Machine Learning Scientist III, Recommendations

Location: Mountain View, California, United States

Department: Data Science & Machine Learning

Team: Engineering & Technology

About the Role

Wayfair is seeking an experienced Machine Learning Scientist III to join the content recommendations team within the Data Science & Machine Learning department in Mountain View, California. This role focuses on building and optimizing ML-based recommender systems, including image and content recommendations, homepage, and email personalization, to enhance customer experience and drive business value. As part of the SMART (Search, Marketing, and Recommendations Technology) team, you will collaborate with ML scientists, engineers, and product teams to develop and deploy scalable recommendation models that impact millions of customers' product discovery and engagement. In this position, you will tackle complex personalization challenges at Wayfair's massive scale, with a focus on warehouse and logistics specifics such as optimizing product recommendations to improve inventory turnover, enhance supply chain visibility for customers, and streamline operations through better demand forecasting via personalized suggestions. Your work will indirectly support logistics efficiency by promoting faster-moving warehouse stock and reducing overstock through intelligent content and image-based recommendations tailored to user behavior. This is a high-impact opportunity to innovate in e-commerce recommendations, leveraging cutting-edge ML to solve real-world problems in customer engagement while contributing to Wayfair's operational excellence in warehouse management and logistics.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and optimize ML-based recommender systems for image and content recommendations
• Develop models for homepage and email optimization and personalization
• Collaborate with ML scientists, engineers, and product teams on SMART initiatives
• Deploy cutting-edge recommendation models operating at Wayfair's scale
• Solve complex personalization problems to enhance customer product discovery
• Drive business value through improved customer engagement and experience
• Analyze and iterate on recommendation performance metrics
• Integrate recommendations to support logistics and inventory visibility for customers

Required Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, or related field
• 5+ years of experience in machine learning and recommender systems
• Proven track record of deploying ML models at scale in production environments
• Strong experience with personalization algorithms and recommendation engines
• Expertise in handling large-scale datasets for customer-facing applications
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams including engineers and product managers
• Deep knowledge of ML frameworks and optimization techniques

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in e-commerce recommendation systems
• Background in image-based or content recommendation models
• Familiarity with A/B testing and experimentation platforms
• Prior work in supply chain or logistics personalization

Required Skills

• Machine Learning
• Recommender Systems
• Python
• TensorFlow or PyTorch
• Large-scale Data Processing
• Personalization Algorithms
• A/B Testing
• SQL
• Big Data Technologies (e.g., Spark)
• Model Deployment
• Cross-functional Collaboration
• Problem-Solving
• E-commerce Domain Knowledge
• Optimization Techniques
• Customer Experience Focus

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity package
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) matching and retirement savings plan
• Flexible PTO and paid parental leave
• Professional development stipend and learning opportunities
• Remote-friendly work environment with modern office perks
• Employee discounts on Wayfair products
• Wellness programs and mental health support

Wayfair is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion.