Sr. Staff Machine Learning Engineer (Eats Search & Discovery)

About Coupang

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 are collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar commerce industry from the ground up and establishing an unparalleled reputation for being leading 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 at since our inception. We are all entrepreneurial 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.

Team Overview

Coupang Eats is offering both food delivery and quick-commerce solutions to Korean customers. Additionally the food delivery experience is also available in the Japanese market. Within this space, the team is responsible for the search funnel for these 3 verticals. This encompasses all the different layers of search (retrieval, relevance, query understanding, ranking, etc.).

Search is a fast-growing area, and we are working to improve the quality of search to ensure that customers find the best dish, store or item for them. We use the state-of-the-art Machine Learning and Deep Learning technologies to ensure the best quality of search, and we are continuously innovating and building highly scalable systems to support the growing business and customer engagement.

Role Overview

As a Sr. Staff Machine Learning Engineer for Search, you will be responsible for the design, development, maintenance, and improvement of the end-to-end search quality and systems. Since the scope ranges across all the search layers (retrieval, relevance query understanding, intent expression, ranking, etc.) there are a wide range of customer problems to resolve. This will  require designing and maintaining multiple foundational models. You will run experiments to validate in a controlled environment and launch any features and ranking improvements that would improve the customer experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Tech Leader for the Coupang Eats Search system, the most important funnel for customer to discover the food they need
• Operate across two different business verticals across two different markets
• Develop new Machine Learning models to improve the end-to-end search quality
• Build the foundational LLM models powering the search system
• Improve the search quality through experimentation

Qualifications

• Experience working with large-scale, complex datasets to extract robust features and create reliable machine learning models
• Track record of diving into data to discover hidden patterns and solving problems with data science
• Fast paced self-learner with proven record of launching successful features and improving business metrics
• Tech lead working with coworkers across teams to solve critical customer problems
• Strong communication skills and full proficiency in English or Korea

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or related science majors
• Industrial experience leveraging and tuning LLM for search quality improvement
• Industrial experience working with online serving system working at scale
• Excellent communicator with great listening skills, growth mindset and can-do attitude
• Strong communication skills and full proficiency in English and Korea

Recruitment Process 

• Application Review - 1st Interview (Virtual) - 2nd Interview (Virtual) - Offer 
• The exact nature of the recruitment process may vary according to the specific job and may be changed due to scheduling or other circumstances. 
• Interview schedules and the results will be informed to the applicant via the e-mail address submitted at the application stage. 

Details to Consider 

• This job posting may be closed prior to the stated end date for application if all openings are filled.    
• Coupang has the right to rescind an offer of employment if a candidate is found to have submitted false information as part of the application process.    
• Those eligible for employment protection (recipients of veteran’s benefits, the disabled, etc.) may receive preferential treatment for employment in accordance with applicable laws.
• Job titles and responsibilities may be subject to change depending on the candidate’s overall experience, etc. This will be communicated to the candidate at the appropriate time before the offer.

Privacy Notice 

• Your personal information will be collected and managed by Coupang as stated in the Application Privacy Notice located below. 

        https://www.coupang.jobs/en/privacy-policy/

Document Return Policy

• This notification is given pursuant to Article 11 (6) of the Fair Hiring Procedure Act.
• A job applicant, who has applied but not been finally selected for a position at Coupang (the “Company”), may request the Company to return his/her hiring documents submitted pursuant to the Fair Hiring Procedure Act.  However, this will not apply where the hiring documents were submitted via the website of the Company or e-mail, or where the job applicant submitted those documents voluntarily without a request from the Company.  In addition, if the hiring documents were destroyed due to a natural disaster or any other reasons not attributable to the Company, such documents will be deemed to have been returned to the job applicant. 
• A job applicant who wishes to request the return of his/her hiring documents pursuant to the main sentence of paragraph 2 above should fill out a “Request for Return of Hiring Documents” [Annex Form No. 3 in the Enforcement Rule of the Fair Hiring Procedure Act] and submit the request to the Company (Coupang Recruiting Team, Tower 730, 570 Songpa-daero, Songpa-gu, Seoul). In such case, within fourteen (14) days from the date of identifying the receipt of the request, the Company will send the hiring documents to the job applicant’s designated address via registered mail.  Please be informed that the job applicant is required to pay the postage on the registered mail. 
• In preparation for a job applicant’s request for the return of hiring documents pursuant to the main sentence of paragraph 2 above, the Company shall retain the original hiring documents submitted by the job applicant for 180 days from the completion of the recruiting process.  If no request is made until the end of this period, all of his/her hiring documents will be destroyed immediately in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Act. 
• Hiring may be restricted in case the legal qualifications required for hiring and work performance are not met.

Equal Opportunities for All

Coupang is an equal opportunity employer. Our unprecedented success could not be possible without the valuable inputs of our globally diverse team.