Director, Applied Research T28

Location: Bengaluru, India

Category: Engineering

About the Role

As Director, Applied Research T28 in eBay's Product Knowledge team in Bengaluru, India, you will lead high-impact research initiatives at the intersection of applied science, scalable engineering, and e-commerce domain expertise. eBay's Product Knowledge is a vast Big Data system encompassing listings, transactions, products, knowledge graphs, and more, powering the global marketplace that connects millions of buyers and sellers across 190+ markets. You will set the vision for AI-driven innovations like taxonomy evolution, multimodal understanding, and dynamic knowledge graphs, ensuring seamless transition to production systems that enhance customer experiences and drive business outcomes in online commerce.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the applied research strategy for the Product Knowledge Science group
• Identify emerging research areas like AI-driven taxonomy evolution, multimodal understanding (image + text), and dynamic knowledge graph enrichment
• Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to set research roadmaps and deliver measurable business impact
• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of applied scientists, machine learning engineers, and research managers
• Foster a culture of innovation, scientific rigor, diversity, and technical excellence
• Oversee design, development, and deployment of ML/AI systems for entity resolution, attribute extraction, taxonomy generation, knowledge graph construction, and product normalization
• Ensure best practices in experimentation, evaluation, and productionization of ML models
• Promote open innovation through contributions to conferences, patents, and open-source initiatives
• Collaborate with partner teams to integrate applied research into eBay's end-user products
• Influence senior stakeholders with data-driven recommendations and thought leadership
• Present key technical and novel research work in public forums and conferences

Required Qualifications

• M.Sc. or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or equivalent field
• 12+ years of relevant industry experience in applied research or AI/ML
• 3+ years in people and project leadership roles managing teams
• Industrial experience with ML architecture, deployment optimization, classification, regression, NLP, clustering, Deep Learning/Neural Networks, or Reinforcement Learning
• Experience managing cross-functional research or AI teams in e-commerce or similar domains
• Ability to bridge long-term technology vision with short-term delivery goals
• Strong communicator with track record of influencing senior leadership

Preferred Qualifications

• 5 or more related publications/patents in quality conferences or journals
• Open source tool building/commits to popular ML or data science projects
• Experience with Language models and Knowledge Graph building
• Domain expertise in e-commerce product data, entity resolution, or taxonomy systems
• Proven track record of deploying AI models to production in large-scale marketplaces

Required Skills

• Machine Learning architecture and deployment optimization
• Deep Learning / Neural Networks
• Natural Language Processing (NLP)
• Knowledge Graph construction and enrichment
• Entity resolution and product normalization
• Taxonomy generation and evolution
• Multimodal AI (image + text understanding)
• Classification, regression, clustering
• Reinforcement Learning
• Big Data analytics and scalable engineering
• Team leadership and mentoring
• Cross-functional collaboration with Product, Engineering, and Business teams
• Strategic vision setting and roadmap planning
• Scientific experimentation and model evaluation
• Stakeholder influence and communication
• Open-source contributions and patent development

Benefits & Perks

• Competitive salary with stock grants and yearly bonus
• Healthy work culture promoting business impact and personal well-being
• Opportunities to contribute to a force for good, supporting employees, customers, and global communities
• Collaborative environment with passionate innovators in e-commerce technology
• Professional growth through learning, impact, and team development
• Equal opportunity employment with accommodations for disabilities
• Focus on sustainability and economic opportunity via eBay's marketplace platform
• Access to Big Data systems, knowledge graphs, and cutting-edge ML tools

eBay Inc. is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion.