.
Advanced skills in Python, SQL, and ML frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, and XGBoost.
Strong communication and leadership abilities to influence cross-functional teams.
Responsibilities
Lead the design and development of ML models for user acquisition and retention.
Own the full ML lifecycle, including data pipelines and model deployment.
Identify high-impact opportunities for machine learning to drive growth.
Collaborate with product, engineering, data, and marketing teams to prioritize initiatives.
Establish ML best practices and drive technical excellence within the team.
Benefits
Flexible time off policy and company-wide holidays, including seasonal breaks.
Comprehensive health insurance options (medical, dental, vision).
Support for remote work with allowances for home office setup and monthly internet/cell phone costs.
Care benefits including wellness allowances and childcare support.
401k retirement plan with employer matching and international pension plans.
Monthly allowance to use the app as part of employee engagement.
Generous parental leave policy with 16 weeks of paid leave and gradual return to work.
Full Job Description
Role
The Buyer Growth team is responsible for driving Whatnot's top-of-funnel growth and first-time buyer success. We're looking for a Machine Learning Engineer to accelerate buyer growth at Whatnot through intelligent, data-driven experiences. As the second ML engineer on the team, you'll build and own ML personalization models for user retention in our acquisition and engagement channels. This is a high-impact role on a team directly responsible for growing Whatnot's buyer base and improving first-time user conversion.
What you'll do:
Lead the design, development, and productionization of ML models that power user acquisition, activation, and retention (e.g., ranking models, targeting systems, uplift modeling).
Own the full ML lifecycle. Build and owndata pipelines, feature engineering, model training, deployment, and online experimentation. Build feedback loops from postbacks, conversions, and downstream revenue signals.
Identify and prioritize high-impact opportunities where machine learning can unlock growth, collaborating with product, engineering, data, and marketing stakeholders.
Drive technical excellence and establish ML best practices across the Buyer Growth team.
You
Curious about who thrives at Whatnot? We've found that low ego, a growth mindset, and leaning into action and high impact goes a long way here.
5+ years of industry experience building and deploying ML systems at scale.
Demonstrated success in leading end-to-end ML projects that drove measurable business outcomes.
Deep expertise in personalization, ranking, or user modeling; strong intuition around user behavior in consumer products.
Advanced proficiency in Python, SQL, and common ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, XGBoost).
Strong communication and leadership skills; ability to influence roadmap and align cross-functional teams.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience building ML applications in E-commerce or Social products
Prior experience in growth domains: user segmentation, retention modeling, large scale recommendation systems, notification ranking, etc.
Benefits
Flexible Time off Policy and Company-wide Holidays (including a spring and winter break)
Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
Work From Home Support
Home office setup allowance
Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet
Care benefits
Monthly allowance for wellness
Annual allowance towards Childcare
Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses
Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally
Monthly allowance to dogfood the app
All Whatnauts are expected to develop a deep understanding of our product. We're passionate about building the best user experience, and all employees are expected to use Whatnot as both a buyer and a seller as part of their job (our dogfooding budget makes this fun and easy!).
Parental Leave
16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.
Please note: Whatnot will only contact you through official [redacted].com email addresses. If you see an email impersonating a Whatnot recruiter, please disregard and report it as spam.
